xkcd #2940: Modes of Transportation

https://xkcd.com/2940

Explain xkcd #2940

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.”

  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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    27 days ago

    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

    • Shialac@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      I think the existence of car drivers increases their danger level massively

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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          27 days ago

          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

          • Jentu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            25 days ago

            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.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        27 days ago

        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.

    • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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      26 days ago

      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.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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      27 days ago

      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.