xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation
Title Text:
My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me.
alt-text:
A chart that categorizes various modes of transportation based on their practicality and danger level:
Zone of Practicality:
- Trains
- Airliners
- Boats
- Walking
- Cars
- Scooters
- Bicycles
Zone of Specialty and Recreational Vehicles:
- Motorcycles
- Helicopters
- Light aircraft
- Go karts
- Skateboards
- Rollerblades
- Skis
- Unicycles
- Sleds
- Bumper cars
???:
- Hot air balloons
“Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.”
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I cant believe bicycles and scooters are perceived as more dangerous than cars. They’re slower, offer better visibility, and kill way less people.
Less dangerous to others, but more dangerous to the users themselves, I suppose.
Because of cars
Not only. I live in Norway, where pedestrians have right of way and drivers are extremely careful. Discounting the risk from cars, there’s still more personal danger to users of scooters as opposed to cars. If you have an accident on a scooter, you’ll get scrapes, bruises, broken bones. As compared to a car, where unless you’ve really screwed up, you’re unlikely to take any injuries at all.
Source: scooter user who HAS broken bones
The chart needs a third dimension: danger to you, danger to others, and convenience for travel.
Driving a car makes it more likely for your species to go extinct. Infinitely more dangerous than a bicycle.
your beef is with internal combustion engine, not with the car.
Microplastics from heavy vehicles scrubbing away their tires is a bigger issue than tailpipe emissions, which is why tailpipe emissions are the only thing focused on with regards to regulatory standards. Can’t have people thinking BEVs are similar/worse for the environment than a small car.
ok, that’s fair, never thought of that…
Replace every single ICE with a BEV. Still plenty of beef.
Shame this comic doesn’t draw a distinction
I just saw a pedestrian get hit by a person on a bike and end up with a concussion. Bicyclists don’t give a fuck about others
Hit a pothole going 25mph in your car. Hit the same pothole going 25mph on your scooter. I’ll come visit you in the hospital after the scooter one and we can talk about how cars are obviously safer.
I ride an electric scooter, all it takes is one crack in the road that I’m less than prepared for and I’m going down hard.
I wonder what kind of scooter most people pictured when reading the comic
That is a good point, mine is the second variety, electric one similar to the ones you see littering any major Urban area waiting to be rented. Although even the largest scooter is still far less safe over a pothole or around a rainy curve than a car, typical accident in the car you mess up the car and get a bruise from the airbag, but a typical scooter accident can be a lot more gnarly.
I think most people in the USA refer to the third item as a moped, which only gives you two categories for scooter. Scooter and electric scooter, and then moped and electric moped.
I own an electric scooter very similar to the second one pictured (minus the RGB) so that’s what I was thinking of.
The roads are shit here. So badly cracked that I vibrate violently when I try to ride my scooter over them at like 10km/h. And that’s while dodging potholes.
They are more dangerous exactly because of the existence of cars. Cars are a small fortress that makes others less safe while keeping its contents safer. Unless they hit another fortress.
That only makes sense if you cycle among cars, but that makes cars dangerous, not bikes. If you remove cars out of equation by cycling on pavement or cycle route, the danger is gone.
Pedestrians get hit by cars all the time yet walking is rated the safest.
If you remove cars out of equation by cycling on pavement or cycle route, the danger is gone.
If you remove air out of the equation the danger of helicopters are gone
Pedestrians don’t get hit by cars quite as much as cyclist, proportionally to their number, because cyclists are right in the street sharing the space with cars, trucks and buses. Cycling on the sidewalk is not allowed, and cycling lanes are often very dangerous. I understand that this chart is talking about danger to the passengers, not to others.
Even if there were no cars, I imagine biking is still less safe than walking. Just like running is less safe than walking.
I’m almost afraid to ask where you’ve been walking.
Heeeeell no. I had I minor fall on a scooter last week. I slipped at medium speed because of an uneven wet floor. I’m still fucked up and can’t walk properly
A mere fender bender on a car might be a life or death situation if you’re riding a motorcycle.
