Posted on 11/20/2008 1:45:01 AM PST by CE2949BB
ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2008) — Important pedestrian safety issues have emerged with the advent of hybrid and electric vehicles. These vehicles are relatively quiet—they do not emit the sounds pedestrians and bicyclists are accustomed to hearing as a vehicle approaches them on the street or at an intersection. In a recent study, human factors/ergonomics researchers examined participants' preferences for sounds that could be added to quiet vehicles to make them easier to detect.
Though the safety of quiet vehicles has become an issue for pedestrians in general, it is also of concern to the National Federation for the Blind, which has called for quiet vehicles to emit a continuous sound and for additional research on the subject. The authors suggest that older individuals with diminished sensory and motor skills should also be considered as solutions are developed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
So now if my wife runs over a blind person in a crosswalk she has an excuse?
Unlikely. Pedestrians having the right of way and all. ;)
gas and electric powered ninjas!
The future rocks!
Put a whistle on them; a little-bitty whistle would warn the unsighted that a car was coming.
*Whew* that was tough! - Now where's my $10M for solving the "problem"?
In a world gone mad, speed bumps rule the day. Three in the morning, 99.99999% of the populace asleep, drivers have to drive over speed bumps so pedestrians (too stupid to look both ways) can be safe.
Now hybrids are too quiet. I suggest we put cards on the wheels like we did our bicycles. Yes it’s juvenile, but the fix to quiet cars is certain to be just as juvenile.
There was a battery run device you could put on your bicycle when I was a kid. It emitted a sound like a motor, so you could feel like a big shot when you rode around. Ah, the manufacturer was ahead of his time...
Do you ever wonder who it is that sits around thinking this s—t up? Personally, I just look before I walk. I guess personal responsibility being what it is these days, I’m an idiot. Someone certainly is.
It’s not the blind pedestrians I worry about, its the blind drivers.
Wait a minute ... do the new electric cars not have horns?
Perhaps the real reason some people hate hybrids is their silence. They can’t gun the engines to impress themselves and annoy their neighbors.
Young Engrs fresh out of school had to attend a 2 day seminar on product liability. Upon exit many had the response, of "What the H%!! did I go to college, for this?"
What was being said was in the litigious society you have to think ahead and design for what you might get sued for. I can't prove it, but I think the Saturn Daytime Running Lights might have been a byproduct of this mentality.
So next time you want to go big three bashing about the lack of engineering thank the fully owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, The American Trial Lawyers Association.
I don’t know what hybrids they are talking about, but my hybrid Highlander engine runs about 95% of the time!
How about putting a radar detector at crosswalks, instead of making millions of auto owners have to listen to some stupid noise all day long.
Maybe they can put baseball cards in the spokes.
I think it would lower the speed anyway.
I live in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, and there are some towns up here where they aggressively prosecute drivers that do not stop at crosswalks.
The people are complete idiots. They arrogantly (and stupidly) step out into the crosswalk at dusk and dawn, from behind parked cars and so on. If you have to stop fast (as you sometimes do to avoid running them over) they stare at you.
Just unbelievable. When I go to a crosswalk, at the very LEAST I will wait for a break in the traffic both ways to keep from being run over in case someone just cannot see me, and often I will just stay back away from a crosswalk until I can cross without even slowing down traffic.
These people sometimes get up to the crosswalk and stop after stepping off the curb, talking on a cell phone or whatever. The worst two towns are Lexington and Concord, both complete liberal bastions.
The birthplace of the American Revolution indeed. How embarrassing.
Even the military services are submerged in the new lawyer-run world; no tactical decisions of any significance are being made without review by a military counsel (I'm not exaggerating) and every aspect of military life is subject to the lawyers in some way or another. Has caused several generations of officers to be selected for promotion based on their ability to avoid trouble. Chesty Puller wouldn't have made it past 2nd Lieutenant in today's Corps
Two reason for this mess: all of the goombahs that sue everyone for everything and the stupid/treasonous courts that take the lawsuits.
It'll get worse under Comrade Obama.
California was always ahead of its time for stupid, fascist, liberty-reducing laws.
Lately in Virginia we have communities like Vienna where every single intersection has a traffic light and all of them are out of sync, so traffic crawls from stop to stop. It's so stupid that most of us don't even go near places like Vienna because it's such a pain to drive through. It's unlikely that whoever thought that system up has considered the economic ramifications of this system, but I'm sure that they're enjoying the control it gave them.
Recommend affixing a playing card to the spokes.
:)
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