Thank you- great reply. Despite years of trying to accumulate wisdom, I'm torn. You're absolutely correct- it's a complex situation and there are no clear answers.
I may be one of very few people who notice long-term trends, but I've noticed over the past 30+ years that people are driving faster and faster. 55 MPH 6-lane highway near me is minimum 70 MPH and usually 80+. I'm not saying it's okay; I'm just saying it's fact.
As I think I wrote above, when I'm pedestrian I prefer being in charge of my safety. I did an Outward Bound years ago and they taught and stressed we need to be in charge of our own safety, pay attention, stay alert, think things through, etc. This was out in wilderness- no cars anywhere around. Also, my mom continually infused in me that cars and streets are not safe, look both ways before crossing the street, never play in the streets, etc. It worked.
I think allowing people to walk out in front of a moving vehicle, _expecting_ the vehicle to see them in time, see them at all, or to be able to judge the vehicle's stopping distance, is govt. putting people in jeopardy.
I'm afraid that the only solution is full out traffic signals at all pedestrian crossings.
That aside, one possibility is some kind of marker on the street that would be at some average stopping distance from pedestrians. But again, that wouldn't account for distracted drivers (a huge problem no matter what), vision blocked by a large vehicle, or a heavy vehicle with a significantly longer stopping distance.
An afterthought: a govt. can make all the laws it wants to, and some people are going to break those laws- either intentionally or negligently. It doesn't seem right that one has a huge advantage over the other.
Please tell me if you're being serious or sarcastic. Sometimes sarcasm is obvious, and I can be as sarcastic / sardonic as anyone, but sometimes it's not obvious, so hopefully you'll clarify.
PS: online people will find ANYTHING they can to pick you apart, including pedantry, even when you're trying to make a really good thought-provoking philosophical point. Please stop the nit-picking.
The point being that someone driving a car can send a pedestrian pretty much straight into a coffin. Therefore cars have a lot of power over pedestrians.
Pretty obvious to everyone, right? All the more reason I take more care when pedestrian.
In spite of the laws of physics?
Maybe you want to do the math again for F = m * a and compare the results with the mass and acceleration of a car and that of a human. (spoiler: F_car >> F_human)
Specious. Time is the factor. A pedestrian can stop forward motion in less than a second, and/or accelerate out of the car's path MUCH faster than the car can slow down. Try to remember, brakes do not STOP a car- they slow it. It takes time to eventually stop, and it may be too long of a time and the pedestrian gets hit.
I'm both driver and pedestrian. I do not EVER put my safety in the hands, feet, and attention (or mental state) of a driver.
In the light of this it's only fair that those operating heavy machinery ought to have to pay attention to what they do with said machinery in any case.
I just don't understand where you and others like you are going with this. Of course people should take great care. But the greatest care can not save a pedestrian who steps out from behind an opaque object, right into the path of a moving vehicle. Watch youtube vids- hopefully you'll start to understand the timing, mass, momentum, etc.
Stated another way, all people should take the greatest care to guard their own safety, right?
Of course there can be some situations where there was no wrong doing on their part and people got hurt.
I'm not so sure. I think anyone who steps out into the path of moving machinery is stupid. They're risking horrible injury or death, hoping the driver is paying attention, and that they (pedestrian) have judged the vehicle's stopping distance correctly, WITHOUT knowing the stopping distance of said vehicle.
AND, they're putting drivers at risk of causing sometimes HUGE accidents when trying to avoid hitting pedestrians. Many are dying in those accidents, including many innocent bystanding pedestrians. Again, youtube is your friend.
I'd bet you drive a fairly small car that stops very quickly If so, that's great, but try driving a box truck in city traffic loaded with bottled water and you might get a feel for the scale of what we're talking about.
And I can hear your argument now- the trucks need to go slower, and you're right, but when you drive one, you'll realize the trucks would have to go 7 MPH. Spend some time thinking about THAT scenario in a busy city.
Somewhat sad story: guy ended up okay eventually, but the son of some friends of mine was in college in SC and got hit by a car, broke some bones, in hospital for days, etc., and, somewhat cruelly, got a citation for causing the accident, and had to pay for the damage to the car. I don't know if they took it to court- I would hope a judge would say he's suffered enough. Point is, not all states have the same pedestrian laws. My state's lawmakers need physics (motion dynamics, not statics) lessons.
Right now, the laws are ridiculous, at least in my state. If a pedestrian is in the marked crosswalk, cars must yield. Makes sense, right? But life is NOT a static picture. It's dynamic- things moving- a timeline. If a car is doing the speed limit of 35 MPH and is 20 feet from a crosswalk, and a pedestrian suddenly decides to step into the crosswalk, the car obviously can not stop in time, so who's at fault?
So good for you that you got that dashcam.
Yeah, and I think everyone should have them. On a more personal note, it has given me great peace when driving.
> in most of USA drivers are crucified (sometimes literally) for hitting a pedestrian.
uhhhh... what? A motorist kills a pedestrian & the assumption is that it's an accident.
A huge problem with Internet conversations relates to grandiose thinking, grandiose writing, and grandiose perception. I never said that ALL cases were X or Y. Many ACs read into things, then attack based on their misconceptions.
Not sure where you live, or what info. you get, but it doesn't sound like you read / watch US news.
Police frequently charge drivers with vehicular homicide.
Watch youtube videos of a driver hitting a pedestrian in a city neighborhood, and people coming out in droves to drag the driver out and beat him to death. It happens. I never wrote _ALL_ the time.
And, pedestrians often get hit by cars, get up, and walk away. Again, youtube is your friend.
All that said, your post isn't clear so I'm commenting on what I perceive you meant, but by all means, please clarify if I've misunderstood.
Yup, similar experiences and observation for me. They get very zoned-in to the phone. I'm too focused on driving and always have been, so I don't even understand how someone can focus _more_ on something else.
Besides wasting time (and essentially confining a person in traffic), the green-light sitters are adding to atmospheric carbon (although many cars and hybrids are shutting the engine off at stops, and electric cars obviously cause minimal carbon sitting still.)
What I observe is very slow reactions when people are on phones. And it's not necessarily texting- some are just swiping through facebork, twitter, instagram, or whatever.
I'll usually first give a very short toot on the horn, but many don't respond, so then it's going to be a much longer one, which usually causes a "flip off".
Someday I might have the opportunity to use my dashcam video in court, so idiots, be careful who you "flip off". Lewd gesture added to inattentive driving, impeding traffic, and whatever else I can think of.
Pedestrians with their eyes and mind in their phones are mostly a danger to themselves.
I understand your sentiment, but in spite of the laws of physics, in most of USA drivers are crucified (sometimes literally) for hitting a pedestrian.
As a driver, I can be sent to prison for hitting a pedestrian, therefore pedestrians have a lot of power over me. I fear them, their unpredictability, and disobedience of pedestrian laws.
It's one of the major factors in why I (finally) got a dashcam.
Absolutely agree, and it's a big factor in most surveys (which is why people should take them with many grains of salt).
That said, the survey should show stats from and about those who have stronger interests / passions, and of course, those who are willing to take surveys, which I think is a big factor in and of itself.
This is a cool challenge. I've worked in medical diagnostics as a sysop (in the 90s). One of my many tasks was networking live diagnostic machines, including DOS, 95, and 98 based.
I have many ideas but I'm not sure of the FDA or whatever regulations about making changes. And the first thing would be to "image" the hard disk, if you have admin access...
Is this machine otherwise in good working order and you'd rather not replace it?
The idea that massive public electronic displays like these aren't monitored by a human 24/7 is preposterous.
It could be that someone who could have done something about it had noticed but let it stay that way. Maybe general cynicism, dislike of Yankee OSes, thought it was funny, maybe they wanted to switch to Linux but the boss forbade it.
