Hybrid cars are too quiet: Risk Pedestrian Safety

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jtullos @ Feb 13 2007, 12:12 PM) [snapback]389516[/snapback]</div>

I still say a baseball card and clothespin is the answer.

 

I've never heard of advocates for the blind proposing the same for bicycles, which I suspect are more numerous in many urban areas and have certainly been around a lot longer than hybrids. How do blind pedestrians know bicycles are approaching? (Unless THEY have the clothespins and baseball cards!)

 

The article sounds a little ridiculous and stretches a bit to pick on the Prius. I live in downtown Minneapolis where there is a small blind population and ride my bike to work everyday it's warm enough. I have never come close to hitting a blind person because I watch out for pedestrians (duh!). In my car, I don't hit people because I still watch out for pedestrians. I have found that hearing people on their cell phone or IPod or talking to someone else are much more likely to walk into an intersection before watching for traffic than blind people. Also, on the sidewallk, I can hear Prii when they are moving because of the road/tire noise; well, sometimes the only thing I can hear is the busses nearby. The blind people's concerns should be heard and addressed, but equiping the car with sound devices is a bit of a stretch that I am against. There is too much traffic noise as it is and contributing to the noise is not a solution that probably 99% of people would support.

 

A non WSJ source can be found at:
http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications...06/bm050605.htm

"It has also been suggested that blind travelers carry a device that would indicate when a hybrid or other quiet car is in the vicinity. The signal could be auditory or tactile. A tactile signal would have the advantage of not blocking other important sounds in the environment. In addition, it could be of great help to blind people who also have impaired hearing. However, most of us on the committee question whether any device, however sophisticated, could give us all of the information we are able to gather from listening to traffic sounds. By listening we can tell where a car is, how fast it is moving, whether it is accelerating or slowing down, and whether it is turning or traveling straight through an intersection. Furthermore, we can collect all of this information about several vehicles simultaneously."

The NFB is not only concerned about the Prius but about a trend toward quieter cars in general.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Feb 13 2007, 02:09 PM) [snapback]389617[/snapback]</div>

Help who? Certainly not the drivers unfortunate enough to be in front of or adjacent to a Prius during a long red light or stopped in traffic. Not to mention the hapless Prius driver, whose horn would then cease to be a warning device and become instead an annoyance to everyone else.

Not the blind, either, who are not in much danger from a Prius that is sitting still, unless they happen to walk into it.

 

I find that there are many times in parking lots where pedestrians will walk in front of my car without looking. Often, I think that blind people are more aware of their surroundings than people who can see.
I do tend to drive more cautiously around pedestrians in my Prius than when I drive other vehicles.

 

Just curious, does anyone know how many deaf pedestrians are killed each year?

 

:mellow: My Prius tires make a quiet crunching sound even when I'm in "stealth" mode. Even so, that sound might well be obscured by other street sounds. Best to watch for pedestrians, blind or not - and particularly watch for children. When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine car drivers couldn't watch for me, after all I knew where I was...

 

Bwahahaha! Now my secret plans for silently bumping off the nation's blind population can finally be implemented! EX-cellent, Smithers, EX-cellent. ;D

 

Another article slipped at us by GM marketers?

I am highly skeptical. Most cars are so quiet these days that they are virtually silent. Sure, my Prius is quiet in stealth mode, but how much louder is a nearby car with a good exhaust system?

I guess the Harley crowd was right all along: loud pipes save lives!

Harry

 

I agree with Dave - I also believe that blind people have a tendency to be more aware of their surroundings than people with normal vision.

From my own experience, whenever I'm walking through a parking lot I have a tendency to be more aware of automobiles when I hear a vehicle with its' engine running (sound from the exhaust pipe). Hearing an automobile with the engine running, one can anticipate that the vehicle is about to move.

Living here in the San Francisco bay area there is probably are a larger number of Prius vehicles than other parts of the country. I'll admit that on several occasions I have been startled in a parking lot when a Prius has suddenly started backing up. Without the telltale noise of a running engine, one does not expect to see a vehicle start moving.

This situation can easily be resolved by a small electric beeper (mounted under the rear bumper) that is energized when the vehicle is in reverse gear. Many commercial vehicles have such a device. For an automobile, the device only needs to be loud enough to hear for a distance of about 50 feet.

Keith

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Earthling @ Feb 13 2007, 04:18 PM) [snapback]389717[/snapback]</div>

Nope. No data to support the idea that loud pipes save lives. Riding like you're invisible (i.e., assume no motorist can see you), wearing protective gear, etc., saves lives. Loud pipes may actually startle drivers as they blow by them and CAUSE accidents. They also have done much to encourage municipalities to draw up tighter noise restriction laws, and actually have helped encourage the banning of motorcycles in some areas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tech_Guy @ Feb 13 2007, 04:47 PM) [snapback]389743[/snapback]</div>

Or you could just roll down the window--the reverse beeper that comes on INSIDE the Prius sounds like it could be heard fifty feet away! :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DelerPrius @ Feb 13 2007, 02:16 PM) [snapback]389770[/snapback]</div>

That is one thing that I've found confusing about the Prius. Why did they put the beeper on the inside??????

Keith

 

Isn't it up to the driver to watch for pedestrians? A tapping cane is a sure giveaway. Yes, there are those who like to play Russian roulette by testing reaction times, but generally the onus is on the bigger and faster vehicle. Of course, most people ignore this and drive by 'right of weight' instead, expecting the lesser plebes to scatter. I have an air horn on my bicycle that puts most car horns to shame. A gentle toot is enough to warn oblivious walkers on the bike path, and a long blast is loud enough to make headphone wearers jump out of their skin. As for the deaf, dumb, and blind, well, they're usually driving trucks, aren't they?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarkMN @ Feb 13 2007, 02:42 PM) [snapback]389594[/snapback]</div>

What he said...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Feb 13 2007, 03:09 PM) [snapback]389617[/snapback]</div>

Actually, I think our government should require Toyota to equip all Prii with a 300 HP motor so that it makes enough noise that people can hear it.

 

Damn I thought you were suppossed not to run over pedestrians NOW someone goes and tells me they have to get out of the way for me. Bicyclers don't get out of the way for cars and cars will kill dead if hit and bikes get to ride in the street, one would think blind people should get the same care as those byclicers do. :blink: