Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run • Hacker News Board

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#71

Post by techsupporter » Wed, Mar 04, 2015, 11:57 PM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #44

RIMR wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Redmond, Washington isn't in Silicon Valley...

I'm using SV as shorthand for the tech industry generally -- and Redmond is very much to Seattle what Silicon Valley is to San Francisco. Car-dependent suburbia that threatens the health, safety, and quality-of-life of everyone forced to be there. San Francisco is as walkable as the West Coast gets, which alone testifies to the disgrace of American urban planning. Ey would have been killed long ago if he dared to rid…

I live in Seattle and work in Redmond and do both solely via public transit and walking. Redmond has a large number of bike lane miles (as does Seattle, and many of Seattle's are protected, separated bike lanes) along with fast, frequent, and long span-of-service transit to places like Seattle and Kirkland and Bellevue. Microsoft has even helped with that by funding things like Overlake Transit Center, a street and pedestrian bridge over highway 520, an upcoming pedestrian-only bridge over 520, pushing for light rail to Redmond, and even both providing tap-to-use transit cards to everyone who holds a badge and partially funding the switch to that system (the ORCA card ). Yes, the property improvements benefit Microsoft in addition to the public but Microsoft was under no requirement to help pay for them.

People take transit a lot in the Puget Sound region but it, like many places, still has a stigma associated with it. Seattleites voted last year to tax ourselves more to provide over 200,000 hours per year of more transit service; the rest of the county had its chance before that and voted no. It's not that transit doesn't exist, it's that getting people to use it and agree to make the investment in it (beyond billion dollar light rail lines, because buses are apparently "icky") is difficult even if the system does work well for the commuter crowd. I don't even commute regular hours and I can get everywhere I want to go via our transit system.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#72

Post by GauntletWizard » Wed, Mar 04, 2015, 11:59 PM UTC

spike021 wrote: post #55

RIMR wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in Seattle proper, there are busses that run all night. Most of them will get you within a 20-minute walk of wherever you want to go. Still, with Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, and 5+ cab companies at your disposal there is no excuse for being drunk behind the wheel. Before I moved here I was a pretty obsessively responsible driver. Now that I live here, I have to keep my irresponsible drinking in check because I n…

My thought is that if you have the money to spend on multiple drinks, then you should be able to spend at least one drink's cost on Uber, Lyft, etc.

It's not just Uber to get home; It's the logistics of picking up your car in the morning, paying the overnight fees/parking tickets for wherever you left it, and the additional time it's going to take you to get it back. Getting 'home' is not a solved problem with Uber, unless you have some serious foresight.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#73

Post by Turing_Machine » Wed, Mar 04, 2015, 11:59 PM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #40

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are pretty safe, but I'm always a little shocked that we don't have governors built into cars with sane limits. How is it even possible to do 100mph and why should that speed be allowed? Cars should top off at 75. Not to mention, why are cars dumb machines? If someone is going crazy fast in an area where there is no safe way to decelerate, then the car should not allow that speed to be reached. Freeway speeds sh…

Cars are very UNSAFE, for the record. [1] Self-driving cars will be better... but autonomous cars are SUCH an intellectually lazy progression from the status quo that I hope they won't happen. Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking. This means the design of dense housing and walkable streets, and the removal of two-ton bullets that massacre children…

"Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking."

Let me guess: you're in your 20s-30s and in perfect health, that you live in an urban environment, and that you don't have a family to shop for.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#74

Post by powertower » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:00 AM UTC

timthorn wrote: post #54

jstalin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to minimize drunk driving deaths, but it's hardly "rampant." About 10,000 people are killed each year in drunk driving accidents in the US. 30,000 a year die from falls. http://responsibility.org/drunk-driving/drunk-driving-fatali... http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf

10000?! The UK, with a population of approximately 1/4 that of the USA and more liberal alcohol laws, had ~260 deaths from drink driving in 2013. Rampant might not be the right word, but something isn't right. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm... )

The number of cars in the US is something like 10 times of the number of cars in the UK.

Also you have to consider a bunch of other variables such as the difference in the traveling distances between work, home, and play.

And take into consideration things such an increase of X in volume of traffic might increase deaths by kX. With k being 2 or 5 or 10.

And then the gap narrows.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#75

Post by techsupporter » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:00 AM UTC

bztzt wrote: post #38

codemac wrote: post #9

Unfortunate how many humans we have driving cars at various levels of impairment. It's killing so many people. Drunk driving in suburban areas is rampant and feels almost inherent without real public transportation options at last call. I think most of Seattle's public transit options stop right around midnight.

There used to be a bus route that went from Seattle to Bellevue at 2:15 and 3:30 am, but it got shut down as part of recent budget cuts. :(

Ah, the 280. If Bellevue had wanted to keep that route, it could have done exactly what Seattle did: pay for the route. The other owls (82, 83, and 84 within Seattle) were also slated to be cut and Seattle ponied up $500,000 from its coffers to keep them going. Seattle proposed to split the cost with Bellevue and Bellevue declined.

