Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police • Hacker News Board

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#281

Post by InclinedPlane » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 10:50 AM UTC

danielharan wrote: post #239

InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

Much as I agree pedestrians should be looking both ways and keeping an eye out for cars... Can we please stop blaming the victims? The main way to stop the carnage is to change our infrastructure. It's a political issue.

I'm definitely not blaming the victims here. Certainly the fault lies with the drivers who were operating their vehicle recklessly and without regard for human life, I think a charge of negligent homicide or manslaughter is warranted in cases such as this and I think life in prison is likely not too harsh of a sentence. At worst Reisse is "guilty" of nothing other than inattention, which certainly nobody deserves death for.

That said, regardless of the assignment of culpability and wrongdoing I think it is fundamentally important for pedestrians (namely: all people) to understand that it is with in their power to dramatically reduce their risk of injury by developing defensive habits. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you died noble and innocent, dead is dead.

By the same token, it's not ok to blame children for sexual abuse, but it is smart to educate them about the dangers and to empower them with the skills to be able to avoid it.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#282

Post by davidw » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 10:58 AM UTC

mpyne wrote: post #254

foobarbazqux wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a story about the literal intersection of police, guns, gangs, speeding, pedestrian crosswalks, motor vehicle accidents, and the sudden, traumatic, and innocent bystander death of the co-founder of a visible startup. And you guys expect no discussion of politics? Can you point to a single story since the inception of Hacker News that quite obviously involved the intersection of hacker/startup culture with the…

> I'll be the first to agree that political extremism is aggravating, but the solution to political extremism is not the avoidance of politics altogether. On the contrary, avoidance of all politics is a wonderful individual solution to political extremism. Which is why so many "normal" people refuse to get involved at all, which is why all of us "normal" people end up so surprised every 2 years over a bunch of reacti…

> avoidance of all politics

Who ever said anything about that?

I'm quite interested, and in my own way, involved in politics. I also follow bicycle racing with a passion, for that matter. But I don't think either one belongs on this particular web site.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#283

Post by tracker1 » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 12:34 PM UTC

entropy_ wrote: post #170

InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

I've grown up in Lebanon -- a third world country still recovering from a 15 year civil war(1975-1990). Traffic lights and rules are merely suggestions to people around here. If something is physically possible, like a car being able to fit in an pedestrian-only paved road or two cars being able to fit in a one-way street you can be sure that people will do it. It becomes an innate habit to always check both ways and…

They could put those one-way ("severe tire damage") spikes in the freeway entrance.. that would at least reduce the ods of it happening.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#284

Post by jacquesm » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 12:44 PM UTC

SiVal wrote: post #278

mtrimpe wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After being hit by a car when I was young, that's exactly how I navigate traffic as a bicyclist/pedestrian. Traffic rules create a useful abstraction but, if you want to be safe, the only non-leaky abstraction is seeing traffic as a collection of objects moving at various speeds which can optionally change acceleration or direction based on things like traffic lights / your presence / cats running across the road aft…

After living outside the US for many years, I now play the "invisible man game" even in the US. I've taught it to my kids, too. The rules are: you imagine that you are literally invisible and find a way to cross the road that doesn't rely on the drivers' cooperation with you or the law. The drivers don't know you exist, because you are invisible. Playing that game allowed me, for example, to jump onto the hood of a c…

That's a super hack. Thanks for the tips, I'll be using them to apply and teach.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#285

Post by cafard » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 1:07 PM UTC

snogglethorpe wrote: post #270

malandrew wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's been hit by a car twice (neither were my fault), it's also a good reminder that cars simply don't belong in urban areas with a sufficiently dense population. I still don't get why most American cities still don't reach a tipping point then go whole hog in making certain parts of cities pedestrian and bike only.

Cars are still often used as a sign of conspicuous consumption, especially among older people who came of age back in the "car era" (the '50s/'60s, when there was an overwhelming sense of the automobile as the "glorious future" of transportation, and before the many problems of mass car usage were clear)—and older people tend to be richer/more influential. So you get a disproportionate amount of car use by rich/influ…

Cars are often still used as a method of transportation, especially among people whose life or work happens to fall outside a few dozen cities with dense population and work and stores one can walk to. That guy living in Leader Heights, Pennsylvania, isn't driving from sheer cussedness, he's driving because work is in York, or maybe Shrewsbury or Baltimore, and because the supermarket is five miles away.

