Hacker News Reader

Comment by mpsprd | Hacker News Reader

Asimov introduced me to this concept in I robot.

In his version there were multiple levels of speed for entry/exit of transit so the main highways were going really fast.

IIRC it required some dexterity to use and sounded a bit dangerous...

View on HN

Requires dexterity and seems somewhat dangerous? Meet the Paternoster elevator:

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

Got to ride one of those in the Bat'a building in Zlin, Czech Republic. Supposedly that version had some sort of safety mechanism to keep you from crushing your arm off if you didn't have it tucked inside, but I didn't dare test it. We called it a "Mario elevator" due to the obvious similarities with the elevators in the original Super Mario Bros.

"Their overall rate of accidents is estimated as 30 times higher than conventional elevators. A representative of the Union of Technical Inspection Associations stated that Germany saw an average of one death per year due to paternosters..."

Wow - those were definitely different times in terms of acceptable risks in various aspects of life.

Modern times obviously improved a lot of it, but if you're at least a bit cynical, you also have to wonder how much, due to those measures, people are "prevented" from having to build out their awareness of surroundings, dexterity and overall "aptitude for life".

One death per year is literally nothing compared to cars.

I imagine if you compared the number of injuries to the distance travelled, or even trips taken, cars would come out way ahead.

In some instances (like suburbs) need for distance is increased by cars.

Sure, but that doesn’t really change the comparison of risks. Escalator rides, for example, are just plain old more dangerous than car rides regardless of why, just as car rides are just plain old more dangerous than train rides.

Of course someone had to bring up cars. You know how many people get striken by reckless cyclists?

More or less people than the ones that get striken by reckless car drivers?

Barely any relative to car accidents.

What is your point?

Feel free to show some comparable statistics.

It's like they took an obstacle from some Mega Man stage and implemented it in real life.

I used to regularly use these at the Uni of Leeds in the Roger Stevens lecture theatre building. Never saw an accident. Freshers were told that they turned upside down when going over the top but in fact they just slid sideways to the next shaft (we used to ride over the top sometimes to beat a queue going down) but they could apparently jam if too many people tried it so it was frowned upon by the porters.

Are you sure it wasn't The Caves of Steel?

I think you're right, I misremembered the source. Reading online it's called the "robot series" and Asimov says he borrowed it from Heinlein.

As long as there aren’t any gaps, I guess it is just the difference in the belt speeds that you care about. Also the wind.

You also have to consider what happens if a 60mph belt breaks/halts while people are on it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com