Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

durham.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 415 posts

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#281

Post by 3am »

cagenut wrote: post #38

I just met Seth in-person for the first time at ansiblefest a few weeks ago, after having crossed paths with him on irc for nearly a decade. Every time I renewed a RHEL subscription at work his was a specific name I had in mind that I wanted to fund the work of. I've built my entire career on the redhat/fedora/centos/yum/cobbler/func/ansible projects he's been a major part of. He wasn't just a prolific contributor, h…

What a huge loss for the RDU tech community. A very decent guy by all accounts and a huge legacy in the open source world. It's very difficult seeing his handle still logged into a number of freenode channels, where he was so active and helpful.

Deepest sympathies to his colleagues, friends, and family.

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#282

Post by alxndr »

vanderZwan wrote: post #95
oinksoft wrote: post #64

The sad truth is that while bicycles should be respected as vehicles, they are given lip service at best in driver education and there is little attempt made at going after motorists who drive aggressively around them. As a result, you put yourself at great risk of life and limb when you ride on a road like this one: http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=6-LvU0mhA3 (Hillandale Rd, Durham, NC) I accomplish all of my…

I'm from the Netherlands, where separate bike lanes are the norm. The thought of having to share the road with cars, especially in a place where people aren't used to bike traffic, terrifies me. Also, IIRC when a car hits pedestrian or bike, the car is always the "guilty" party because pedestrians or bikes are never a safety threat to cars (you can still be acquitted if it is clear that there's no way you could have…

> ... when a car hits pedestrian or bike, the car is always the "guilty" party.... Does the US have something like that to promote cautious driving habits?

Quite the opposite, in fact. In NYC, drivers are seldom cited at all even when a cyclist or pedestrian has been killed. Here's the link I have on hand, but there are more http://www.streetsblog.org/2012/08/03/nypd-7371-pedestrians-...

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#283

Post by lightcatcher »

matt__rose wrote: post #197
corin_ wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're driving a long and a bike pulls out suddenly in front of you, unless you have the attitude of "fuck it, just run them over" then yes, a bike can still be a massive threat to a car.

No, it can't. Not in any physical sense. If a car swerves and hits a cyclist at 30kph, the cyclist is almost certain to be injured, if not dead. If a bike swerves and hits a car, they might scratch the paint. When will the false equivalences end?

Similarly, a deer (which weighs less than a human on a bike and probably has a lower center of gravity) could never be a threat to a car. Running into a deer couldn't do more than scratch the paint on a car. I've never heard of a single person ever getting killed when they drove into a deer. /sarcasm

Bikes can certainly damage cars. I had a friend who went through a passenger window (breaking through the glass) of a car that pulled out in front of him. If that was the driver's side window, there is a nonzero chance that the driver might have been knocked out or somehow wrecked his car.

Also, cars (and their drivers) can definitely get hurt trying to avoid collisions with bikers by swerving out of the way and colliding with other vehicles/buildings/going off the road into a ditch.

The several grandfather post to this would have said essentially the same thing and would be much less controversial if it just read "a bike is less of a threat to a car than a car is to a bike", rather than using the absolutes of "always" and "never" (which rarely can be used to describe real life situations).

Also, despite historical claims, I'm fairly confident that most roads (by any reasonable definition of most) in the US today were built with the majority of design thought about drivers.

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#284

Post by darkr »

aroch wrote: post #128
oinksoft wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that a cyclist flaunting traffic laws should always be liable for accidents, but the last thing we need if we want to encourage bicycling is nanny-state policing of proper signaling and such. Any city that has resources for this ought to take a hard look at the size of their police force. Your idea of banning cycle traffic on >25mph roads is misguided. Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greate…

>Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greater than 25mph, even uphill I doubt that, maybe in burst/sprint but not sustained...Hell, the average top speeds in the Tour de France during the sprints is barely 25mph and those are top athletes. >but the last thing we need if we want to encourage bicycling is nanny-state policing of proper signaling and such. So we should enforce traffic laws on cars but not…

Average speed for the front runners in the Tour de France on an average stage is usually around 25mph, and that's with some gruesome hill climbs. On the faster stages, average speeds can reach 35mph. Sprints often hit 40mph, and on downhill stretches are known to exceed 60mph. I commute 7.5 miles into central London daily where the roads really were originally built around the horse and cart and usually manage ~22mph average if the traffic isn't so bad and I catch the lights right.

