Anyone rushing up to my driver's window in an aggressive manner will receive a nice refreshing mist of pepper spray. Sadly, in the USA, someone approaching you as that cyclist did might just be about to shoot you.
Oh no, I'm not forgetting. But Bob Wilson is the primary member here to go after that regulation. Search for 'Bell the Hybrid'. But I was specifically wanting something in between the regular horn and the current continuous noisemaker, more attention-getting but at a level that won't raise anger from others.
Or the aggressive person might just get shot first, by the driver. How about we all carry a cow bell, and when approaching pedestrians or cyclists we hang it out the window and ring it.
That did cross my mind after the incident. Pepper spray is illegal here in the UK. Indeed, I'm glad hardly anyone here has access to firearms.
The Volt's pedestrian horn sounded very soft and the Twizy's sounded rather loud. I appreciate that using the horn may startle/surprise or even intimidate pedestrians/cyclists who are not paying attention to cars on the road, but given that the Gen 4's horn is so weak compared to say a BMW or VW horn, I wonder if I was driving one of those cars, the kid would have responded even more aggressively? I may fit this Tesla upgrade to my Gen 4. Although, it may make some cyclists think it's time for Zen meditation. DIY Tesla Model S Pedestrian Alert: 'Horn' for the Oblivious I found this being tested on a bus in the UK, "A more gentle bus 'horn' has been devised for Manchester which alerts pedestrians too engrossed with their mobile phones to take care crossing the road. It features eight ‘dings’, followed by a friendly male voice saying ‘take care, vehicle approaching’, then five further ‘dings’. The new type of warning is being tested by First on the 83 service between Oldham and Manchester for the next month. It has been developed after pedestrians said they found the traditional horn 'aggressive’. The softer warning bell will be used in non-emergency situations to softly alert preoccupied passers-by." It seems one needs to be careful with the horn when warning pedestrians I was fined for honking at man who stepped in front of my car | Daily Mail Online The comments posted here are an interesting read https://teslatap.com/questions/friendly-muted-horn-to-warn-pedestrians/ I like the choices available to Renault Zoe owners Designing Sound Effects To Gently Warn Pedestrians Of Silent Vehicles | Popular Science This is from a few year's ago, but interesting finding. "Research by the University of California highlighted the noiseless dangers of electric cars in a recent study which found that hybrid vehicles came 40 per cent closer to pedestrians than their combustion engine counterparts before they could detected." Silent electric cars to get 'Star Wars' sound effects to warn pedestrians they are coming | Daily Mail Online Europe has the eVADER system when it comes to warning pedestrians eVADER project to give electric vehicles new sounds | Autocar
Much better the option to emit an Alerting sound when required than broadcasting a continuous one unnecessarily IMHO. Well, apart from the armed forces, only the bad guys...
It's not bad in real life. I figure if the birds and squirrels can hear it, the morons should be able to get a hint.
I notice in the parade of British police procedural series we watch (interspersed with Scandanavian, Belgium, French and so on), the cops rarely pack guns. Apart from Line of Duty, maybe. And they all use their seat belts, lol.
I'm ok with exchanging a few choice words, I'm only going to react that way if they really come at me physically. If I see any other way to avoid it, I will.
I'm not so sure. Here's something I found a while back. I don't remember where; it was years ago. “The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from ‘Miffed’ to ‘Peeved.’ Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to ‘Irritated’ or even ‘A Bit Cross.’ The English have not been ‘A Bit Cross’ since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from ‘Tiresome’ to ‘A Bloody Nuisance.’ The last time the British issued a ‘Bloody Nuisance’ warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.”
My Prius has the low speed noisemaker. I can hear it. And I wish I could disable it. I like creeping around. I find it odd and unsettling that we live in a world where we are so accustomed to noise pollution that we expect it. Even appreciate it. I'm going to hop on the first spaceship to mars.
