9 ms·

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest an

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recognize how much everything here is built around the idea of owning a car. So now my wife has to give rides to our four kids, AND me, and there’s literally nothing I can do about it except petition for better transit, and pray self-driving cars get here faster. Being dependent on rides feels like being 15 again. It’s humiliating being picked up from a job interview in a parking lot with 200+ cars.

andrewprock 9y ago
Have you considered moving to a region with better transportation support?
- dundercoder 9y ago
  I have. I’d have to move out of state and into a fairly urban city to get decent transit. The schools here are fantastic and I love just about everything here, except the lack of transit. We may get to that point, but for right now I work remotely (platform engineering) and just grin and bear the rest.
  - volkl48 9y ago
    If you get to the point of considering moving, you may wish to look into a college town. They'll typically have far more extensive transit than the average mid-sized city/town does.
    - dundercoder 9y ago
      That is a good point.
      - poulsbohemian 9y ago
        Thank you dundercoder for sharing your experiences, would be very interested in the adaptations you made to your working environment as your eyesight failed. It also got me thinking about my own locale, and I would agree with volkl48. I live in Walla Walla, WA now, which has three colleges and a very walkable downtown. Sounds like you have kids, and we have reasonable public schools. It's a 45 minute flight to Seattle. There is a public bus system that covers much of the area; surprising for a US city of only 30,000 people. Really though you can cover the entire downtown area on foot. Sounds like as a suburbanite it might be more your speed over a metro area.
        dundercoder 9y ago
        I still have some central vision, maybe 20 degrees field of view, so I can still see my laptop screen ok. I had to ditch my two 27” monitors because I’d get vertigo looking between them (usually hunting for the mouse pointer) I crank up the text size so large my neighbors can read it, but not so big that it exceeds my visual field. I use a screen reader to read docs. I’m super excited about the new AI powered narrators because listening to ANY of the older style readers for 30 seconds or more causes permanent rage conditions. I tried Braille, but it’s like trying to be instantly productive using vim, in Chinese, while on the space shuttle during launch. I might return to it sometime because narrated code is horrible to listen to.
        emj 9y ago
        I really recommend Braille, even if you are not blind. You might be underestimating the time it takes to learn though Chinese is easy.
        danielbarla 9y ago
        Regarding the new AI powered narrators, do you have any recommendations already?
        fouc 9y ago
        Try cranking the speed up on the synthesized speech. There are blind listeners that listen to synthesized speech at much higher rates, 600-800 wpm and up. If you crank up the speed a bit, it would probably help differentiate between normal speech where you have greater expectations on how it should sound, and something that's almost a different language.
virmundi 9y ago
Out of curiosity, why give up your license? It's a great ID. You don't have to use it. I know plenty of people with licenses to carry concealed, but don't. To you point about car dependence, not using one is humiliating, at least for me. I live about .25 miles from my office. I walk daily to and from (twice). I feel, and have seen, people look at me like I'm poor. It is a foreign concept to many that walking or biking might be better (especially in Florida where on those rare 30 degrees nights, me, a Hoosier, is right at home, but right now it's a balmy 68).
- avs733 9y ago
  I, and several of my friends when I used to live in Phoenix, were big walkers. Its evening? go for a walk around the neighborhood. Walk to work, even though it was like 1.5 miles...just...walk. Each of us were stopped at least once by police for being suspicious...near as I can tell (we were all >middle class white people) all that was suspicious was us walking on sidewalks. Outside of the biggest cities America is actively antagonistic towards walkers. My sincere belief is because of the assumption that they are poor and should be judged.
  - SirZimzim 9y ago
    Doesn't help that drivers act incredibly entitled to the road and view pedestrians and bicycles as obstacles.
    - rimliu 9y ago
      Otoh, drivets are also the ones taking the traffic regulations most seriously. Pedestrians are inclined to jaywalk, and that’s pretty much it, but don’t get me started on bicycles…
      - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
        This. Drivers, pedestrians and bikers hating each other is a result of infrastructure that results in them having to interact in poorly defined ways.
souprock 9y ago
On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?
- t3rmi 9y ago
  Because he doesn't want to depend on someone to drive him around.
- jdavis703 9y ago
  Did you know that crime occurs on the roadways too? There is vehicular homicide, drive by shootings, auto burglary, and hit and runs. Being in a car does not magically protect you from crime.
- tim333 9y ago
  In terms of safety a lot of people die in car crashes, less so on trains and busses.
  - dagw 9y ago
    Saftey in this case doesn't refer to the risk of dying in a crash, but rather the risk of being mugged/robbed or even just harassed.
    - majewsky 9y ago
      It's very convenient to exclude everything from the definition that doesn't support your argument.
      - dagw 9y ago
        What argument? If you want to change people's behaviour you have to focus on their perceived fears, not just the actual risks.
- adrianN 9y ago
  What an American comment to make. Public transit works in many cities perfectly well and you can use it without fearing for your life, or your wallet. Children in elementary school take public transit unattended.
erfgh 9y ago
Why is it humiliating? You have a medical condition, stop being a child about it.
- ben_w 9y ago
  Responses like that would do it for most people. “Humiliation: Making someone feel ashamed or foolish”.

