Hacker News Reader

Comment by wannacboatmovie | Hacker News Reader

Video title is clickbait. Stuff like this happens every day, you just never hear about it. The amount of traffic at these large airports is insane. Professional pilots handled it...professionally.

When was the last time you saw someone run a red light on the road? Mine was ... yesterday.

The bigger discussion here is why we will continue to see humans in charge of aircraft (vs AI).

View on HN

Unauthorized crossing or mistaken clearance to cross an active runway is definitely a big deal. It's a reportable incident, that will be investigated, not something that "happens every day." It's something that could result in the loss of hundreds of lives, not to mention the loss of the aircraft and closure of the airport while they clean up and investigate.

>When was the last time you saw someone run a red light on the road? Mine was ... yesterday.

Are the drivers really that bad in your area, or was the last incident really well timed for this comment? I'm not a M-F commuter, but still drive multiple times per week, and the last time I saw someone obviously running a red light (ie. not someone who's 1s late crossing on a yellow) must have been 2-3 years ago.

I witness it or some other traffic incursion (like entering/exiting the limited-access HOV where access should be prohibited) nearly every day. No hyperbole. Had a few white-knuckle near-misses. Life goes on.

The analogy being you need to be on your A-game, alert and defensive at all times. Which professional pilots are.

As a data point, if I’m out for any non-trivial amount of time I’ll see someone run a red light at least daily in DC.

I live in Cambridge MA near a busy arterial road that is 100% residential, with heavy of walking, bike, etc traffic near the Charles River. The speed limit is 25mph. I can sit at the intersection linked to below and watch at least 3-5 cars per light cycle run red lights. The light cycle is short and every one who commutes it daily knows that. They speed up to 40mph about 1 block to try and make the light. For every light cycle, I can count at least 1 red light run, usually 2-5. Sometimes 10+.

At this intersection: https://www.google.com/maps/place/42%C2%B021'51.6%22N+71%C2%...

>For every light cycle, I can count at least 1 red light run, usually 2-5. Sometimes 10+.

To be clear, are you using the strict definition of "red light run" (ie. entering an intersection when the light is red), or the somewhat looser definition of "entering an intersection when it shows as green for the other direction"? I agree in the former case it's technically breaking the law, but in practice it's hard to spot unless your eyes are glued to the other direction's lights and/or you're very good at judging the time difference between when the car entered the intersection and when the lights turns green for you. It's not great, but also not too egregious. On the other hand if the light is green for you but you're still seeing cars enter the intersection then yeah, that's pretty bad but I very rarely see it happening, or maybe I'm not observant enough. People outright blowing through a red (ie. not near a signal change) is even rarer.

>To be clear, are you using the strict definition of "red light run" (ie. entering an intersection when the light is red), or the somewhat looser definition of "entering an intersection when it shows as green for the other direction"?

What do you think? Use the context clues from the previous post. Short light cycle. Cars speeding 40mph to make the light 10+ cars running reds. Does it really need to be more explicit?

Maybe you’re not from the U.S or maybe you’re from a very kind area but I see some serious traffic violation several times a day on most days in my normal commute. This has been across three major cities the last few months.

I think the key here is major city. I too was aghast by the implication that red light running is a common observation. I live in a well populated suburb with lots of traffic, but not a dense urban area.

Given the reporting requirements, how sure are you that these incidents happy every day?

Well the last time it happened - and widely enough reported that the Aviation Herald picked up on it - was two days ago. I'm not playing the pedantic Hacker News game.

https://avherald.com/h?article=51791758&opt=0

Runway incursions happen with extreme regularity, if perhaps not every day.

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> The bigger discussion here is why we will continue to see humans in charge of aircraft (vs AI).

AI is not ready. Really. Airports are a messy environment.

But humans verified by AI would be a huge improvement.

It’s not an equivalent of running a red light. It’s an intersection showing green lights to everyone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com