On the other hand, I can kind of see why. According to Metro's statistics, almost all riders on the 280 were using it as a mobile shelter instead of transportation to a specific point. (Judgment on whether that is good or bad is left as an exercise; I personally had no problem with it.)

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#76

Post by seanmcdirmid » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:01 AM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #40

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are pretty safe, but I'm always a little shocked that we don't have governors built into cars with sane limits. How is it even possible to do 100mph and why should that speed be allowed? Cars should top off at 75. Not to mention, why are cars dumb machines? If someone is going crazy fast in an area where there is no safe way to decelerate, then the car should not allow that speed to be reached. Freeway speeds sh…

Cars are very UNSAFE, for the record. [1] Self-driving cars will be better... but autonomous cars are SUCH an intellectually lazy progression from the status quo that I hope they won't happen. Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking. This means the design of dense housing and walkable streets, and the removal of two-ton bullets that massacre children…

Dense housing won't necessarily fix this problem. At Beijing-levels of density, we still have lots of problems with cars and plenty of people who bike and walk (including those damn electric bikes).

It works well in the Netherlands because the density is high but "not that high," and bikes are given good infrastructure. Even then, self-driving cars will be a big win for those times when you really do need to drive somewhere (e.g. to go shopping, fill in gaps of good transit, and so on).

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#77

Post by bullfightonmars » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:03 AM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #40

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are pretty safe, but I'm always a little shocked that we don't have governors built into cars with sane limits. How is it even possible to do 100mph and why should that speed be allowed? Cars should top off at 75. Not to mention, why are cars dumb machines? If someone is going crazy fast in an area where there is no safe way to decelerate, then the car should not allow that speed to be reached. Freeway speeds sh…

Cars are very UNSAFE, for the record. [1] Self-driving cars will be better... but autonomous cars are SUCH an intellectually lazy progression from the status quo that I hope they won't happen. Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking. This means the design of dense housing and walkable streets, and the removal of two-ton bullets that massacre children…

Those "antifragile" solutions have been used to great effect in Netherlands where they have built a massive cycling, walking, and transit infrastructure.

They were able to build this infrastructure due to a popular protest movement, 'Stop de Kindermoord' (Stop the Child Murder) which was in reaction to exactly the problem we face in the US of deaths and injury caused by motorists.

There is a great video about the protest movement and the transformation of dutch infrastructure here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuBdf9jYj7o

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#78

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:04 AM UTC

Chevalier wrote: post #61

rinon wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree on your suggestions for urban areas. However, not everyone wants dense housing... Suburbs exist because people do not want to be that close to each other. Some people want to own their own yards/property/houses, have open space, and are willing to trade driving significantly more (with its associated dangers) for these features. People are going to create the kind of environment they want to live in,…

Of course there's a place for suburbs, and I'm not opposed to the idea of less dense housing. Such housing can exist in the context of walkable neighborhoods with public transit, though. I think there's quite a bit of merit to firm city limits that prevent sprawl and car dependence. That said... if someone wants to live in exurbia, he should pay an appropriate amount to access amenities downtown. It's absurd that som…

"That said... if someone wants to live in exurbia, he should pay an appropriate amount to access amenities downtown."

Wait: downtowns are dying all across the country, and you want to solve that problem by charging people more money to go there?

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#79

Post by spike021 » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:05 AM UTC

GauntletWizard wrote: post #72

spike021 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought is that if you have the money to spend on multiple drinks, then you should be able to spend at least one drink's cost on Uber, Lyft, etc.

It's not just Uber to get home; It's the logistics of picking up your car in the morning, paying the overnight fees/parking tickets for wherever you left it, and the additional time it's going to take you to get it back. Getting 'home' is not a solved problem with Uber, unless you have some serious foresight.

I can understand that. Why not take public transportation or carpool with friends/coworkers there and then for the way back take some other transportation method?

I'm not sure what foresight is lacked in this kind of situation. Most likely you know beforehand drinking enough to not be able to drive safely. Occasionally that won't be the case.

Re: Mike Ey, Microsoft HoloLens designer, killed in hit and run

#80

Post by bullfightonmars » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 12:05 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #73

Chevalier wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are very UNSAFE, for the record. [1] Self-driving cars will be better... but autonomous cars are SUCH an intellectually lazy progression from the status quo that I hope they won't happen. Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking. This means the design of dense housing and walkable streets, and the removal of two-ton bullets that massacre children…

"Rather than autonomous cars, we should be focusing on Taleb's antifragile solutions like walking and biking." Let me guess: you're in your 20s-30s and in perfect health, that you live in an urban environment, and that you don't have a family to shop for.

Walking and biking infrastructure and livable/walkable cities/neighborhoods are key pieces to health from youth into old age.

Just because it doesn't now exist in the United States doesn't it mean it can't or should not.