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#285

Post by [deleted] »

Amadou wrote: post #279
gamache wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's appropriate to consider bicycles as "first-class vehicles" in all situations, namely in the dangerous situations you list (speed limits >~25mph, multiple automobile lanes, etc.). Driving a motor vehicle on a road is a privilege. This privilege is represented by a motor vehicle operator's license, which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. Riding a bicycle on a non-Interstate public…

> This privilege is represented by a motor vehicle operator's license, which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. If that was a sound argument, then one could say that the right to own a firearm is really just a privilege because most states require a license to own a firearm which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. Or similarly that the right to vote is just a privilege because yo…

[deleted]

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#286

Post by akgerber »

tylermac1 wrote: post #179
xanderstrike wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bicycle could have been, and is in many cities (see Copenhagen or Amsterdam). The decision to include the automobile as "a staple of growth in modern society" is the reason it isn't a drop in fit. We designed our cities around dangerous, pollution producing power tools, and in doing so squashed out any hope of implementing something better. If you think about it, the only reason the bicycle isn't a safe alternati…

I agree that in a dense urban environment, the bicycle could be a much better fit for personal transportation. But as someone who has lived in smaller Midwestern cities, many more lives that some people care to think about depend on the automobile as a livelihood. Even in smaller metro areas, a bicycle would not be a viable option in the least. Cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam precede automobiles by hundreds of y…

Many smaller Midwestern cities (speaking as someone who grew up in one and went to college in another) were founded and to a significant degree built out in the streetcar era, and have a physical form in the central city that reflects that. In architecture and urban form, the neighborhood I grew up in quite resembles the walk/bike/transit hotspot inner neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon, for example.

In many of those cities, the older, walkable neighborhoods have been left to decay, with gutted transit service, failing schools, and many fine old structures demolished to build parking lots or simply let to collapse., while many residents and jobs have decamped to auto-oriented exurban areas. But that is to a large degree a policy choice designed to maintain residential segregation, and something which can and must be reversed by different policy choices.

It is more the Sunbelt than the Midwest where a vast majority of the infrastructure was built in the postwar automobile era, and most neigborhoods (if you can even call them that) are nearly inaccessible to the pedestrian, cyclist, and mass transit user.

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#287

Post by sequoia »

dllthomas wrote: post #240
koenigdavidmj wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are places not accessible by roads with bike-accessible speed limits. Those are much more common than places not accessible except by interstate. (Incidentally, biking on the shoulder of the interstate is permissible in my state, with the occasional exception of some cities and bridges without shoulders.)

I'm not sure I follow the thrust of your comment. I am interested in why sequoia asserts that it's correct (or at least permissible) to prohibit bicycles from interstates but a violation of rights to prohibit them from other roads. The fact that bicycles are not prohibited from all interstates seems somewhat orthogonal...

I think it's reasonable to designate certain very-high-speed roads as "car only" when there are reasonable alternative routes for bikes. If there's a destination you can only get to by interstate I'd say "allow bikes." I'm a biker and strongly pro bike-rights but I recognize that certain exceptions are reasonable for safety & expediency. :)

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#288

Post by baddox »

gamache wrote: post #144
baddox wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sad truth is that while bicycles should be respected as vehicles, I tend to agree, but I can see both sides. There is also very little (and, as far as I know, zero required) bicyclist education, and many bicyclists make little attempt to drive predictably and safely either out of boldness or ignorance. Similarly, while stricter rules and enforcement for automobile drivers is warranted, I think the same goes for…

I don't think it's appropriate to consider bicycles as "first-class vehicles" in all situations, namely in the dangerous situations you list (speed limits >~25mph, multiple automobile lanes, etc.). Driving a motor vehicle on a road is a privilege. This privilege is represented by a motor vehicle operator's license, which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. Riding a bicycle on a non-Interstate public…

Do you think it's reasonable that bicyclists are free to travel on most roads without any education or licensing? Why is it that pedestrians are banned from traveling on roads, bicyclists are free to do so with no licensing whatsoever, and automobile drivers require a license?

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#289

Post by opinali »

Amadou wrote: post #279
gamache wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's appropriate to consider bicycles as "first-class vehicles" in all situations, namely in the dangerous situations you list (speed limits >~25mph, multiple automobile lanes, etc.). Driving a motor vehicle on a road is a privilege. This privilege is represented by a motor vehicle operator's license, which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. Riding a bicycle on a non-Interstate public…

> This privilege is represented by a motor vehicle operator's license, which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. If that was a sound argument, then one could say that the right to own a firearm is really just a privilege because most states require a license to own a firearm which may be revoked by the state for a variety of reasons. Or similarly that the right to vote is just a privilege because yo…

Driving is legally defined as a privilege, just check your state's MVC guide.

Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident

#290

Post by Amadou »

alxndr wrote: post #267
resu_nimda wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that's nice and all, but it seems to be purposely obtuse. Again, just look at the current infrastructure. The width of the roads, traffic laws, signs and signals, intersections, highways, etc. I guess you "got me" in that, at some point, road construction was driven by cyclists, but that pretty clearly shifted some time ago. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

The prevailing notion that "roads are made for cars" is self-fulfilling, as people use it as justification for making roads further unsafe for bicycles (and other road users).

Seems like the other way around to me - if roads are made for bicycles then there is no reason to invest in infrastructure like dedicated bike-paths, bike-lanes or even wider shoulders.
Post reply on HN