Prius too quiet? New proposal may end the silence.

Not far fetched at all. "Mixed-use" paths can be a real hazard, where dogs, kids in strollers, and meandering berry-pickers share the road with 30mph cyclists. Oh, if only there was such a thing as a bike path. As in bikes only.

Technically, cyclists ARE mandated to employ noise-makers. A ringy-dingy bell meets the letter of the law, but the air horn I use is much louder than the squeaker on the Prius.

 

In the early days of the Iraq War, I saw the (supposed) discovery of WMDs in Iraq a couple of times on Fox News Channel. Once it was (supposedly) radiation from (supposed) nuclear weapons, another time it was (supposedly) chemical weapons.

No other news stations ever reported this to my knowledge (I tried to find confirmation from another source at the time). And no WMDs were ever discovered.

I also saw Geraldo Rivera as a war correspondent on Fox News Channel drawing a "map" in the sand to describe US troop movement. That was a special kind of stupid.

I don't watch Fox News much anymore. Maybe its better now. But I doubt it.

 

people need to stop regarding fox as a "news" channel. its entertainment that pretends to pass as news, with carefully selected talking points of a propagandist nature.



...sorry, i just hate them. the media is one of my biggest pet-peeves. being a broadcast/communication major sure opened my mind to their b*llshit!

fox is anti-american. it has done a great deal of damage since the its inception.

 

I switch back and forth just depending on what story is being covered. I see the same "spin" on CNN. Sometimes not covering a story is also very one sided. What I do like on Fox is when they bring in both sides to argue their points. That is usually pretty educational.

 

I like to see both sides of an argument too, but when it is obvious that they are reporting "news" that never happened, I don't see the value in it. I could just make up stuff on my own.

 

No one has yet to mention the cost factor to make our Prius noisy! How do they plan on doing this? Who's going to pay for the retro fit of the thousands of Hybrid cars now on the road? Would the State Inspection requirements change for Hybrid cars?
-Car must emit a noise of ?? decibels at ?? feet?-
There are a number of anti-noise laws on the books already, most deal with the noise made by sound systems. Are these laws going to be countermanded by laws to make the Prius noisy?

 

"See the bubble headed bleach blond come on at five, she can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye...."

 

I think they shouldn't install anything on the car. How about give those effected by this some type of device that vibrates or chimes when they come near the car? Like a proximity sensor for the blind?

 

According the 'professor' who did some tests, the Prius has to be "40% closer." Using the well known physics equations this means the volume needs to be ~3 times larger. If we give the blind hearing aids with about a 4-5 dB gain, they will hear Prius at the same level as the professor's "reference" and the problem is solved. They'll also be able to avoid gas-only cars and SUVs easily.

Bob Wilson

 

Only $14.88, it makes a great Christmas gift!

Mr. Microphone - Viral Videos - SPIKE

 

Re: Silent... But Deadly?

Best post I've read for some time...KUDOS!

 

My apologies for a late night math error. The dB calculation should have been .4-.5 dB. Even if the professor means 40% closer, the gain required remains less than 1 dB.

As for the sighted pedestrians and bicyclist, they have a whole additional sensor to use, sight.

Bob Wilson

 

How do blind people actually cross the road? I don't know any blind people so have no experience with whatever methods they use to cope in the world.

However much I would lement the loss of my silenced mode, if making a little noise could make a blind persons life easier then who am I to complain? I can't even imagine how much harder life must be if you cannot see.

 

Because the money spent following the blind insistence on noise makers means the other 5,000 graves filled by pedestrian-vehicle accidents are not being addressed.

Bob Wilson

 

"blind insistance" funny man!

But seriously, if blind people said they would feel more confident crossing the road if all motor vehicles travelling over a certain speed made a minimum ammount of noise would you be against this in principle?

How's about introducing a maximum noise level to offset?

I'm in the UK and this has been talked out, mainly in terms of hydrogen vehicles, but there is nothing planned as far as I know yet. Probably not too far off, but I suspect they would require all new vehicles sold after a certain date to comply..........

 

the blind problem makes me wonder where it will stop. Maybe the people that started this work for the gasoline industry???

Let's put some Lenny Kravitz in the CD player so everyone will know we are coming?

 

gman: that was the story of the "U.S. Handicapper General" you were thinking of--good remembering!

And now we can put that darn reverse beeper to good use: mount it on the outside of the car, and program it to beep between .5 and 5 mph in both reverse and drive.

 

And for what its worth (thanks, Wikipedia):

"Harrison Bergeron" is a dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and first published in October, 1961. The theme of the story is egalitarianism and is set by the first line: "The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal." Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968.

 

What?!?
But but but, that's insane! ... CRAZY talk. Fix the hundreds of blind pedestrians that happen to cross a hybrid's path, rather than fixing all the hundreds of thousands of hybrids?!? What kind of logic is that?

Question ... in your (fill in amount) years of driving, how many times have you seen a blind person (maybe using a highlighted white cane) near your car. In my 36 years of driving, I'm guessing the most would be 10 times.