7 ms·

I would rather a bus any day. Easier to see, move slowly, less dangerously, less off them, more predictable, and mostly pretty courteous. Completely unlike driv

I would rather a bus any day. Easier to see, move slowly, less dangerously, less off them, more predictable, and mostly pretty courteous. Completely unlike drivers.

x3n0ph3n3 11y ago
You would rather what a bus?
- bennyg 11y ago
  You knew what he/she was trying to say...
  - craigmccaskill 11y ago
    Personally, I don't and I'm a native English speaker. I doubt many who weren't would have any chance of deciphering the meaning here either.
    - ridgeguy 11y ago
      It's just an ellipsis. Or, as my first Google hit said: "the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues." So: I would rather [have] a bus any day.
    - jcrawfordor 11y ago
      I see this usage fairly regularly. I'm not 100% certain of this, but I think it might be more common in Britain than America.
    - gdy 11y ago
      Is "I would rather you did..." odd too? Not a native speaker here :)
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - EdwardDiego 11y ago
      > Personally, I don't That's more on you than the OP. It's hardly an unknown phrasing.
  - x3n0ph3n3 11y ago
    Actually, I didn't. It's an odd word choice, and 'prefer' would have made more sense. Rather is typically used in conjunction with another verb, while prefer isn't.
- lstamour 11y ago
  rather = prefer, here. As in the choice between self driving cars and buses.
  - CWuestefeld 11y ago
    I was also confused, and I'm a native speaker. Understanding that "rather" means "prefer" is obvious. The sentence could be read as "I prefer to be on the road with a bus since I think it's safer". Or it could be "choosing what's most dangerous, I'd rather say it's a bus". It's also not clear what the perspective of the speaker is. It might be that a bus is safer for the rider, but more dangerous for cars around it. So would he rather be on board a bus, or rather on the road with a bus?
    - trelltron 11y ago
      I have no idea how you could get that second interpretation from what he said. And the perspective is clearly inherited from the parent comment, who didn't mention being "on board" a bus, just "on the road with" a bus. No ambiguity in that comment that I can see. EDIT: I guess the use of rather in this context could be a colloquialism?
seizethecheese 11y ago
> move slowly, less dangerously f = ma. The bus is considerably more dangerous than a car, even while traveling at a significantly lower speed. As the parent comment noted, there are certainly some aggressive bus drivers out there as well.
- qwyxzy 11y ago
  Nitpick: The bus is more dangerous because it has more momentum (m • v), not necessarily more force.
  - waterhouse 11y ago
    Double nitpick: I think kinetic energy is actually the more relevant quantity. Citation after a bit of googling: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/141779/what-causes-damage-kinetic-energy-or-momentum http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/141779/what-cause...
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - pdkl95 11y ago
      This is correct. My grandfather was a physicist who reconstructed some of the nastier accidents in CA. He was always looking for two values for most situations: delta-v, and (mv^2)/2. The 'v' being the delta-v of the two vehicles when they collided. The damage done will generally be a function of the kinetic energy that hit it. Note that this implies that unless there are other dangerous road conditions (fog, ice, etc), the safest speed is "the same speed as everybody else" so the delta-v is minimized. Fun note for HN: he had software built for DOS that I helped him get running in dosbox so he could run it on a modern computer. It would reconstruct the motion of the vehicles from the final resting positions and the depth of the dents. working backwards from the implied kinetic energy. Apparently the DOS version was a port of his original FORTRAN source... on punch cards.
      - 11y ago
bitshepherd 11y ago
Except in the Bay Area, where bus drivers move those slow, more predictable machines as if they were sports cars.
- jonlucc 11y ago
  The same goes for Chicago, where busses are longer, but articulated in the middle for maneuverability. They drive just like the taxi drivers there, and that isn't a compliment.
  - bitshepherd 11y ago
    We have the long, articulated busses, too. The drivers also drive those as if they were behind the wheel of a sports car.
- imtringued 11y ago
  I don't life in the US but one time the bus driver decided to overtake a motorcycle that was properly driving at the current speed limit. The motorcyclist was effectively trapped by a 20m long bus.
lucaspiller 11y ago
When I was in London a few years ago I used to cycle to work and the buses were the worse. Taxis would beep or gesture at you, but at least they gave you space. One time I was stopped at a set of traffic lights waiting for them to turn green. It was on a tight bend and I was about 20cm from the line, and 50cm from the inside of the road. A bus came up and decided for whatever reason he had to get in front of me (even though there was a stop directly on the other side of the junction). There was enough space for a car, but definitely not for a bus as it was on a bend. He slowly kept creeping forward, and the side of the bus kept getting closer and closer. I starting banging on the window as he got next to me, but no he kept going. I was far enough back that I was out of his blind spot. In the end I had to move onto the pavement. I then walked to the front and banged on the door, gave him a few choice words and the driver just shrugged.
- brandur 11y ago
  I see this sort of strong arming happening in San Francisco pretty frequently. It all makes a lot more sense when you consider that the drivers know that even they accidentally push it a little too far and kill someone, there won't be any serious repercussion [1] [2]. [1] http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/02/muni-driver-acquitted-in-2011-crash-that-killed-23-year-old-woman-in-san-francisco-crosswalk/ http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/02/muni-driver-acqu... [2] http://hoodline.com/2015/10/muni-bus-hits-kills-cyclist-on-market-street http://hoodline.com/2015/10/muni-bus-hits-kills-cyclist-on-m...
  - lmm 11y ago
    Car drivers get away with killing people as well though.
    - sooheon 11y ago
      Maybe slightly less of a professional desensitization to the potential to kill another?
    - eru 11y ago
      https://www.vice.com/read/you-can-kill-anyone-you-want-with-your-car-as-long-as-you-dont-really-mean-it https://www.vice.com/read/you-can-kill-anyone-you-want-with-... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to... https://nextcity.org/features/view/how-much-is-a-cyclists-life-worth-anyway https://nextcity.org/features/view/how-much-is-a-cyclists-li...

