I don't run into this kind of situations often such as sneaking up behind my neighbor standing in the middle of the street or being held up in parking lot isle by pedestrians strolling slowly, but just in case... I purchased a cheap bike horn (clamps right on and no tools are required) and I think it might work well. Not as loud and startling as honking, but with a quick tap, it might get some attention. Not tested yet.
There was some two-level horn mentioned here, sometime back. A Brit poster maybe? For scenario where you just want to give someone a polite heads-up (not a heart attack, or spur road rage). Practice giving the horn a very light tap, is it possible to "chirp" it?
If by that, you meant to comment that the sound annoys you, I happen to find it the opposite. Sure, I won't want to listen to it all the time, but I find the chirping sound kinda cute. Today, on my commute, for no reason at all, I reached up and pressed the button just to hear a quick chirp. It made me smile.
Oh, I hear you about the backup beep. Wish I could turn it off. But come to think of it, can people outside hear that beep? The difference about this one is it is fully in your control.
Just turn your a/c on (not auto) and the condenser fans will come on which are quite loud. The Gen1 volt had a second horn button on the end of the turn signal stalk that emitted a muted triple beep that was intended for these situations. It was so distinctive I could use it to summon the kids when picking them up from school at night when they were staring into a sea of headlights of parent cars.
There are a number of extremely quiet internal combustion cars nowadays, if we got to do it, they got to do it too. It's the only fair thing to do. .
Here in Oakland people put fart mufflers on their compact cars to make them noisy! Why?! I appreciate the fact that prius is quiet. I’d like to see more sensitivity to noise pollution in our world.
The only time I come up behind pedestrians in the roadway, is when I'm driving thru one of the big parks. A bike horn is actually a good idea. (My "Ford" horns are too loud to use.) I usually don't get near people in parking lots or shopping centers because I park way out in the sticks. Had to learn a whole new way of driving with a Prius.
I think it would be more fun to have a recording of a big V8 going vroom, vroom and then watch their reaction when they turn around and see what's behind them.
Or sign posts advising walkers they are on a road. The noise thingy doesn’t take into account audibly challenged souls. Maybe a big cop light on the roof, with HID beam rotation. I took the silly Grundy noise thing off my LEAF, it sounded too much like a badly maintained car, the noise was grinding brake pads when worn. Technology my friend.
That would not work. We still need to be careful in parking lots for people walking out in front of our big green V8 Toyota Tundra pickup truck. It isn't exactly quiet...
You got a point there. Some people just don't LOOK (or hear) before stepping out. And other people DO look, and then just proceed and assume that car or truck will stop for them.... Every day on the news there is another story of hit & runs. I don't ever trust crosswalks, and I try and be very careful when walking thru crowded parking lots. Some nuts just thrown their car in reverse, and back out of a parking spot without even checking to see if people might be walking behind the car.