Sorry- my above post was meant for you. My MS mouse has a wonky scroll wheel that occasionally skips up or down, and must have done its dirty work as I was clicking on "reply" and I didn't realize it.
Anyway, I appreciate your reply but it's really not the same thing. All I can say it it's working well on another site. And I have some different ideas for a site like this. Someday...
The state will go to any length to be sure that the citizens there pay their taxes, so they should also go to any length to make sure that they are able to vote.
Thanks, and of course I absolutely agree. I'm hoping for an answer to where the people of Terlingua go to vote.
My thought is: that is exactly where they should go to register. If any state wants to usher in a new voter registration system, it should be done at election time and place, and phased-in over maybe a 2 year period, after which you can still go to the polling place to register, but not vote until the registration is cleared.
Thank you! I've avoided most "social media" for, well, 25 years, but it's getting better in some ways and places, the discussions and people here are getting better, and here is now better (IMHO) than the RED site. I'll check out HN. Might just start a site...
That's a great way to look at it- I wish I could mod you up. But I'm not asking to referee myself. As I commented above, if I'm interested in a story, I'm interested in both modding and commenting. If I'm not interested, neither. And I take modding seriously and I don't toss mod points around, so if I'm not interested in a topic, I have no business modding- certainly little interest or motivation. Gotta think about it some more, but on RED site you can do both (and I do). Thanks and cheers!
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Thank you- great reply. Despite years of trying to accumulate wisdom, I'm torn. You're absolutely correct- it's a complex situation and there are no clear answers.
I may be one of very few people who notice long-term trends, but I've noticed over the past 30+ years that people are driving faster and faster. 55 MPH 6-lane highway near me is minimum 70 MPH and usually 80+. I'm not saying it's okay; I'm just saying it's fact.
As I think I wrote above, when I'm pedestrian I prefer being in charge of my safety. I did an Outward Bound years ago and they taught and stressed we need to be in charge of our own safety, pay attention, stay alert, think things through, etc. This was out in wilderness- no cars anywhere around. Also, my mom continually infused in me that cars and streets are not safe, look both ways before crossing the street, never play in the streets, etc. It worked.
I think allowing people to walk out in front of a moving vehicle, _expecting_ the vehicle to see them in time, see them at all, or to be able to judge the vehicle's stopping distance, is govt. putting people in jeopardy.
I'm afraid that the only solution is full out traffic signals at all pedestrian crossings.
That aside, one possibility is some kind of marker on the street that would be at some average stopping distance from pedestrians. But again, that wouldn't account for distracted drivers (a huge problem no matter what), vision blocked by a large vehicle, or a heavy vehicle with a significantly longer stopping distance.
An afterthought: a govt. can make all the laws it wants to, and some people are going to break those laws- either intentionally or negligently. It doesn't seem right that one has a huge advantage over the other.
Please tell me if you're being serious or sarcastic. Sometimes sarcasm is obvious, and I can be as sarcastic / sardonic as anyone, but sometimes it's not obvious, so hopefully you'll clarify.
PS: online people will find ANYTHING they can to pick you apart, including pedantry, even when you're trying to make a really good thought-provoking philosophical point. Please stop the nit-picking.
in most of USA drivers are crucified (sometimes literally) for hitting a pedestrian.
Can you show a single instance where a driver was literally crucified for hitting a pedestrian?
No. I meant it symbolically- a horrible death by an angry mob, no trial. It was a literary enigma. English was always my weakest subject.
The point being that someone driving a car can send a pedestrian pretty much straight into a coffin. Therefore cars have a lot of power over pedestrians.
Pretty obvious to everyone, right? All the more reason I take more care when pedestrian.
In spite of the laws of physics?
