Hacker News Reader

Comment by pdimitar | Hacker News Reader

Most people are either blissfully unaware of their surroundings regardless of the noises or they just tuned out said noises because there are so many of them.

This is not an argument for noisier exhausts. It's an argument to reduce noise in general, from all sources. Then people will react better to the louder noises.

View on HN

> Most people are either blissfully unaware of their surroundings

Maybe it’s my morbid search history, but I still look on in awe as people cross the intersection in front of me while deep on their phones. They don’t look up to check at all - not even at the start!

Yeah same, it boggles my mind. I'm scared for my life of busy intersections, many drivers get impatient to the point of seemingly not caring if they'll kill you. I never ever look at my phone while on the move.

Agreed, ban headphones while walking down the street!

Please turn your vehicle in to the authorities to be cubed immediately.

Yeah that is dumb, I agree. It's asking to be hit on the roads.

I know you're being facetious and it would obviously be silly to ban them. That said wearing headphones/earphones while walking around a city, for me, would reduce my situational awareness to a degree I would absolutely not be comfortable with. I know plenty of people are comfortable doing so but, while drivers and road design almost certainly bear the lion's share of the blame for pedestrian injuries and fatalities, distracted pedestrians don't help themselves. (Just the other week, I saw a person come super-close to getting hit in a parking lot as they were obliviously walking across the traffic lane buried deep in their phone.)

I once saw a pedestrian step out in front a speeding police car with lights and siren . . . I guess because the walk light turned green? The police car had to slam on its brakes and honk before the idiot noticed it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com