washingtonpost.com Any comments? I know some of you have posted about accidents & the such. Is it really cause our cars are so quiet or just cause people are merely being lazy/distracted?
It's the latter. Many cars are quiet, not just hybrids, and people get hit by buses and garbage trucks. If you aren't aware of your surroundings, you stand a good chance of getting hit. Tom
Qbee42 is absolutely right. It is the latter, people are being distracted all the time in public, when walking and crossing, on their cell phones, texting while walking, it has nothing to do with "quiet". People are just to self absorbed in their day to day and do dumb things because of the preoccupied state. I truly believe that. I was on the way to work yesterday and the young man behind me was texting away on his Cell/Blackberry and making momentary glances ahead to see if the traffic was moving, such that, when it moved, he was 5 car lengths behind before getting the horn from the person behind him. That's self absorbed!
I want a speed-controlled sound effect unit in my Prius that makes it sound like George Jetson's car!
You haven't heard? the squeaking brakes IS the fix. It's the "beautiful noise" Toyota included with the car to keep it from sneaking up on poor defenseless people
I 100% agree with you. Was getting on the interstate yesterday behind a very "distracted" driver. Then I see as I pass her she's texting away on her cell phone. Completely oblivious to the fact she was entering an interstate with drivers doing 70-80 mph. Scares the heck out of me. This is why I sold my motorcycle a while back. People just don't pay attention anymore.
I agree that people are more distracted than ever, but turning corners and backing out silently does potentially pose a threat to small children, blind people, and anyone who walks slower than 15 mph. Pedestrians and drivers alike need to pull their heads out of their Blackberries and pay attention to the world around them. That said, a texting Prius driver could be the most dangerous person of all. ;-)
Ahhhh haaa!!!! Notice the speed scale converges at 12.4 mph. The NFB Rossenblum 'tests' showed a much higher speed, in one report, over 25 mph. Then they started reporting smaller and smaller numbers since last year. Now I see where the lower numbers are coming from. <GRINS> Bob Wilson
Agree it's the pedestrian in the path of traffic with responsibility to keep head up and aware. I'm aware of the quiet of this car--that's much of its appeal--but keep aware while coming up on a pedestrian walking in my direction: S/he could make an abrupt turn into my path unware I'm coming near. It's always our responsibility, ped and driver each, to look out for the oblivious others among us. If regulators insist on a noisy car, we'll soon have proximity radar detecting a human nearby and triggering noise to warn them. Would it do any good? Probably not. And the Jetson's have a copyright on that sound!
In CA they almost passed a bill to have a study recommend what kinds of noisemakers should be required on "silent" cars. Fortunately, it did not pass. Many people in So. CA just walk out into the streets or wander about in parking lots, without looking for cars at all. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to run them over. But, I have been thinking about installing a loud horn that sounds like a big truck air-horn.