If he were richer and more influential, he wouldn't be in Leader Heights, he'd be in Baltimore or Philadelphia.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#286

Post by geoka9 » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 4:25 PM UTC

SiVal wrote: post #278

mtrimpe wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After being hit by a car when I was young, that's exactly how I navigate traffic as a bicyclist/pedestrian. Traffic rules create a useful abstraction but, if you want to be safe, the only non-leaky abstraction is seeing traffic as a collection of objects moving at various speeds which can optionally change acceleration or direction based on things like traffic lights / your presence / cats running across the road aft…

After living outside the US for many years, I now play the "invisible man game" even in the US. I've taught it to my kids, too. The rules are: you imagine that you are literally invisible and find a way to cross the road that doesn't rely on the drivers' cooperation with you or the law. The drivers don't know you exist, because you are invisible. Playing that game allowed me, for example, to jump onto the hood of a c…

I haven't taken my pedestrian survival skills that far, but I've always felt that if I'd ever be hit, that would be at an intersection. I felt that there are too many moving objects to keep track of at a typical intersection to be able to control your fate.

So, when in developing countries, I prefer to cross the street in the middle of a block (with no alleys in sight). This way there are only two directions I need to be wary about.

Now, that I've taken up road cycling, I'm at the mercy of other drivers and I'm afraid there are no hacks I could use (except of being extra careful at intersections).

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#287

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 6:22 PM UTC

SiVal wrote: post #278

mtrimpe wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After being hit by a car when I was young, that's exactly how I navigate traffic as a bicyclist/pedestrian. Traffic rules create a useful abstraction but, if you want to be safe, the only non-leaky abstraction is seeing traffic as a collection of objects moving at various speeds which can optionally change acceleration or direction based on things like traffic lights / your presence / cats running across the road aft…

After living outside the US for many years, I now play the "invisible man game" even in the US. I've taught it to my kids, too. The rules are: you imagine that you are literally invisible and find a way to cross the road that doesn't rely on the drivers' cooperation with you or the law. The drivers don't know you exist, because you are invisible. Playing that game allowed me, for example, to jump onto the hood of a c…

That's fantastic! I'll have to use that with my kids.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#288

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 6:23 PM UTC

entropy_ wrote: post #170

InclinedPlane wrote: post #140

This is a good reminder to always be a defensive and aware pedestrian. Just because you have the light or the right-of-way doesn't mean you are guaranteed a safe crossing of the street. Whenever I cross an intersection as a pedestrian I always look both ways (even on one way streets) and I always keep an eye on cars that are still in motion, especially those that don't appear to be slowing down. It's good to make the…

I've grown up in Lebanon -- a third world country still recovering from a 15 year civil war(1975-1990). Traffic lights and rules are merely suggestions to people around here. If something is physically possible, like a car being able to fit in an pedestrian-only paved road or two cars being able to fit in a one-way street you can be sure that people will do it. It becomes an innate habit to always check both ways and…

My Dad is often amazed at how pedestrians in Canada leave their own survival up to the whims of drivers. They'd be dead in the developing world.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#289

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 6:26 PM UTC

snogglethorpe wrote: post #270

malandrew wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who's been hit by a car twice (neither were my fault), it's also a good reminder that cars simply don't belong in urban areas with a sufficiently dense population. I still don't get why most American cities still don't reach a tipping point then go whole hog in making certain parts of cities pedestrian and bike only.

Cars are still often used as a sign of conspicuous consumption, especially among older people who came of age back in the "car era" (the '50s/'60s, when there was an overwhelming sense of the automobile as the "glorious future" of transportation, and before the many problems of mass car usage were clear)—and older people tend to be richer/more influential. So you get a disproportionate amount of car use by rich/influ…

Cars ar comfortable. There's an aspect of control of personal space that you don't get on public transportation.

I've used public transit almost my whole life, but recently I'm becoming seduced by those evil cars. If I take the subway during rush hour, I can barely get enough space to read an iPad. If I don't travel during rush hour, I don't have dinner with my family.

Re: Oculus Rift co-founder killed by gang trying to escape police

#290

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Jun 02, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

mhartl wrote: post #263

People are missing the main point here. This was a terrible, but not a senseless, tragedy, and there is an important lesson to learn. It's not "be more careful when crossing the street". Being a super-defensive pedestrian might have saved Andrew Reisse, but that's not the main point. It's not "don't have high speed chases". Perhaps different police policies might have averted this tragedy, but that's not the main poi…

Do you know anything about counter-insurgency warfare? This is a ridiculous suggestion.