Quiet hybrids trouble for pedestrians

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Tuesday, July 06, 2010 | The Associated Press

[discostu]

Peds need to pay attention, the tonnage game is against them. Back in my walking days I always had headphones on, none of my walkmans ever knew a volume other than all the way up, when it was a Black Sabbath day I couldn’t hear a semi at 10 feet. But I understood I’d limited my inputs and used my eyes to check all directions when coming up to driveways or cross streets.

[DoughtyOne]

Folks, I wish I could get you to agree to resist this, but evidently that's not in the cards...

What is our primary duty as pedestrians?  Isn't it to look both ways before entering a vehicle through-way?  Yes..., it is.  And yet here we are talking about a problem that already has an obvious solution, as if it didn't exist.  If you're walking into the street, look around.  If you're walking out from behind your car in a parking lot, look around.  If you're talking to a friend that is with you, look around.  Don't ignore traffic.

Those of you who try to determine if there is a car there or not with sound alone, what do you do on days when there is a 15 mph wind?  If silent cars cause a problem when there is no wind, then even cars that can be heard are a problem when the wind blows leaves or whirls around existing vehicles to drown out the sound of vehicles.  So if silent cars are a real problem, then every car is a real problem too often for pedestrian safety.  If silent cars must have some form of noise production to protect the public, then every car must have one so that when atmospheric conditions warrant it, pedistrians will be protected.

What person wants to live in a world with every vehicle producing a chirping noise in parking losts or even on city streets just to protect people who won't look out for themselves?  And don't tell me that natural engine sounds would fix the problem.  If there's some wind, it won't.

As for people who have problems with sight, drivers are already trained to keep them in mind.  On city streets people with white cains, or a seeing eye dogs are quite noticable.

At the present time in our nation, we have city streets with huge bumps built-in, so that vehicles will either reduce to a near stop to cross them, or suffer severe damage to your car.  When driving down these streets at 2:00 a.m., there aren't any pedestrians within a mile, yet every vehicle still has to deal with these bumps.  Places with no pedestrians 99.99% of the time, still have bumps.

We have grown into a society that is helpless.  Big mamma government has to protect us, and the absurdity to which she has to stoop to do it, is seriously troublesome.

I can't keep my kid from walking out in front of cars, so damnit, all drivers must be made to pay.  I can't look both ways, so damnit, all quiet vehicles must be made to pay.

Pretty soon we'll need a government supplied nanny to help us out of the front door and to our destination, to protect us.  Oh that isn't really true, they'll just enact hundreds of new laws to do it.

Today in my town it takes about five minutes to traverse less than a mile across town when there is no traffic.  Why?  Because there's a stop sign or a traffic light on every single corner in town.  Why?  Well to protect me of course.

Protect me less Madam Government.

[Richard Kimball]

On one episode of South Park, Cartman said he was going to kill himself.

The next day he showed up and the other kids said, "Hey. I thought you were going to kill yourself."

"I tried. Locked myself in the garage all night with the motor running. Hybrids just can't get the job done."

[CharlesWayneCT]

Just had put my baby in a stroller in a parking garage by a mall. Turned around (looking first always) and there was a Toyota hybrid THERE.

You're lucky that didn't crush your stroller -- those hybrids are pretty heavy, what with the batteries and all.

You should put a bell on your child, so if a hybrid sneaks up and moves the baby out of your stroller, you hear it clearly.

I hope the hybrid moved the baby out of the stroller before it climbed in. Otherwise that could have been messy.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I just roll down my window and yell out a friendly warning, something like

“Hey, idiot, stop standing in the middle of the road waiting for a car to run you over!!!”

[ModelBreaker]

LOL. This is similar to when cars first started being driven. A number of municipalities passed ordinances that a person on foot swinging a lantern had to walk in front of the car so that the car would not spook horses. I suspect carriage manufacturers were behind the ordinances.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Although I’m thinking if I see a blind guy with a cane, just to be safe, and to help them out, I’ll wait until I’m close enough that they are sure to hear me, and then I’ll just blast my horn a few times.

Can’t be too safe these days.

[palmer]

Put marbles in the hubcaps.

Ball bearings. That also helps to fool radar (I read it in my 1959 Popular Science)

[Gene Eric]

>> I’ve yet to see a story that actually tells of a blind person being HIT by a hybrid.

This is an interesting topic in the sense that many are ignoring the importance of sound and vibration as instruments in determining conditions. An experienced machine operator, for example, can rely on sound and vibration as indicators of equipment failure and performance.

Who would want to operate or be close to equipment in a cone of silence - that’s crazy.

[Hawthorn]

>> I’ll believe this is a problem when someone presents an actual STATISTIC <<

Well, I almost got hit by one that was moving at a higher-than-prudent rate of speed in a semi-darkened parking garage. That’s the only statistic I need. Case closed AFAIC.

(And I’ll bet you’d have the same reaction as me, if you’d had a similar kind of narrow escape.)

[CharlesWayneCT]

I’m always almost getting hit by something. Doesn’t have to be something silent.

How would we ever avoid potholes when we are walking, if we don’t put noisemakers in them?

And I’m still not sure how you avoid getting hit by a car just because you can kind of hear it. If you were walking in the middle of the street, and a car is coming at you too fast, you could well get hit. Doesn’t have to be a silent car.

And if you are NOT walking in the middle of the parking lot aisle, but the car is cutting across and driving too fast, it will still hit you whether you hear it or not.

The so-called issue here is people who step out into the street and get hit because a silent car was coming and they didn’t hear it.

But that means stepping out in front of a moving car, something you shouldn’t ever really do, whether it is going a safe speed or too fast, making noise or not.

I will say this. I always back carefully out of spaces in parking lots, because people are idiots and will walk right behind a car that is running and has brake lights and backup lights on, and assume the driver will see them and stop.

[Hoffer Rand]

I always back carefully out of spaces in parking lots, because people are idiots and will walk right behind a car that is running and has brake lights and backup lights on, and assume the driver will see them and stop.

That's a fact. The other people that drive me nuts are the parents who push their shopping carts across the parking lot, leaving little junior wandering 10-20 feet behind by himself. While a driver backing up would be able to see the adult, the child is just not tall enough to be in view. The driver waits for the adult and shopping cart to go past, assumes the way is clear, just about the time junior walks right behind his car. Recipe for disaster.