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

John Nash Has Died

nj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 265 posts

Re: John Nash Has Died

#111

Post by tomcorrigan »

ngoede wrote: post #45
po wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in manhattan, the yellow-taxi cab Taxi and Limousine Commission (the TLC I mentioned above) lobbied have an exemption to that law. Same thing with baby carriers. It's illegal to have a baby in a car without a certified car seat, but it's legal in a NYC taxi to just hold them: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/faq/faq_pass.shtml#9

This seems insane. Especially the later exception.

Surely its the other way around. It's reasonable to expect all adults to wear a seatbelt in a taxi but not reasonable to expect all taxis to carry child seats. It wouldn't be unusual to expect on occasion for a parent to travel with 3-3 children; should all taxis therefore carry 3 child seats? No. Should all adults travelling in taxis use a seatbelt when one is available and required when travelling in private transport? Surely yes.

Re: John Nash Has Died

#112

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

simpleigh wrote: post #82
toddkazakov wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am always using the seatbelt. I recently realized that when you are on the backseat of a car, by buckling up you are protecting the person in front of you. In case of an accident applying your weight to the one in the seat in front of you might cause more damage than the accident itself.

A few years ago there was a series of adverts in the UK advertising exactly this danger. You might think you're OK with only a broken nose, but you've just crushed the person in front of you to death. Sorry to sound so melodramatic, but I think that was the point of the advert!

Like this one? http://youtu.be/TWLmoeoHrP4

"Like most victims, Julie knew her killer.

It was her son."

Re: John Nash Has Died

#113

Post by protomyth »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #109
protomyth wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried that with a few models and no they shouldn't. It was an actual pain and prone to failure. I had to rewire my friend's car (an all the time seat belt wearer) because of how crappy those things hold up. People will wear them or not. Making things more complex just means it will fail and make people do strange things.

It seems relatively simple to implement. One manufacturer screwing up shouldn't mean it be abandoned.

It should when it was tried and is just not a working concept. It basically comes in the same category as "bike handle bar warmers". Making an annoying ding is going to get most people to put on their belt. Making the car not move is one more thing that can go wrong in daily life and can make an emergency worse.

Re: John Nash Has Died

#114

Post by sipior »

DanBC wrote: post #105
sipior wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, cletus, perhaps I can shed some light on this troubling question for you. Generally speaking (and there are naturally many exceptions, humans being the delightfully-flawed creatures that we are), the American government prefers to treat its citizens like competent adults who would rather not die if a suitable alternative presents itself. And so we don't generally have laws that require us to look both ways befo…

> And so we don't generally have laws that require us to look both ways before crossing a street, You do have laws telling you where abouts you can cross a road, right? Laws about jay walking? (Your tone is sub-optimal. I guess that's why your getting downvotes.)

Well, that's a fair point, DanBC, but I generally regard laws about jaywalking to be a bit silly, and one of those things that I mentioned we'll need to fix at some point. If you're interested, I encourage you to Google "invention of jaywalking" for some insight into how that became a "crime".

And my thanks for your concern about downvotes, but I'm not very much bothered about them. What's the point of writing for the approval of a largely anonymous group of others? My only concern might be that my words would be construed as disrespectful to the late Dr Nash, but on a second reading I don't really see that. If some folks choose to disagree using some arbitrary points system instead of arguing properly, I guess that's their own affair.

Re: John Nash Has Died

#115

Post by learnstats2 »

DanBC wrote: post #108
learnstats2 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that person is only harming themselves, it's totalitarian to apply a fine here. If someone makes such a deliberate and conscious decision not to wear a seatbelt, maybe you could assume they have their own reason for that. It's not even clear that forcing people to wear a seatbelt saves lives. It may increase the risk to other people, if people are seeking out a level of risk that they're comfortable with: https…

They're not; they risk harming other people in the vehicle and there is extra effort to recover the injured body of someone from an RTA if that person wasn't wearing a seatbelt which puts emergency services at increased risk of harm.

I'll repeat my point in your terms: By forcing people to wear the seatbelt, other risk-taking behaviour is increased, which appears to result in more RTAs.

The evidence on either side is not enough to justify bankrupting fines.

Re: John Nash Has Died

#116

Post by Apocryphon »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #3

sigh I suppose it's a sign of the times that there are already Uber-vs-Taxi rants in the source article's comments (while there are some valid points there, it's rather tasteless.)

It's ridiculous to even think about ridesharing in this context. Better to focus on advancing self-driving vehicles, so that we may one day live in a world without the possibility of car accidents. Such an unnecessary source of injury and death.

Re: John Nash Has Died

#117

Post by clarky07 »

Lozzer wrote: post #63
sillygoose wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The state punishing people for not wearing seatbelts represents the idea that people need to be protected from themselves, by force. If we go along that road, what's next? Should police officers be everywhere, ready to snatch a beer from an adult's hand if he seems to have had "too much" to drink already? What's too much? How do you know? The Nannier a state gets, the closer you are to complete tyranny. Instead, we c…

Didn't wear a seatbelt and headbutted the person in front, snapping their neck. Sucks to be them, I guess. But at least you stuck it to the man.

Just playing devils advocate, but I know people who won't drive a car without making sure everyone has their seat belt on.

Re: John Nash Has Died

#118

Post by jimworm »

higherpurpose wrote: post #13
po wrote: post #6

Such a tragic loss. Like many people, I never wore a seatbelt while riding in a taxi. I'm not really sure why, it just seemed somehow to be the social norm and I went along with it. Then one day, my co-worker and his girlfriend were both severely injured while in an accident crossing the east river in manhattan. Ever since then, I've gotten in the habit of using my seatbelt while in a taxi, car, bus, or whatever. Som…

That's why I really like cars which make a sound if you don't have your seatbelt on. That way they don't give you the choice of not wearing the seatbelt and it's how it should be . This is why in such cases I strongly believe governments should force companies to enable something like that. The social norms are stupid and this would give you the excuse to ignore them without giving it a second thought (hey, the car i…

There are seatbelt buckles made specifically for silencing those alarms, and boy are they popular in China.

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=43123079687

Re: John Nash Has Died

#119

Post by tomphoolery »

po wrote: post #6

Such a tragic loss. Like many people, I never wore a seatbelt while riding in a taxi. I'm not really sure why, it just seemed somehow to be the social norm and I went along with it. Then one day, my co-worker and his girlfriend were both severely injured while in an accident crossing the east river in manhattan. Ever since then, I've gotten in the habit of using my seatbelt while in a taxi, car, bus, or whatever. Som…

Honestly I never understood that social norm of not wearing a seatbelt in a taxi. I'm much more confident in my driving skills than some dude yelling in some foreign language on his cell phone the entire time we're driving because at least I'm focused on one thing at a time. Sometimes the taxi doesn't even have visible seatbelts in the back (this is Philly I'm talking about, where getting around regulation is only a $200 bribe away!).

The one great thing about Uber/Lyft/et. al. is how they forced the taxi companies to step up their game and make getting a cab less of a shithole experience, at least here in Philly. Cabs are much cleaner, the drivers are not always distracted with some bullshit, and you can even hail them with an app. Before Uber came around, taxis were well aware that they were the fastest way from point A to point B (if you don't have a bike), and they gave precisely zero fucks whether you were having a nice/safe time.

Post reply on HN