Maybe you want to do the math again for F = m * a and compare the results with the mass and acceleration of a car and that of a human. (spoiler: F_car >> F_human)
Specious. Time is the factor. A pedestrian can stop forward motion in less than a second, and/or accelerate out of the car's path MUCH faster than the car can slow down. Try to remember, brakes do not STOP a car- they slow it. It takes time to eventually stop, and it may be too long of a time and the pedestrian gets hit.
I'm both driver and pedestrian. I do not EVER put my safety in the hands, feet, and attention (or mental state) of a driver.
In the light of this it's only fair that those operating heavy machinery ought to have to pay attention to what they do with said machinery in any case.
I just don't understand where you and others like you are going with this. Of course people should take great care. But the greatest care can not save a pedestrian who steps out from behind an opaque object, right into the path of a moving vehicle. Watch youtube vids- hopefully you'll start to understand the timing, mass, momentum, etc.
Stated another way, all people should take the greatest care to guard their own safety, right?
Of course there can be some situations where there was no wrong doing on their part and people got hurt.
I'm not so sure. I think anyone who steps out into the path of moving machinery is stupid. They're risking horrible injury or death, hoping the driver is paying attention, and that they (pedestrian) have judged the vehicle's stopping distance correctly, WITHOUT knowing the stopping distance of said vehicle.
AND, they're putting drivers at risk of causing sometimes HUGE accidents when trying to avoid hitting pedestrians. Many are dying in those accidents, including many innocent bystanding pedestrians. Again, youtube is your friend.
I'd bet you drive a fairly small car that stops very quickly If so, that's great, but try driving a box truck in city traffic loaded with bottled water and you might get a feel for the scale of what we're talking about.
And I can hear your argument now- the trucks need to go slower, and you're right, but when you drive one, you'll realize the trucks would have to go 7 MPH. Spend some time thinking about THAT scenario in a busy city.
Somewhat sad story: guy ended up okay eventually, but the son of some friends of mine was in college in SC and got hit by a car, broke some bones, in hospital for days, etc., and, somewhat cruelly, got a citation for causing the accident, and had to pay for the damage to the car. I don't know if they took it to court- I would hope a judge would say he's suffered enough. Point is, not all states have the same pedestrian laws. My state's lawmakers need physics (motion dynamics, not statics) lessons.
Right now, the laws are ridiculous, at least in my state. If a pedestrian is in the marked crosswalk, cars must yield. Makes sense, right? But life is NOT a static picture. It's dynamic- things moving- a timeline. If a car is doing the speed limit of 35 MPH and is 20 feet from a crosswalk, and a pedestrian suddenly decides to step into the crosswalk, the car obviously can not stop in time, so who's at fault?
So good for you that you got that dashcam.
Yeah, and I think everyone should have them. On a more personal note, it has given me great peace when driving.
> in most of USA drivers are crucified (sometimes literally) for hitting a pedestrian.
uhhhh... what? A motorist kills a pedestrian & the assumption is that it's an accident.
A huge problem with Internet conversations relates to grandiose thinking, grandiose writing, and grandiose perception. I never said that ALL cases were X or Y. Many ACs read into things, then attack based on their misconceptions.
Not sure where you live, or what info. you get, but it doesn't sound like you read / watch US news.
Police frequently charge drivers with vehicular homicide.
Watch youtube videos of a driver hitting a pedestrian in a city neighborhood, and people coming out in droves to drag the driver out and beat him to death. It happens. I never wrote _ALL_ the time.
And, pedestrians often get hit by cars, get up, and walk away. Again, youtube is your friend.
All that said, your post isn't clear so I'm commenting on what I perceive you meant, but by all means, please clarify if I've misunderstood.
Yup, similar experiences and observation for me. They get very zoned-in to the phone. I'm too focused on driving and always have been, so I don't even understand how someone can focus _more_ on something else.
Besides wasting time (and essentially confining a person in traffic), the green-light sitters are adding to atmospheric carbon (although many cars and hybrids are shutting the engine off at stops, and electric cars obviously cause minimal carbon sitting still.)
