xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation
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.”
Less dangerous to others, but more dangerous to the users themselves, I suppose.
Because of cars
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
The chart needs a third dimension: danger to you, danger to others, and convenience for travel.
I think most normal people can understand the difference intuitively without needing it spelled out.
I just saw a pedestrian get hit by a person on a bike and end up with a concussion. Bicyclists don’t give a fuck about others
Driving a car makes it more likely for your species to go extinct. Infinitely more dangerous than a bicycle.
your beef is with internal combustion engine, not with the car.
Microplastics from heavy vehicles scrubbing away their tires is a bigger issue than tailpipe emissions, which is why tailpipe emissions are the only thing focused on with regards to regulatory standards. Can’t have people thinking BEVs are similar/worse for the environment than a small car.
ok, that’s fair, never thought of that…
Replace every single ICE with a BEV. Still plenty of beef.
Shame this comic doesn’t draw a distinction