I would rather a bus any day. Easier to see, move slowly, less dangerously, less off them, more predictable, and mostly pretty courteous. Completely unlike drivers.

x3n0ph3n3 11y ago

You would rather what a bus?

bennyg 11y ago
You knew what he/she was trying to say...
- craigmccaskill 11y ago
  Personally, I don't and I'm a native English speaker. I doubt many who weren't would have any chance of deciphering the meaning here either.
  - ridgeguy 11y ago
    It's just an ellipsis. Or, as my first Google hit said: "the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues." So: I would rather [have] a bus any day.
  - jcrawfordor 11y ago
    I see this usage fairly regularly. I'm not 100% certain of this, but I think it might be more common in Britain than America.
  - gdy 11y ago
    Is "I would rather you did..." odd too? Not a native speaker here :)
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - EdwardDiego 11y ago
    > Personally, I don't That's more on you than the OP. It's hardly an unknown phrasing.
- x3n0ph3n3 11y ago
  Actually, I didn't. It's an odd word choice, and 'prefer' would have made more sense. Rather is typically used in conjunction with another verb, while prefer isn't.
lstamour 11y ago
rather = prefer, here. As in the choice between self driving cars and buses.
- CWuestefeld 11y ago
  I was also confused, and I'm a native speaker. Understanding that "rather" means "prefer" is obvious. The sentence could be read as "I prefer to be on the road with a bus since I think it's safer". Or it could be "choosing what's most dangerous, I'd rather say it's a bus". It's also not clear what the perspective of the speaker is. It might be that a bus is safer for the rider, but more dangerous for cars around it. So would he rather be on board a bus, or rather on the road with a bus?
  - trelltron 11y ago
    I have no idea how you could get that second interpretation from what he said. And the perspective is clearly inherited from the parent comment, who didn't mention being "on board" a bus, just "on the road with" a bus. No ambiguity in that comment that I can see. EDIT: I guess the use of rather in this context could be a colloquialism?

