Hacker News Reader

Comment by ljoshua | Hacker News Reader

The flight path of landing planes is often directly over my home. How many times I have wished during the final approach that I could hop in an personal landing pod or sky dive out, landing in my driveway, than take the extra hour or so that is required to deplane, get to transportation, and drive home... Slip air travel anyone? :)

View on HN

Reminds me of Mad Jack Churchill, who in his later years would surprise fellow passengers by throwing his briefcase out the train window -- ostensibly into his backyard to avoid having to carry it home from the station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

any discussion, regardless of topic, is improved by referencing mad jack.

Thank you for this. I actually had never heard of this guy and my evening is richer now having read about him!

My dad told me about my grandfather, who I never knew, who would pull the emergency cable at the end of his garden and be ready with the fine in his hand, before walking to his house.

Churchill was said to be unhappy with the sudden end of the war, saying: "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"

This made me laugh. His story is a really good read.

Taking intercity bus from Boston to NYC, I've many times been fully stopped in Connecticut rush-hour traffic, and looked longingly out the window at an oh-so-close commuter rail station, with trains rumbling away, fast and empty. Or later, stopped at a red light in the city, mused that by getting off now, I'd shave an hour off my travel time. In India, in much of the world, one could just go for it. I often forget to notice the severe systemic inefficiencies of everyday life.

Not intercity, but for a time london's routemaster buses made this sort of thing possible. Alas, no more. https://metro.co.uk/2016/09/02/you-can-no-longer-hop-on-hop-...

Why not take the train?

The BOS-NYC Amtrak route costs a significant multiple of the buses (2-3x fares of the reputable bus companies, depending on day+time). On average, it takes about the same amount of time -- the bus is just higher variance.

The train that mncharity refers to is the much more reasonably priced NYC commuter rail, which does not reach Boston.

Could he take a bus to the edge of New York's railway network, then change to a train? I did roughly that to get from Hartford to New York once - got to New Haven by car, then got a Metro-North train into town. So, train to Providence, bus to New Haven (a bit over two hours), train to New York? It does seem like quite a trip.

If you book at least 2 weeks out and travel off-peak you can get the Amtrak trip for about $50. Otherwise it’s $70-100.

Ignoring the costs, I find the quality of life on the train to be far superior. No traffic, you can walk around, there are power outlets and the seats are pretty big.

For me, being able to work for 4.5 hours vs feeling carsick on a bus for similar or more time (I get nausea very easily when other people drive me), it was always worth it.

The other thing I would do is drive the car to an MTA stop and garage it for a couple of days while I took the commuter rail into town. Which option I took depended on ticket prices and the length of time I was staying.

Somebody is working on "escapable" capsules inside planes, though for the purpose of surviving a plane crash. Maybe they could extend it to grant you your wish at some point ;-)

That doesn't seem like a very worthwhile endeavor. Most plane crashes occur on landing or just after takeoff, there would be no time to get into an escape pod.

The plane should be comprised of a series of these pods, each of them as a single unit with a few passengers. Then upon unavoidable crash they can be "released" with explosive parachutes, hoping for the best.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com