http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...on/13777957.htm Excerpt: Traffic officials and police do not know of any cases in which pedestrians were harmed by the popular hybrids. Collision reports don't have a provision for considering whether the quiet nature of the car is a factor. But Bond Yee, San Francisco's parking and traffic director, said his city may start indicating such causes. ``It could become an issue as hybrids become more popular,'' Yee said.
hmph. they almost address it in the end. people need to LOOK where the F*** they're GOING and maybe pay attention to their surroundings every now and then. i've had people walk in front of my car while looking right at it. i don't think hearing the car is the problem here.
retards... I agree with galaxee.. whatever happened to Look Left, Look Right then Look Left again? Thing is, you can't really honk at them cause then they'll think you just creeped up to them a second ago and that you're just some impatient driver.
I agree as well... people fail to pay attention. While I wait for my Prius to arrive I am still driving a Jeep with an I-6 not even close to being a quite car and still I see people that will walk right out in front of me, or walk in the middle of a parking lot driving lane while I am right behind them. I think this issue has far less to do with the sound of a car than a general lack of attentivness from a large portion of the population. I also recall when I was on campus it was touted as a "walking campus" due to limited traffic allowed. I had friends who would just step right out in front of cars, trucks and yes even the campus busses. Their response when I pointed out that it was a foolish thing to do was "well its a walking campus I have the right of way" news for them when it is you versus a few thousand pounds of speeding steel you never truly have the right of way. This idea was upheld by a regular flow of momos who got hit and run over when crossign the street without looking (no one died, atleast as far as I ever heard). Still the mentality is frightning at best.
i did the look left, right, left business crossing a crosswalk, then an suv decided to barrel down at 40 and a few hundred feet later i was on the ground with people screaming. btw, the car was a grand cherokee. i think it really goes both ways.
Yeah, Trevor, I think your experience had less to do with the quietness of the car and more to do with an out-of-control driver. I think galaxee's solution was quite reasonable!
I guess we should expect some idiot in a state legislature or in Congress to propose a revival of the law that required you to have a person walking ahead of a "horseless carriage" carrying a red flag during the day and a red lantern at night. :blink: This might be one way to slow down the sales of the Toyota and Honda hybrids until Ford and GM can catch up.
To me this whole issue comes down to "right of way" and common sense. If a pedestrian walks into the right of way of a vehicle then it is the responsibility of that pedestrian to look for potential danger. Now really now....who in their right mind doesn't know that when you are walking into a roadway made for cars, trucks, buses etc that it is up to the pedestrian to check on the safety of entering that roadway? Has common sense suddenly disappeared? - shaking my head -
While "common sense" may dictate that one should look both ways before steppng off the curb the simple fact is that people take cues from a variety of environmental factors. Once of these is the engine sound a car makes as it approaches. This is especially true in states where the pedestrian has total right of way as long as they are using a crosswalk and once they have entered the crosswalk the driver must take measures to stop or avoid them. In other words, when you cross the street you better know what state you are in because what you can get away with in California will get you killed in New York.
Either that or we'll have to install a speaker that operates at low speeds and says loudly, "Make way, make way! I am a hybrid!"
oh no.. people have to actually watch where they are walking for once.... i say it's survival of the fittest... hybrids are just a new tool.
The Pool for the First Lawsuit Date is now open. Oh, in case you missed it, after the articles came out speculating that IPOD use could lead to hearing damage, we now have our first class action suit against Apple.
Yup. Pedestrians legally crossing a street have the right-of-way. Motorists must yield to pedestrians and share the road with cyclists.
I think we need a new horn sound for situations in which we are in stealth mode, as in a mall parking lot. It would just say, "Ahem." cheers
My philosophy on pedestrians having the right of way has always been as follows: As a driver....if I have the remotest inkling someone is going to walk out in front of me...I'm going to stop. As a pedestrian, I'll nudge my way out and see if you're going to stop...but I'm not a 2 ton machine, so I'd lose a battle against one....and therefore I'm quick to wait and let the car pass. How about some personal responsibility??? (This from one of the youngest on this board)
I live on a narrow twisting mountain road which is a ten mile scenic loop of hairpin turns without much traffic. We have guys on their Ninja bikes racing on most Sundays, kids that race and drift their Honda's, salesmen that bring up their performance car clientele, along with bicyclists, dog walkers, skateboarders, and joggers. Guess who I think are the most dangerous. It's the guys on bicycles since you can't hear them and they can't stop fast enough to avoid a person who turns around or starts to cross the road. My neighbor was killed when she was hit by a guy on a bike she didn't hear. Even when I'm in my truck I'll tap the horn to make sure a pedestrian is aware of me if he seems to not be paying attention.
Of course, remember the incident a few days ago where some elderly woman sideswiped a police officer who was ticketing another motorist? She bruised him pretty badly but otherwise he was unhurt. I doubt that how quiet her car was had anything to do with his getting sideswiped.
Hmmm, one way to alert jaywalkers and others who do not pay attention comes to what I sometimes refer to as "my mind"..... I have a set of airhorns that actually came off a RR locomotive years ago. Currently they reside under my motorhome, about 7mpg, but when my 2006 Prius gets to me I will have to check for space underneath. I doubt there is room as the three horns range from about 24" down and the air tank/compressor is not small. Using them might overcome the silent elec. approach problem described above. I've observed that people can actually jump off the ground in front of my motorhome!