seizethecheese 11y ago

> move slowly, less dangerously f = ma. The bus is considerably more dangerous than a car, even while traveling at a significantly lower speed. As the parent comment noted, there are certainly some aggressive bus drivers out there as well.

qwyxzy 11y ago
Nitpick: The bus is more dangerous because it has more momentum (m • v), not necessarily more force.
- waterhouse 11y ago
  Double nitpick: I think kinetic energy is actually the more relevant quantity. Citation after a bit of googling: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/141779/what-causes-damage-kinetic-energy-or-momentum http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/141779/what-cause...
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - pdkl95 11y ago
    This is correct. My grandfather was a physicist who reconstructed some of the nastier accidents in CA. He was always looking for two values for most situations: delta-v, and (mv^2)/2. The 'v' being the delta-v of the two vehicles when they collided. The damage done will generally be a function of the kinetic energy that hit it. Note that this implies that unless there are other dangerous road conditions (fog, ice, etc), the safest speed is "the same speed as everybody else" so the delta-v is minimized. Fun note for HN: he had software built for DOS that I helped him get running in dosbox so he could run it on a modern computer. It would reconstruct the motion of the vehicles from the final resting positions and the depth of the dents. working backwards from the implied kinetic energy. Apparently the DOS version was a port of his original FORTRAN source... on punch cards.
    - 11y ago

bitshepherd 11y ago

Except in the Bay Area, where bus drivers move those slow, more predictable machines as if they were sports cars.

jonlucc 11y ago
The same goes for Chicago, where busses are longer, but articulated in the middle for maneuverability. They drive just like the taxi drivers there, and that isn't a compliment.
- bitshepherd 11y ago
  We have the long, articulated busses, too. The drivers also drive those as if they were behind the wheel of a sports car.
imtringued 11y ago
I don't life in the US but one time the bus driver decided to overtake a motorcycle that was properly driving at the current speed limit. The motorcyclist was effectively trapped by a 20m long bus.

lucaspiller 11y ago

When I was in London a few years ago I used to cycle to work and the buses were the worse. Taxis would beep or gesture at you, but at least they gave you space. One time I was stopped at a set of traffic lights waiting for them to turn green. It was on a tight bend and I was about 20cm from the line, and 50cm from the inside of the road. A bus came up and decided for whatever reason he had to get in front of me (even though there was a stop directly on the other side of the junction). There was enough space for a car, but definitely not for a bus as it was on a bend. He slowly kept creeping forward, and the side of the bus kept getting closer and closer. I starting banging on the window as he got next to me, but no he kept going. I was far enough back that I was out of his blind spot. In the end I had to move onto the pavement. I then walked to the front and banged on the door, gave him a few choice words and the driver just shrugged.

brandur 11y ago
I see this sort of strong arming happening in San Francisco pretty frequently. It all makes a lot more sense when you consider that the drivers know that even they accidentally push it a little too far and kill someone, there won't be any serious repercussion [1] [2]. [1] http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/02/muni-driver-acquitted-in-2011-crash-that-killed-23-year-old-woman-in-san-francisco-crosswalk/ http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/02/muni-driver-acqu... [2] http://hoodline.com/2015/10/muni-bus-hits-kills-cyclist-on-market-street http://hoodline.com/2015/10/muni-bus-hits-kills-cyclist-on-m...
- lmm 11y ago
  Car drivers get away with killing people as well though.
  - sooheon 11y ago
    Maybe slightly less of a professional desensitization to the potential to kill another?
  - eru 11y ago
    https://www.vice.com/read/you-can-kill-anyone-you-want-with-your-car-as-long-as-you-dont-really-mean-it https://www.vice.com/read/you-can-kill-anyone-you-want-with-... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to... https://nextcity.org/features/view/how-much-is-a-cyclists-life-worth-anyway https://nextcity.org/features/view/how-much-is-a-cyclists-li...