this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024

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xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation

https://xkcd.com/2940

Explain xkcd #2940

Title Text:

My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me.

alt-text:

A chart that categorizes various modes of transportation based on their practicality and danger level:

Zone of Practicality:

Trains
Airliners
Boats
Walking
Cars
Scooters
Bicycles

Zone of Specialty and Recreational Vehicles:

Motorcycles
Helicopters
Light aircraft
Go karts
Skateboards
Rollerblades
Skis
Unicycles
Sleds
Bumper cars

?????:

Hot air balloons

“Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.”

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 5 months ago (14 children)

I cant believe bicycles and scooters are perceived as more dangerous than cars. They're slower, offer better visibility, and kill way less people.

[–] [email protected] 99 points 5 months ago (8 children)

Less dangerous to others, but more dangerous to the users themselves, I suppose.

[–] [email protected] 93 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Because of cars

[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 months ago

Not only. I live in Norway, where pedestrians have right of way and drivers are extremely careful. Discounting the risk from cars, there's still more personal danger to users of scooters as opposed to cars. If you have an accident on a scooter, you'll get scrapes, bruises, broken bones. As compared to a car, where unless you've really screwed up, you're unlikely to take any injuries at all.

Source: scooter user who HAS broken bones

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Hit a pothole going 25mph in your car. Hit the same pothole going 25mph on your scooter. I'll come visit you in the hospital after the scooter one and we can talk about how cars are obviously safer.

I ride an electric scooter, all it takes is one crack in the road that I'm less than prepared for and I'm going down hard.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I wonder what kind of scooter most people pictured when reading the comic

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

That is a good point, mine is the second variety, electric one similar to the ones you see littering any major Urban area waiting to be rented. Although even the largest scooter is still far less safe over a pothole or around a rainy curve than a car, typical accident in the car you mess up the car and get a bruise from the airbag, but a typical scooter accident can be a lot more gnarly.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

Heeeeell no. I had I minor fall on a scooter last week. I slipped at medium speed because of an uneven wet floor. I'm still fucked up and can't walk properly

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (5 children)

They are more dangerous exactly because of the existence of cars. Cars are a small fortress that makes others less safe while keeping its contents safer. Unless they hit another fortress.

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This is wildly dependent on infrastructure. Both for the convenience and danger axis.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (3 children)

motorcycles should 100% be in the zone of practicality, especially with modern sleek electric ones.

skateboards should be the bridge between practical and recreational, provided you have sensible infrastructure and short distances they have distinct benefits.

skis and sleds just need snow to make sense

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think the existence of car drivers increases their danger level massively

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Apparently alcohol as well as it is involved in something like 50% of motorcycle fatalities.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

it annoys me to no end how motorcycles and mopeds are viewed as dangerous, when every single time you hear about people being hurt on them it's because they're fucking idiots who tried to do a backflip infront of a semitruck

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

sure but that applies to everything, if you want to be safe then the only time you should ever be on a road is inside a bus.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But hardly for hot air balloons

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 months ago (7 children)

The placement of „Skis“ in this will trigger every Scandinavian I know. Should definitely be in the top left.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago

Trust you on that but will ski across the pond to check and be sure

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Technicalities:

Planes are safer per mile but not per trip. One could argue that if people spent the same amount of time in both then it would be far more fatalities on aircrafts.

Cars are technically the major source of danger for bikes and scooters.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

also a fun fact, while commercial aviation is extremely safe, private planes are much more dangerous, being almost as dangerous per mile as a regular car (and you get a lot more miles per hour of travel)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That already fits with the chart - "commercial aviation" is "airlines" and "private planes" are "light aircraft".

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

private planes are much more dangerous, being almost as dangerous per mile as a regular car

that is because they are operated by semi-competent people who often have less practice then they have in car.

imagine how competent driver you are when you have your fresh license. it is the same with piloting license. and now imagine you are a hobby pilot and can afford to spend in the cockpit 3 hours per month. your skill is not really going to get significantly better. you are probably flying airplane that is at the end of its life, because that is only one you can afford, and there may be no one keeping an eye on you telling you "this is not how we do it, it is risky, dangerous, and you will get someone killed".

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Someone else put it this way.

Sometimes I walk to work; sometimes I drive my car; other times i ride a bicycle. Whichever option I pick, I hate anyone who isn't doing the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That’s not true. When I drive I still hate drivers

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A therapist once told me that who you are when you drive is who you really are.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't drive, so I guess I'm a nobody.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Are hot air balloon not like super safe, last accident I think was a guy that made his own DIY hot air balloon but before that it has been relatively safe. I think America has only seen like less than 800 deaths total.

If the comic put in zeppelins...

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You'd need to normalize the number to deaths per balloon ride.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

Only three people died last year playing Russian Roulette, must be pretty safe! /s

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Bicycles are only more dangerous than cars because of cars.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Also, only less convenient than cars because of cars

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Not sure I'd put unicycles as being safer than bicycles.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'd guess it's because unicycles are used in a much narrower range of circumstances. Few people are being hit by cars commuting to work on a unicycle, nor are there many mountain-unicyclists getting injured.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Which honestly just speaks for the insane amount of training mountain-unicyclists have done

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

You joke (I think?), but the people I know that do unicycling (including mountain-bike style unicycling, and unicycling Himalayan trails, and crazy stuff like that) do do an insane amount of training 😆

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

It’s probably there because you don’t reach as high speeds on a unicycle

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Bicycles more dangerous than cars? I guess I must have missed all the stories about people being run over by bikes.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think it means more dangerous to use, not more dangerous to be around.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Randall is offically carpilled

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Hot air balloons are a very useful mode of transportation if your goal is to take aerial photographs from them (although admittedly nowadays you could also use drones). It's always a question of what you want to achieve.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aerial_photographs_from_hot_air_balloons

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

and i suppose blimps and dirigibles are further to the right and lower than the graph displays u_u

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (3 children)

where to put my 3 favorites? hovercraft, monorail and blimp

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Those first two are incredibly fit for some niche that is so small that nobody even remembers it exists.

The last one is still more practical than hot air balloons.

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