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Comment by emsign | Hacker News Reader

We need to go back to horseback riding. It's inevitable.

The New York Horse Manure Crisis:

https://www.pbs.org/video/new-york-horse-manure-crisis-ploay...

> New York City was a crowded mess: no one could figure out what to do with all the horse manure, urine, and rotting horse carcasses on the streets spreading disease. New York had over 100,000 horses producing over 2.5 million pounds of manure every day. Fossil fuel powered trains, electric streetcars and internal combustion vehicles were seen as the clean-energy alternative.

Fatality rates for riders, passengers, and pedestrians from horses in the early 20th century were actually comparable to those for cars in the in the late 20th century.

I doubt the rates would be as high now if we went back to horses, because a lot of injuries that would have been fatal around 1900 would be survivable today, but I bet a lot of people would be surprised by how high the rates would be.

Some articles:

https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/31/cars-and-horse...

https://legallysociable.com/2012/09/07/figures-more-deaths-p...

And busy streets once again knee-deep in manure? Horses aren't exactly zero-emission either.

Though realistically, a lot more people walked. Not everybody could afford to feed or care for a horse.

Or just walk. America was a horse powered nation before the automobile, not a horse riding nation.

I suspect horses come with their own health issues. Can you imagine a city parking garage for horses?

You mean a stable? They had those in ancient times in castles. A multi-story stable is funny to picture, but I don't see why not.

I do indeed mean a stable! I don't imagine the particulates coming out of stables are going to be all that great. Also, my car doesn't get sick if I park it next to somebody's beater.

There are classes of parking garages too. I’m not parking my hypothetical dream Ferrari next to some poor person’s beat up Honda civic from the 90’s to get dinged and the windows broken. The underground parking garage at Apple must be astounding.

You mean the place where people park their dream Ferraris next to some rich person’s beat up Honda Civic from the 90s?

Right, and I'm going to park my horse right between them!

I interviewed at a few Silicon Valley campuses in 2017-2019. I was surprised at how…humble the cars in the parking lots were.

Then someone told me the Porsches remain garaged at home until the weekend.

I'd take a stable over a parking garage any day.

But yeah, the excrement does accumulate.

back when we all rode horses, falling off of them was at the top of the accidental death risk for the average person.

> for the average person.

For the average horse rider perhaps but not the average person. Most people were never on a horse.

if enough people on horses fall off and die, the average could still win over the population. I don't have the original statistic I saw in front of me, but that's how I interpreted it.

and in agricultural times in the US, I'd say most people were on horses.

> in agricultural times in the US, I'd say most people were on horses.

But most people weren't riding them. A horse and cart is much more efficient.

I wonder if this is more a wild west pulp fiction meme, than actual reality. A lot of people today are collateral damage of cars, getting maimed, mutilated, crippled, killed, it's pretty indiscriminatory, drivers and bystanders alike suffer its consequences. It's hard to believe horses had the same blast radius proportionally speaking.

Not so sure about this as I'm highly allergic to horses.

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