US Lawmakers Propose Minimum Seat Sizes For Airlines (consumerist.com)

The size of each passenger's seat on an airplane -- as well as the distance between rows of seats -- should be standardized, according to legislation proposed by two American lawmakers. Slashdot reader AmiMoJo quotes Consumerist: The text of the bill does not specify any dimensions for seat widths or legroom. Rather, if the legislation is passed, the particulars would be left up to the FAA to sort out... Though seat size may vary from airline to airline, Cohen notes that the average distance between rows of seats has dropped from 35 inches before airline deregulation in the 1970s, to around 31 inches today. Your backside is getting the squeeze, as well, as the average width of an airline seat has also shrunk from 18 inches to about 16.5 inches.

Comments

Stick to the important stuff

[mi]

Lawmakers — and SlashDot editors — should stick to "stuff that matters". No other laws should even be evaluated, until the "Obamacare" disaster is properly abolished — with or without a replacement...

They've passed such repeals six times while Obama was President — and could be relied on to veto it. Now that Trump is eager to sign it as soon as it hits his desk, they've become "thoughtful" seeing "nuances"...

Meanwhile, regulating the seat-sizes?.. Seriously?

Re:Stick to the important stuff

[shmlco]

Of course they're seeing "nuances". The whole thing was a carefully crafted wedge issue upon which the Republicans could scream and shout. And ridiculously, they were screaming about a health care bill based almost entirely on a Republican health care bill -- RomneyCare.

But the ACA is government intrusion! (Actually, it is, in a good way.) It's dying! (CBO says it's stable, though it is having issues in some Republican-based states who fought it in the first place.) It's raised my rates! (It's true that rates have increased, though not as much as rates would have increased without it. And part of that is through elimination of "insurance" plans that some people paid for that covered basically nothing at all.)

Regardless, now that the Republicans COULD pass the same bill, they're stalling why they try to figure out the actual political impact of kicking millions of registered voters off the ACA and off of Medicaid, not to mention dramatically raising insurance rates for millions of others.

So much for "more people will have more access to more affordable health care."