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

Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 383 posts

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#261

Post by nommm-nommm »

metafunctor wrote: post #107
kneel wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It has always amazed me how casually people drink and drive in some countries; the US especially springs to mind. Drinking and driving is still very taboo in the US. It's just that most areas of the country require an automobile to get around and most people have a car. One more thing, no one should be surprised that people drink and drive anywhere. People make all sorts of terrible decisions when they're intoxicate…

Not quite as taboo as many other countries [1], unfortunately. You give two excuses to drink and drive. Both are indefensible. The first excuse is "need a car to get around, have car". I live in a sparsely populated area as well, and everyone uses a car to get around. When we go out drinking, we plan ahead. The most common options are designated drivers, taxis, sleeping over, walking, or cycling. The second excuse is…

Cycling while drunk is illegal in some places.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#263

Post by cableshaft »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #175
pluma wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's also something that's different in the US: individualism. I wouldn't normally call e.g. Germany a "collectivist" society but in comparison to the attitudes I frequently hear about from Americans (especially in politics) Germans apparently genuinely care more about their fellow citizens. Not being as likely to kill someone else is the entire point. Heck, drunk cycling is only slightly better than drunk…

> different in the US: individualism It's funny, but in the US it's common for college freshmen to have two choices of lodging: either in a fraternity (Animal House, the movie ;-) or in a dorm room, two people per room (hence the 'Roommate from Hell' stories that grace the internet). Not big on leaving individuals alone.

Just because you share a room with someone doesn't mean you do the same social activities as them. First roommate in college we kinda did, second roommate we barely did anything together other than be present in the same room (there was a point where we were playing Tony Hawk together regularly).

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#264

Post by cableshaft »

dx034 wrote: post #230
kneel wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It has always amazed me how casually people drink and drive in some countries; the US especially springs to mind. Drinking and driving is still very taboo in the US. It's just that most areas of the country require an automobile to get around and most people have a car. One more thing, no one should be surprised that people drink and drive anywhere. People make all sorts of terrible decisions when they're intoxicate…

I think it's not taboo, the (social, not legal) definition is just a different one. In most countries, having more than one beer and driving is considered drunk driving. In the US, as long as you're not wasted people assume it's ok to drive home (there's no alternative anyway). Having 4-5 beer over a few hours and driving home is completely normal in most parts of the US. In most European countries, that's socially u…

Went to school in a college town in the US. I always based it on how much alcohol your body should can process, roughly a beer an hour. So if I started drinking at a party four hours ago and had five beers, I figured I was sober enough to go home.

I usually did most of my drinking at the beginning of the night anyway (intentionally so this would be a viable strategy), so I was mostly sobering up at the end.

But there were still plenty of nights where I slept on the host's couch or floor until morning, and a few times where I made poor decisions because I really, really didn't want to have to find other transportation (mostly just getting in the car with people who I couldn't determine if they were sober enough to drive). Taxis really are awful in small towns.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#265

Post by darkcube »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #239
arnsholt wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, the legal limit in Norway us basically the measurement error of the BAC tests; basically you should fail if you've had anything at all to drink.

That was one of those things my Norwegian spouse made sure I knew beforehand. It is .02 or something like that, and I believe it is measured slightly differently. He's also said that I can get penalized - through loss of license and other means - just by being a sober passenger with a drunk driver. It benefits me to make sure the other person is sober.

can a drunk passenger of a drunk driver be penalized as well?

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#266

Post by mighty_warrior »

iamatworknow wrote: post #252
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't that, the cab rides are never just $20, and often there are no cabs at all. The USA just has crappy non car transportation options. And it isn't just an hour walk in many places, but a few hours walk on dark streets with no side walks. When I was living in the Deep South, I sometimes had to take people home 20+ miles out in the middle of nowhere.

I live in one of the few areas of the US that still doesn't have ride sharing services -- upstate New York, where they are banned and still being debated in the state government[0]. I also live in an area where there are 4 colleges and universities in two towns within 10 miles of each other. I went to one of these colleges, and have seen what people do to get to and from the bars first hand. There's one taxi service…

Hey hows Potsdam? Sounds like it hasn't changed in the decade since I was there. Not that I expected it to.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#268

Post by nommm-nommm »

rugffgbv wrote: post #210
pluma wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's also something that's different in the US: individualism. I wouldn't normally call e.g. Germany a "collectivist" society but in comparison to the attitudes I frequently hear about from Americans (especially in politics) Germans apparently genuinely care more about their fellow citizens. Not being as likely to kill someone else is the entire point. Heck, drunk cycling is only slightly better than drunk…

>Heck, drunk cycling is only slightly better than drunk driving because you're less likely to run someone over (but might still cause an accident when a driver has to do something dangerous to avoid you). Drunk cyclists killed 1 person between 2007-2011 in Poland. Drunk pedestrians killed 3 persons. http://ibikekrakow.com/2012/03/28/ile-osob-zabili-pijani-row... Drunk drivers killed hundreds. 50% of people caught for…

It's not about being able to balance on a bike, it's about reaction time, coordination, and judgement.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#269

Post by nix0n »

qyv wrote: post #75
jhpaul wrote: post #65

Based on personal experiences this isn't surprising. When I was in college in a small town in the late 00's, many friends and acquaintances would drive across town after heavy drinking. 10-15 minutes, straight roads, little traffic. Other than not going out, or not getting home, you didn't have many options. It was a hour long walk or a $20-40 cab ride, if you could get one. I was recently back in town for a wedding…

It's not he accessibility of ride-sharing services that is doing this, it is the ride-sharing services policy of artificially low pricing to facilitate rapid growth that is responsible. Those $9 rides are not sustainable. When the prices go back up to sustainable levels we will see many of these benefits evaporate.

Uber hopes to keep fares at their current level by replacing human drivers with autonomous vehicles.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#270

Post by passivepinetree »

ryan606 wrote: post #258

I seem to recall a Freakonomics chapter or podcast episode that discussed drunk driving vs. walking home drunk, and concluded that walking home drunk was even more dangerous than driving home drunk. Either choice is much worse than ride-sharing or cabbing or public transit, obviously.

There's a huge caveat that's imperative to note:

It's safer to drive only for the driver, as the driver usually survives car accidents and is less likely to drunkenly wander into traffic or get mugged, for example. For others, it's much more dangerous if a drunk person drives (such a person will hit pedestrians, other cars, etc).

Post reply on HN