Hmm. It seems that Sync posted my draft comment 😔
Well try getting hit by a car while walking. According to this xkcd you’ll be the safest.
kill way less people
I believe the danger axis is about danger to the passengers, not others
This is wildly dependent on infrastructure. Both for the convenience and danger axis.
motorcycles should 100% be in the zone of practicality, especially with modern sleek electric ones.
skateboards should be the bridge between practical and recreational, provided you have sensible infrastructure and short distances they have distinct benefits.
skis and sleds just need snow to make sense
I think the existence of car drivers increases their danger level massively
Apparently alcohol as well as it is involved in something like 50% of motorcycle fatalities.
it annoys me to no end how motorcycles and mopeds are viewed as dangerous, when every single time you hear about people being hurt on them it’s because they’re fucking idiots who tried to do a backflip infront of a semitruck
Horses are technically more dangerous to ride than motorcycles. It’s just that motorcycles attract a kind of people who like doing backflips in front of a semi truck.
sure but that applies to everything, if you want to be safe then the only time you should ever be on a road is inside a bus.
I’m here to say that if there’s snow, skis win on practicality. Almost every winter, there’s at least one day when you will have some people skiing to work in Oslo, a city of 700 000 inhabitants, with a metro system. Because when there’s 10 cm of snow in the streets, skis are the quickest and easiest way to get anywhere.
You can be a skilled rider and still and a fall. More likely is that an unsafe car driver will do something that causes an accident.
But hardly for hot air balloons
Yeah, the joke and alt text are delivered quite nicely.
The placement of „Skis“ in this will trigger every Scandinavian I know. Should definitely be in the top left.
Trust you on that but will ski across the pond to check and be sure
Even us close to Scandinavia get triggered. There aren’t that many practical ways to get around at winter. Skis work when feet don’t.
I’m from the Scandinavian country WITHOUT mountains and with less snow and am as such not triggered.
You don’t know me, though, so I guess your statement might still hold true 😁
Scandinavia is their zone of specialty
In Canada too. It’s not that common, but also not out of place to see people doing their regular commute on skis.
Unicycles are clearly more dangerous than skis.
Cross country ski vs downhill ski
Someone else put it this way.
Sometimes I walk to work; sometimes I drive my car; other times i ride a bicycle. Whichever option I pick, I hate anyone who isn’t doing the same thing.
That’s not true. When I drive I still hate drivers
A therapist once told me that who you are when you drive is who you really are.
I don’t drive, so I guess I’m a nobody.
That may be the most American thing anyone has ever said!
Also, the same therapist told me that she has a number of alcoholic patients who moved to New York City simply because they knew there was a good 24 hour mass transit system and they wouldn’t have to drive drunk.
Sora wants to know your location
This seems totally rational to me. I think we might have a problem.
Bicycles more dangerous than cars? I guess I must have missed all the stories about people being run over by bikes.
I think it means more dangerous to use, not more dangerous to be around.
Unless you have pepper infrastructure.
Edit: sorry that’s not true, see this from the Netherlands:
Voor het vierde jaar op rij kwamen meer fietsers (270; 39%) dan inzittenden van personenauto’s (194; 28%) om in het verkeer. De meeste doden in het verkeer vallen onder ouderen: in 2023 waren 375 (55%) verkeersdoden 60 jaar of ouder. Kinderen (0-14 jaar) komen juist relatief weinig om in het verkeer; in 2023 waren dat er 20 (3%). Het risico om te overlijden in het verkeer, het aantal verkeersdoden per afgelegde kilometer, is het ho ogst voor gemotoriseerde tweewielers. Het risico voor brom- en snorfietsers en motorrijders is ongeveer dertig keer zo hoog als het risico voor inzittenden van een personenauto. Voor fietsers en voetgangers is het overlijdensrisico respectievelijk acht en zes keer zo hoog als voor auto-inzittenden, in de periode 2012-2021.
Translation:
For the fourth year in a row, more cyclists (270; 39%) than passenger car occupants (194; 28%) were killed in traffic. Most traffic fatalities occur among the elderly: in 2023, 375 (55%) traffic fatalities were 60 years or older. Children (0-14 years) are relatively rarely killed in traffic; in 2023 there were 20 (3%). The risk of dying in traffic, the number of traffic fatalities per kilometer travelled, is highest for motorized two-wheelers. The risk for moped and light-moped riders and motorcyclists is approximately thirty times higher than the risk for passenger car occupants. For cyclists and pedestrians, the risk of death is eight and six times higher, respectively, than for car occupants, in the period 2012-2021.