What I observe is very slow reactions when people are on phones. And it's not necessarily texting- some are just swiping through facebork, twitter, instagram, or whatever.
I'll usually first give a very short toot on the horn, but many don't respond, so then it's going to be a much longer one, which usually causes a "flip off".
Someday I might have the opportunity to use my dashcam video in court, so idiots, be careful who you "flip off". Lewd gesture added to inattentive driving, impeding traffic, and whatever else I can think of.
Pedestrians with their eyes and mind in their phones are mostly a danger to themselves.
I understand your sentiment, but in spite of the laws of physics, in most of USA drivers are crucified (sometimes literally) for hitting a pedestrian.
As a driver, I can be sent to prison for hitting a pedestrian, therefore pedestrians have a lot of power over me. I fear them, their unpredictability, and disobedience of pedestrian laws.
It's one of the major factors in why I (finally) got a dashcam.
Darwinian forces will take care of that.
Absolutely agree, and it's a big factor in most surveys (which is why people should take them with many grains of salt).
That said, the survey should show stats from and about those who have stronger interests / passions, and of course, those who are willing to take surveys, which I think is a big factor in and of itself.
Yeah but password managers, auto-logins, ... ?
So now the phone becomes the only factor, right? So we're back to 1FA. Don't lose that phone.
Next will be 3FA, then 4, and at some point they will wear you down and you will be assimilated.
And I just realized I'm not far from you geographically.
This is a cool challenge. I've worked in medical diagnostics as a sysop (in the 90s). One of my many tasks was networking live diagnostic machines, including DOS, 95, and 98 based.
I have many ideas but I'm not sure of the FDA or whatever regulations about making changes. And the first thing would be to "image" the hard disk, if you have admin access...
Is this machine otherwise in good working order and you'd rather not replace it?
MS supported XP for 17 years, how long does Apple support an OS X release?
Warranty + 1 minute
Yeah, or hard disk failure, or rogue sw or malware clobbered boot sector or something.
You're probably right. I haven't seen that MB firmware message and I was thinking it was a 3rd-party boot menu like grub or lilo.
Or they're not going to be paid overtime or even get a thanks if they come over the week-end.
That's certainly another possibility, but I didn't want to include the story of my life.
The idea that massive public electronic displays like these aren't monitored by a human 24/7 is preposterous.
It could be that someone who could have done something about it had noticed but let it stay that way. Maybe general cynicism, dislike of Yankee OSes, thought it was funny, maybe they wanted to switch to Linux but the boss forbade it.
Sorry- my above post was meant for you. My MS mouse has a wonky scroll wheel that occasionally skips up or down, and must have done its dirty work as I was clicking on "reply" and I didn't realize it.
Anyway, I appreciate your reply but it's really not the same thing. All I can say it it's working well on another site. And I have some different ideas for a site like this. Someday...
The state will go to any length to be sure that the citizens there pay their taxes, so they should also go to any length to make sure that they are able to vote.
Thanks, and of course I absolutely agree. I'm hoping for an answer to where the people of Terlingua go to vote.
My thought is: that is exactly where they should go to register. If any state wants to usher in a new voter registration system, it should be done at election time and place, and phased-in over maybe a 2 year period, after which you can still go to the polling place to register, but not vote until the registration is cleared.
Simple question: where / how far do the people of Terlingua go to vote?
Thank you! I've avoided most "social media" for, well, 25 years, but it's getting better in some ways and places, the discussions and people here are getting better, and here is now better (IMHO) than the RED site. I'll check out HN. Might just start a site...
That's a great way to look at it- I wish I could mod you up. But I'm not asking to referee myself. As I commented above, if I'm interested in a story, I'm interested in both modding and commenting. If I'm not interested, neither. And I take modding seriously and I don't toss mod points around, so if I'm not interested in a topic, I have no business modding- certainly little interest or motivation. Gotta think about it some more, but on RED site you can do both (and I do). Thanks and cheers!