andrewprock 9y ago

Have you considered moving to a region with better transportation support?

dundercoder 9y ago
I have. I’d have to move out of state and into a fairly urban city to get decent transit. The schools here are fantastic and I love just about everything here, except the lack of transit. We may get to that point, but for right now I work remotely (platform engineering) and just grin and bear the rest.
- volkl48 9y ago
  If you get to the point of considering moving, you may wish to look into a college town. They'll typically have far more extensive transit than the average mid-sized city/town does.
  - dundercoder 9y ago
    That is a good point.
    - poulsbohemian 9y ago
      Thank you dundercoder for sharing your experiences, would be very interested in the adaptations you made to your working environment as your eyesight failed. It also got me thinking about my own locale, and I would agree with volkl48. I live in Walla Walla, WA now, which has three colleges and a very walkable downtown. Sounds like you have kids, and we have reasonable public schools. It's a 45 minute flight to Seattle. There is a public bus system that covers much of the area; surprising for a US city of only 30,000 people. Really though you can cover the entire downtown area on foot. Sounds like as a suburbanite it might be more your speed over a metro area.
      - dundercoder 9y ago
        I still have some central vision, maybe 20 degrees field of view, so I can still see my laptop screen ok. I had to ditch my two 27” monitors because I’d get vertigo looking between them (usually hunting for the mouse pointer) I crank up the text size so large my neighbors can read it, but not so big that it exceeds my visual field. I use a screen reader to read docs. I’m super excited about the new AI powered narrators because listening to ANY of the older style readers for 30 seconds or more causes permanent rage conditions. I tried Braille, but it’s like trying to be instantly productive using vim, in Chinese, while on the space shuttle during launch. I might return to it sometime because narrated code is horrible to listen to.
        emj 9y ago
        I really recommend Braille, even if you are not blind. You might be underestimating the time it takes to learn though Chinese is easy.
        danielbarla 9y ago
        Regarding the new AI powered narrators, do you have any recommendations already?
        fouc 9y ago
        Try cranking the speed up on the synthesized speech. There are blind listeners that listen to synthesized speech at much higher rates, 600-800 wpm and up. If you crank up the speed a bit, it would probably help differentiate between normal speech where you have greater expectations on how it should sound, and something that's almost a different language.

virmundi 9y ago

Out of curiosity, why give up your license? It's a great ID. You don't have to use it. I know plenty of people with licenses to carry concealed, but don't. To you point about car dependence, not using one is humiliating, at least for me. I live about .25 miles from my office. I walk daily to and from (twice). I feel, and have seen, people look at me like I'm poor. It is a foreign concept to many that walking or biking might be better (especially in Florida where on those rare 30 degrees nights, me, a Hoosier, is right at home, but right now it's a balmy 68).

avs733 9y ago
I, and several of my friends when I used to live in Phoenix, were big walkers. Its evening? go for a walk around the neighborhood. Walk to work, even though it was like 1.5 miles...just...walk. Each of us were stopped at least once by police for being suspicious...near as I can tell (we were all >middle class white people) all that was suspicious was us walking on sidewalks. Outside of the biggest cities America is actively antagonistic towards walkers. My sincere belief is because of the assumption that they are poor and should be judged.
- SirZimzim 9y ago
  Doesn't help that drivers act incredibly entitled to the road and view pedestrians and bicycles as obstacles.
  - rimliu 9y ago
    Otoh, drivets are also the ones taking the traffic regulations most seriously. Pedestrians are inclined to jaywalk, and that’s pretty much it, but don’t get me started on bicycles…
    - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
      This. Drivers, pedestrians and bikers hating each other is a result of infrastructure that results in them having to interact in poorly defined ways.

souprock 9y ago

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

t3rmi 9y ago
Because he doesn't want to depend on someone to drive him around.
jdavis703 9y ago
Did you know that crime occurs on the roadways too? There is vehicular homicide, drive by shootings, auto burglary, and hit and runs. Being in a car does not magically protect you from crime.
tim333 9y ago
In terms of safety a lot of people die in car crashes, less so on trains and busses.
- dagw 9y ago
  Saftey in this case doesn't refer to the risk of dying in a crash, but rather the risk of being mugged/robbed or even just harassed.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    It's very convenient to exclude everything from the definition that doesn't support your argument.
    - dagw 9y ago
      What argument? If you want to change people's behaviour you have to focus on their perceived fears, not just the actual risks.
adrianN 9y ago
What an American comment to make. Public transit works in many cities perfectly well and you can use it without fearing for your life, or your wallet. Children in elementary school take public transit unattended.

erfgh 9y ago

Why is it humiliating? You have a medical condition, stop being a child about it.

ben_w 9y ago
Responses like that would do it for most people. “Humiliation: Making someone feel ashamed or foolish”.