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Comment by playingalong | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't it make some people feel sick? Not sure if there's any science to back people preferring to sit forward facing in trains

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A few seats could be left facing forward, for people who would feel sick, but backward facing probably should be default. It's hard to believe smashing your face against the hard back surface from the seat in front of you is better than being pushed hard against the soft cushion from your own seat. Also the load would be more evenly distributed across the whole body.

I thought about that, but then I realized that the acceleration is going to be (more or less) equal and opposite for take-off and landing, so it's more about which one you want first, no?

The angle of descent is of about 3 degrees, that's far less than the angle at which the aircraft is taking off. Thus the rear facing passengers would be facing down quite steeply on takeoff, and thus likely to vomit the airport lounge food they just had :)

Trains accelerate and decelerate relatively often compared to planes where you only really notice changes in velocity at take-off and landing so I don't think it would make a difference

Japanese limited express trains and the bullet train have very few stops (or none, depending), and the ride is very smooth.. still, my wife (Japanese) can't sit backwards-facing without getting sick. Not sure what causes this.

Tangentially related: The seats on Shinkansen trains can be rotated to adapt to the needs of the passengers.

Many US commuter-rail trains also have reversible seats. The train crew generally orient these to be forward-facing for the direction of travel, possibly excepting the first seat in a car.

(The trainsets reverse directions without being turned around themselves. Those using locomotives rather than electric traction operate in "pusher" mode for half their trips. There's an operator cab in the end car for such trips.)

They can be rotated, but that's supposed to be done by train personnel when changing directions. That's the primary purpose. The only time you're allowed to rotate them yourselves is when you're e.g. a group of four - then you can have two sets of seats face each other.

It would not surprise if there was something about human physiology that thinks it’s unnatural to go backwards. Our eyes are in front of our head for a reason.

I don't know for sure, but is very common to see parents carrying children facing backwards in their arms, while walking, with no ill effects. No big deal.

Sure, but there’s a speed limit to that, and you sort of trust the person holding you implicitly.

Not really applicable to an aircraft hurtling along at 300m/s

But you don't notice that speed.. (ref. Newton and Einstein and others). I agree with those saying it must be psychological.. well, mostly. Sometimes you do physically notice that you're facing backwards. At takeoff, for example. And, to some extent, landing. Maybe when banking too. I haven't tried, obviously (the backwards-facing unfolding seats for the crew would be the place to test this).

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