Up to Speed
#1
08-25-2008, 09:03 AM
Up to Speed
“There’s been a movement to make vehicles quieter, but we can be victims of our own virtue,” Carrie Cornwell, chief consultant to the Senate House and Transportation Committee. “That could be the case with automobiles if they get too quiet.”
Suggestions to “bell the hybrid” have been met with derision by some (though by no means all) hybrid owners. As one poster at website GreenHybrid put it recently: “Asking tens of thousands of hybrid owners to add noisemakers is burdensome.”
Suggestions to “bell the hybrid” have been met with derision by some (though by no means all) hybrid owners. As one poster at website GreenHybrid put it recently: “Asking tens of thousands of hybrid owners to add noisemakers is burdensome.”
#3
08-26-2008, 11:34 AM
Re: Up to Speed
I REALLY do not like the title of this article, which is not actually Up to Speed (the name of the blog), but rather- Hybrids vs. Pedestrians. What a sick way to look at the issue! Since when do hybrid owners get tagged with being anti-pedestrian? The issue is not about one side or the other 'winning' anything. It's about finding reasonable traffic safety mechanisms.
Would every road in the country be safer for pedestrians if there were thick concrete barriers between the sidewalks and the roads? Yep, they probably would. Are we going to do that? No way.
Would every intersection in the country be safer for blind people if it had a beeping crosswalk signal instead of just a flashing light? Yep, probably would. Are all intersections ever going to have such a beep? No, they won't- but some of them will, because in certain areas the cost of installing the equipment and the noise pollution generated from the system are outweighed by the safety issues, due to the fact that many blind pedestrians use those particular intersections and would be substantially assisted by the beeps.
Would bell noises on quiet cars make hybrids significantly safer for blind pedestrians? Not necessarily. I suppose there's some chance that eventually studies will determine that such an idea has some merit, but it certainly hasn't been demonstrated so far. Given the fact that the other types of tradeoffs I mentioned between reasonable safety restrictions are typically weighed against the amount of cost, inconvenience and trouble involved, why would it be any different this time? If the benefits are small and the annoyances big, reason will win through and the restrictions probably won't be adopted. I have no big issue with people spending money to study the problem, though I could wish that it wouldn't be public money that would probably be put to better uses elsewhere. Sigh.
Would every road in the country be safer for pedestrians if there were thick concrete barriers between the sidewalks and the roads? Yep, they probably would. Are we going to do that? No way.
Would every intersection in the country be safer for blind people if it had a beeping crosswalk signal instead of just a flashing light? Yep, probably would. Are all intersections ever going to have such a beep? No, they won't- but some of them will, because in certain areas the cost of installing the equipment and the noise pollution generated from the system are outweighed by the safety issues, due to the fact that many blind pedestrians use those particular intersections and would be substantially assisted by the beeps.
Would bell noises on quiet cars make hybrids significantly safer for blind pedestrians? Not necessarily. I suppose there's some chance that eventually studies will determine that such an idea has some merit, but it certainly hasn't been demonstrated so far. Given the fact that the other types of tradeoffs I mentioned between reasonable safety restrictions are typically weighed against the amount of cost, inconvenience and trouble involved, why would it be any different this time? If the benefits are small and the annoyances big, reason will win through and the restrictions probably won't be adopted. I have no big issue with people spending money to study the problem, though I could wish that it wouldn't be public money that would probably be put to better uses elsewhere. Sigh.
#4
08-26-2008, 04:53 PM
Re: Up to Speed
I am still amazed that this topic still has legs.!
I mean noise is something we should look to reduce, not increase. Making hybrids make noise is the most ridiculus thing i have heard to date. 
Hybrids do make noise.......they are just not as loud as a normal vehicle, especially at low speed. The truth of the matter is that people will find fault with anything.........just give them enough time and it will happen. This issue really just needs to go the way of the Dinosuars and vanish!!
I mean noise is something we should look to reduce, not increase. Making hybrids make noise is the most ridiculus thing i have heard to date. Hybrids do make noise.......they are just not as loud as a normal vehicle, especially at low speed. The truth of the matter is that people will find fault with anything.........just give them enough time and it will happen. This issue really just needs to go the way of the Dinosuars and vanish!!
#5
09-09-2008, 03:02 PM
Re: Up to Speed
They’re particularly dangerous when sitting at idle, he said, because the gasoline engine shuts down completely.
OMG, We didn't make the scope of the "Bell the Hybrids" bill large enough. A stopped car is dangerous. We need a noisemaker on every parked car in America -- either that or a regulation mandating that everybody parks with their engine running. (That should do wonders for the energy problem.)
Last edited by FastMover; 09-09-2008 at 03:06 PM.
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