Bike on pedestrian violence is an epidemic!
I see what you mean about net safety and not just thinking about the operator of the mode of transport. Will look into this later.
Also, bikes more dangerous than unicycles?
Are hot air balloon not like super safe, last accident I think was a guy that made his own DIY hot air balloon but before that it has been relatively safe. I think America has only seen like less than 800 deaths total.
If the comic put in zeppelins…
You’d need to normalize the number to deaths per balloon ride.
Only three people died last year playing Russian Roulette, must be pretty safe! /s
Not sure I’d put unicycles as being safer than bicycles.
I’d guess it’s because unicycles are used in a much narrower range of circumstances. Few people are being hit by cars commuting to work on a unicycle, nor are there many mountain-unicyclists getting injured.
Which honestly just speaks for the insane amount of training mountain-unicyclists have done
You joke (I think?), but the people I know that do unicycling (including mountain-bike style unicycling, and unicycling Himalayan trails, and crazy stuff like that) do do an insane amount of training 😆
You’d have to. Anyone who mountain bikes regularly knows how much work it is to climb some trails with 500% gear range. I can’t imagine the work involved with a single gear to climb on some trails. Brutal.
This is probably another reason why unicycles are less dangerous. People I know that do mountain biking end up in hospital from time to time from coming off at speed, speed on most unicycles is probably a lot lower. Though I thought geared unicycles existed?
I was joking, but i guess now i know what im gonna watch on youtube next
It’s probably there because you don’t reach as high speeds on a unicycle
There are basically no unsafe ways to get off of a unicycle. You can fall in any direction and just end up standing next to your unicycle. Compare that to a bicycle “over the handle bars”-accident.
Bicycles are only more dangerous than cars because of cars.
Also, only less convenient than cars because of cars
That’s just not true, try getting groceries on your bike
Literally how I always do my grocery shopping.
For a family or only for yourself?
I only live by myself but if you need larger shipping trips, there’s cargo bikes for that.
Didn’t consider that, fair enough I suppose
Randall is offically carpilled
and i suppose blimps and dirigibles are further to the right and lower than the graph displays u_u
where to put my 3 favorites? hovercraft, monorail and blimp
Those first two are incredibly fit for some niche that is so small that nobody even remembers it exists.
The last one is still more practical than hot air balloons.
I watched a documentary once about the dangers of monorails. The conductor had possums in the wiring. He called the big one Bitey.
What about pogo sticks?
Less convient but also less dangerous then hot air ballons
I’m not sure I agree that unicycles are safer than roller blades. But that’s probably because I am comfortable on roller blades and don’t know how to unicycle, so for me, the opposite is true.
As both an extreme unicyclist & rollerblader, unicycles are actually incredibly safe. More safe than a bicycle. The top speed is very slow comparatively, and if you fall… You fall on your feet. Forwards? Feet. Backwards? Feet. Sideways? Feet. If your feet were strapped into the pedals (like rollerblades…) it would be a deathtrap.
Trains and planes and others are a bit wonky for this chart. If I needed to take get to work, train and plane immediately resort to walking the entire way (unless get in a car, on a bike, fall just after). So while traveling across the country for a trip may be convenient on a train… Wait, unless I only have the weekend or a short work trip/vacation, because then it would take to much time and be inconvenient. Tried to find an example. Travel to Las Vegas from Nashville. Plane, ~3 hour flight plus let’s say 2 hour travel and airport bs. So 5 hours there, 5 back. Driving: 26 hours (each way). Walking: Death by dehydration in desert. Train: not even listed as there was no routes.
I suspect that roller blades have much higher top speed, as well as being much more susceptible to small rocks
It took me too fucking long to figure out what an “airuner” was…
why are scooters practical and motorcycles not? I only ride a motorcycle. any distance too long for bycicle or inconvenient with public transit, I take my motorcycle.
The graph does say its practical, its just also more dangerous than a scooter
Edit: oh you meant in the zone of practicality, not the y axis convenient for travel. The zoning i feel is pretty subjective
Looks like only because they’re presented as dangerous. Convenience - wise they’re still the same. Practicality seems to be defined here as a balance between danger and convenience.
