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I have no idea why this is on HN. In any case, he's absolutely right. It's not overgeneralization when everyone sees it day-in and day-out in every major Amer

by lvs 12y ago

I have no idea why this is on HN. In any case, he's absolutely right. It's not overgeneralization when everyone sees it day-in and day-out in every major American city. This article simply seems to be shocked that anyone would criticize bicyclists for doing what they do every single day. Source: I cycle myself.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
VLM 12y ago
"I have no idea why this is on HN." I believe its a really good example of how to manipulate statistics to meet a predetermined conclusion. I'm not sure if there was one number in the entire article that wasn't manipulated into propaganda. The text prose was OK but the manipulation of statistics was masterful. Here's one example. If a skinny biker, hit pedestrian me, at a "normal" speed maybe 10 MPH, the kinetic impact would be similar (for me, anyway) to a normal size person hitting me in the hallway. Oh we'd both get knocked down, and if I was 80 like my grandma, or 8 like my kid, it might kill, and maybe 1 in 100 odds someone would break a bone, but the fatality rate per accident would hover near enough zero. In comparison, hit a pedestrian on a 45 (really more like 60) MPH country road and the only question is if they'll be enough left to fill a coffin or not, so we'll call that near 100% fatality rate per accident. So the fixation on comparing fatality rates is meaningless. There's more to a good day than merely not dying in a bike-ped accident and I have no great desire to be hit over and over and "its OK because I wasn't killed and my desire to wear spandex is more important than your desire to live". "Well sorry I killed your kid or grandma but statistically they don't count." That's not really a culture to aspire to. Another example is the fixation on counts without discussing percentages. Lets see, on my commute home about 60000 of my closest friends and I will drive on that major interstate over the course of the entire commute, while what, maybe a handful of bikers will spend hours taking the surface streets? So if bikes were rabid death machines I'd still expect the death counts to be spectacularly higher for cars than bikers because practically no one bikes. The death count from a rounding error will in fact approach zero. That doesn't mean Russian Roulette is a great game to recommend and the authors observation is meaningless. I have mixed feelings in that my opinions and biases generally match the authors, because I like to ride my bike (although I ride safely, which even I admit is unusual for bikers), but I can't decide if I should complain about the evils of propaganda or compliment the guy on doing a near legendarily good job at generating propaganda. You have to respect competence, even if its doing something evil. You can always learn something from competence. Just don't confuse successful competence with good ethics. Life isn't as simple as merely success = goodness.

by lvs 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

VLM 12y ago

"I have no idea why this is on HN." I believe its a really good example of how to manipulate statistics to meet a predetermined conclusion. I'm not sure if there was one number in the entire article that wasn't manipulated into propaganda. The text prose was OK but the manipulation of statistics was masterful. Here's one example. If a skinny biker, hit pedestrian me, at a "normal" speed maybe 10 MPH, the kinetic impact would be similar (for me, anyway) to a normal size person hitting me in the hallway. Oh we'd both get knocked down, and if I was 80 like my grandma, or 8 like my kid, it might kill, and maybe 1 in 100 odds someone would break a bone, but the fatality rate per accident would hover near enough zero. In comparison, hit a pedestrian on a 45 (really more like 60) MPH country road and the only question is if they'll be enough left to fill a coffin or not, so we'll call that near 100% fatality rate per accident. So the fixation on comparing fatality rates is meaningless. There's more to a good day than merely not dying in a bike-ped accident and I have no great desire to be hit over and over and "its OK because I wasn't killed and my desire to wear spandex is more important than your desire to live". "Well sorry I killed your kid or grandma but statistically they don't count." That's not really a culture to aspire to. Another example is the fixation on counts without discussing percentages. Lets see, on my commute home about 60000 of my closest friends and I will drive on that major interstate over the course of the entire commute, while what, maybe a handful of bikers will spend hours taking the surface streets? So if bikes were rabid death machines I'd still expect the death counts to be spectacularly higher for cars than bikers because practically no one bikes. The death count from a rounding error will in fact approach zero. That doesn't mean Russian Roulette is a great game to recommend and the authors observation is meaningless. I have mixed feelings in that my opinions and biases generally match the authors, because I like to ride my bike (although I ride safely, which even I admit is unusual for bikers), but I can't decide if I should complain about the evils of propaganda or compliment the guy on doing a near legendarily good job at generating propaganda. You have to respect competence, even if its doing something evil. You can always learn something from competence. Just don't confuse successful competence with good ethics. Life isn't as simple as merely success = goodness.