Featured Break a Guinness World Records title: Northern California Prius Parade

Dang, that looked like fun. Too bad I was a couple thousand miles away. Would have loved to have attended. Great swag!

Congrats to all who took time to participate.

Alan, great pics and I like your Smug site!

 

Prius on Top…Talk about a Broken Record | Toyota

 

Looks like a great time.
Glad you guys were able to beat us.... For now.

So all we need is 330 to break the record?
Hmmmm.... May need to have another go at it.

 

Next time we should have something like all Toyo Hybrid parade or something!

 

The World Record is not specific to any brand or model of hybrid.
It is up to the organizer whether they want to bar certain participants, etc.

 

I have a question for anyone who was a participant...

Looking at the B-Roll video 001 on Press Release page, starting at 1:02 is is that a shot of the actual parade? Including the cars on the right side of the shot going away from the camera?

Video Prius on Top…Talk about a Broken Record | Toyota

 

Yes, the event was at the center of the field and we just zig-zagged around it twice. The Guinness Record official said a parade is minimum 2 miles long. That section on the right side had a lot of potholes so it looked like I wasn't the only one going slowly through it.

Ack! I was 131 in front of you. I didn't see the accident. I did see an impatient white Prius C change lanes as we were parking after the laps. How could someone willingly participate in a parade which is about going slowly and then cut off the person next to them?

 

Prius Parade April 23, 2016

 

Wow nice video, thanks! Suddenly miss my old prius! And I see some really cool colored ones that I've never seen before.

 

mmmodem,
I want to be sure I got this right...
At 1:02, there is an orange cone in the lower right.
The dark colored Prius is already past it.
At 1:10 the next car line, a lighter colored one, passes the same cone.

You are saying that this is a video during the actual record attempt?
Video Prius on Top…Talk about a Broken Record | Toyota (2016 Earth Day - Toyota Prius Parade B-roll 001)

Not a practice session?
Not after the record attempt was over?

 

There was no practice session. I was car 312 so I was one of the last groups to start. My starting row... err column was probably between 2nd and 4th to last that existed.

At first, I recall 3 lanes merged into 2. Sometimes there were cars behind me. At many points, it seemed like I was the last one (nobody behind me).

With my window open, I did overhear some walkie talkie chatter about how one guy is refusing to participating but they're trying to force him to. I wonder if he was 1 of the 2 that dropped out.

We just kept following and going until we could see it was clear we were being redirected to park. We had no idea how long we'd have to go and didn't know about the 2 mile minimum until the Guinness rep talked about it when he made his announcement. Heck, I recall pass a set of checkered flags very early on, thinking that it was possibly early to call it done. We had a lot more driving after those flags.

I believe we passed thru those checkered flags a second time before we were done.

 

Uh oh.
That is not good.
Did they talk to you guys at all about following distance?
I mean the distance between cars as you were driving in the parade.

 

So did I hear from somewhere that another one like this was coming soon like in San Diego or did I dream about that?

 

I thought you said you were going to be on the planning committee.

 

Hahaha very funny! Not!

 

Is there a potential technical issue with the following distance? I did hear one of the "organizers/helpers" say something about keep 20 feet from the car in front, but I wouldn't call that an announcement...

 

No. It was not brought up at all. I was surprised that it wasn't since it WAS brought up at the unrelated EV parade that we did in Cupertino in September 2014.

At the EV parade, we were told there was a potential issue of it no longer being a "parade" if the gap grew beyond a certain amount so that we shouldn't fall too far behind or let gaps grow too big.

I don't recall a practice session for the EV parade either. There was just no time. For that one, per New Guinness World Record for Number of EVs in a Parade Set Today During National Drive Electric Week in Cupertino | Plug In America, there were 507 vehicles.

I never heard it. It definitely wasn't announced to me.

This parade was a bit unusual (?) in that it wasn't single file. It was 2 or 3 lines in parallel. The gaps varied quite a bit from little to a lot.

Nevertheless, the Guinness rep did proclaim that we'd set a new record and presented the framed certificate.

 

DriverA and cwerdna
It's fine if there is not practice, or if the parade has multiple lanes. I was just hoping that the video came from a practice session because there are potentially issues with it as it relates to the Largest Parade of Hybrid Cars record.

Unfortunately gaps are a huge, potentially disqualifying, issue.

There are very specific guidelines and definitions when it comes to Guinness record attempts.

When the record was broken back in 2011, the Guinness guidelines stated in writing that:

"There must be no significant 'gaps' in the flow of vehicles. The vehicles must not be more than two vehicle-lengths apart during the parade."​

When you look at the video from last weekend's attempt do you see any significant gaps?

Pause the video at 1:01.
Look at the lower right of the screen at the cars going away from the camera.

There is a car in the center lane that passes a line of 4 cones.
How far away are the cars around it?

 

Because the three lanes serpentined, outside lanes required greater speed around a turn than inside lanes, The cars on the outside would become more widely spaced and the inside lane cars would bunch up. Overall we were averaging about 7-10 mph. Considering how we all went forward just following several lead cars, the parade seemed very orderly.

 

It's almost impossible to achieve those goals with such a large group, as long as people's had fun without causing any problems, they are all winners in my book!