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Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

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Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#41

Post by freehunter »

Domenic_S wrote: post #9
mesofile wrote: post #8

Seems like a necessity in Russia but a useful thing to have elsewhere. I know I've been in situations in the USA where I've wished I'd had one. Can anyone here recommend a brand/model?

A coworker uses a gopro. Seems like overkill to me, but they're small...

I've been eyeballing a GoPro for a dash cam since it also overlaps with my other hobbies (cycling and ATV riding). The big drawbacks seem to be the low-light filming and the fact that it doesn't automatically turn on or automatically rewrite when the disk gets full.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#42

Post by freehunter »

martinced wrote: post #27
narrator wrote: post #17

I think this might be a preview of what life will be like once google googles and other augmented reality headset cams get broadly distributed. I don't mean people will become as savage as they are on the Russian roads, just there'll be far more eyewitness videos of things and entertainment will arise via aggregation of these videos.

"I don't mean people will become as savage as they are on the Russian roads..." The premise of TFA is not that "because of dashcams people on russian roads did become savage". The premise of the article is that thanks to dashcams there's some hope that people become more civilized. Your sentence make it sound like dashcams are the issue that turned russians sociopathic. It's not the case: now we have visual proofs bu…

I took his post to imply that the purpose of dash cams in Russia is in response to the savagery of the roads, not that cams turned people into savages. I'm not sure that anyone in their right mind would argue that in any situation.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#43

Post by jacquesm »

stcredzero wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how these comments have anything to do with the way Russia is being run these days.

"How does a whole country get to be so sociopathic?"

Consider me dumb but I still don't get the relation with Russian girls. I know quite a few of them and they don't strike me as particularly sociopathic. If you mean to say that such generalizations are not applicable then yes, of course not everybody in the country is like that, but at the same time I doubt you'd see young people throwing themselves in front of cars in order to be able to sue the drivers in many other countries. And that kind of behaviour has its roots in how the country is run, and most Russian people would agree with that. At least, my Russian friends do. People with skills in demand abroad leave in droves, the Russian mob is firmly in control and they can only be that way because the authorities are about as corrupt as they come. Compared to other countries that have managed to get rid of the so called communists former Russia and its component states have it worse than any of them.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#44

Post by at-fates-hands »

ryusage wrote: post #11

Russia sounds like a pretty scary place, to be honest. Is it really as bad as this makes it sound? How does a whole country get to be so sociopathic?

I remember watching some reality COPS show with John Bunnell and they went to Russia to follow some of the detectives there.

When the Russians would bust drug dealers, they would take their drugs and give them to addicts who informed on them. Pretty crazy stuff.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#45

Post by jacquesm »

gdy wrote: post #36
dlokshin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it's still just as corrupt as it's been since the collapse of Soviet Union In the Soviet Union you not only bribed police, but the grocer, the mail man, your child's principal, and the list goes on.

Why on earth would anyone bribe a mailman?

So you get your mail and your packages in one piece, unopened and on time?

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#46

Post by modoc »

freehunter wrote: post #41
Domenic_S wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A coworker uses a gopro. Seems like overkill to me, but they're small...

I've been eyeballing a GoPro for a dash cam since it also overlaps with my other hobbies (cycling and ATV riding). The big drawbacks seem to be the low-light filming and the fact that it doesn't automatically turn on or automatically rewrite when the disk gets full.

The GoPro 3 Black low light performance is quite good (much better than earlier versions).

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#47

Post by ryusage »

coldtea wrote: post #30
ryusage wrote: post #11

Russia sounds like a pretty scary place, to be honest. Is it really as bad as this makes it sound? How does a whole country get to be so sociopathic?

Well, some people think the same about the US from stories they hear.

That's fair, and that's partially why I'm asking. I know many have the impression that the United States is incredibly dangerous, to which I would say that's only really true in very specific areas - generally the poorest areas where people are desperate. This sounds really widespread, though. I've never heard of people in the US carrying around weapons purely in case of road rage, for example.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#48

Post by xentronium »

ryusage wrote: post #11

Russia sounds like a pretty scary place, to be honest. Is it really as bad as this makes it sound? How does a whole country get to be so sociopathic?

This is a complex question.

1. Article is mostly based on CHP community posts and comments. Their data is strongly skewed toward scary stuff (which is the only type of content that is posted there)

2. There are several categories of horrible things that can happen to you, but mostly you can avoid them. However, sometimes you can't, and sometimes it's batshit crazy. For example, couple of months ago, some road crash with some heated argument happened in St. Petersburg. One of the participants of that argument died from five knife wounds to the chest. Investigative Committee alleged that (sic!) the man committed suicide (google Grigory Kochnev). You can't make this shit up.

3. Russians themselves are mostly fine, but corruption is on super-high levels and these people are not sent as alien agents from space. Saltykov-Shchedrin, great Russian satirist, wrote more than a hundred years ago: "If I were to doze off and re-awake in a hundred years and someone asked me what is happening in Russia, my answer would be unhesitating: people are drinking and stealing".

4. If you are to visit Russia as a tourist, you are reasonably safe. But I'd never advice anyone to open business in or relocate to Russia. Unless you want to deal with truly kafkaesque things every single day.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#49

Post by stcredzero »

danabramov wrote: post #40
stcredzero wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of these reddit comments about Russian girls: http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/16bl5l/something_som... http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/16bl5l/something_som...

Is this meant to be sarcastic or serious?

Not meant to be entirely serious, but I do think that seeing lots of sociopathic behavior in society does affect interpersonal behaviors.

Re: Dash-cams: Russia’s Last Hope For Civility And Survival On The Road (2012)

#50

Post by stcredzero »

ryusage wrote: post #47
coldtea wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, some people think the same about the US from stories they hear.

That's fair, and that's partially why I'm asking. I know many have the impression that the United States is incredibly dangerous, to which I would say that's only really true in very specific areas - generally the poorest areas where people are desperate. This sounds really widespread, though. I've never heard of people in the US carrying around weapons purely in case of road rage, for example.

> I've never heard of people in the US carrying around weapons purely in case of road rage, for example.

I've had a friend of mine in Texas give me specific (un-solicted) advice on how to have a gun for protection in case of road rage. (Involving what features not to get, because you don't really need them and they make juries think you're a gun nut itching to shoot someone.)

Also in Texas, once I got out of the car at an intersection so I could let the people in the car ahead know they didn't have their headlights on. I told my friends this had happened, and they all told me, "That's a good way to get shot!"

I've also been advised to have a steel pipe in the car, since it's useful as a "cheater bar" to get more leverage on the lug nut wrench as well as for self defense.

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