Green cars too damn quiet

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
The 'greenest' of cars out there are the fully electric cars, and soon enough, there will be more of them on our roads than ever. Saves on gas, less pollution..good stuff, eh.

I for one will miss one form of pollution that electric cars won't have - noise pollution. Particularly the kind of noise pollution that might save your life.

At anything above 50kph/25mph..car tires make some amount of noise as they roll along, regardless of what they're burning or not. Below that point, many hybrid cars and electric cars make no (or nearly no) noise whatsoever.

Here's my issue. I can tell when a car is coming, from where it's coming from and how fast unconsciously-from a good distance. There's a mental trigger associated with the noise from the engine that says "Look out".

I am wondering what unintended side-effects of the electric "silent" motor will have on pedestrian accidents. Particularly as it relates to people on bikes who can't hear a car behind them, people trying to cross the street and most importantly..the blind!

Anyone think about this? I had a hybrid roll past me at lunch and didn't hear it coming at all. It got me thinking.

Should electric "Silent" cars have a noise added to it?
 
Bicycles are silent too and I don't think too many people are hit by them,any time you have rubber meet road there is gonna be noise.Golf carts too are silent and never cause issues in and around golf courses and retirement communities ,many of the smaller islands out here only have golf carts on them.
 
Just to add: Most dumbasses nowadays wear their MP3 players ,so being able to hear whats rolling up on you is moot IMO.
 
spike said:
Maybe a customizable theme song? :D
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Jaws theme
sharkattack.gif


:rolleyes:
 
A.B.Normal said:
Bicycles are silent too and I don't think too many people are hit by them,any time you have rubber meet road there is gonna be noise.Golf carts too are silent and never cause issues in and around golf courses and retirement communities ,many of the smaller islands out here only have golf carts on them.
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Bicycles and golf carts don't weigh in excess of a ton.
Most golf carts are used in fairly open areas and where its crowded, they generally have some sort of constant beep and a yellow flashing light on top (think the carts at the airport).
 
We have a lot of retirement type communities around here where the preferred mode of transport is GC and no there is no lights or beeping,it would distract the other golfers ,since most are built around courses.Getting hit by a bike doing 20-30mph is still potentially fatal.There is usually more than one person per year killed while walking along the railroad tracks with headphones on,so I don't see how a silent vehicle is gonna make any difference.In cities there is so much noise pollution you wouldn't notice if an individual car is making noise anyway.
 
I can hear cars coming even with my MP3 player going, but that's just a propensity to keep the volume far below 11 :D


Bikes have a quicker stop time and can swerve to avoid pedestrians far easier than a car does IMO.
 
A.B.Normal said:
We have a lot of retirement type communities around here where the preferred mode of transport is GC and no there is no lights or beeping,it would distract the other golfers ,since most are built around courses.Getting hit by a bike doing 20-30mph is still potentially fatal.There is usually more than one person per year killed while walking along the railroad tracks with headphones on,so I don't see how a silent vehicle is gonna make any difference.In cities there is so much noise pollution you wouldn't notice if an individual car is making noise anyway.
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20-30mph on a bike isn't all that easy to do, especially in the city.
Those GC are being driven on/near a golf course. Not many semi's or Explorers parked by the 7th green blocking the view.
Walking along RR tracks with headphones on definately puts Darwin back into the equation.
 
MrBishop said:
Here's my issue. I can tell when a car is coming, from where it's coming from and how fast unconsciously-from a good distance. There's a mental trigger associated with the noise from the engine that says "Look out".

I am wondering what unintended side-effects of the electric "silent" motor will have on pedestrian accidents. Particularly as it relates to people on bikes who can't hear a car behind them, people trying to cross the street and most importantly..the blind!

Anyone think about this? I had a hybrid roll past me at lunch and didn't hear it coming at all. It got me thinking.
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There was a kid on a bike hit by one a few months ago....same story--"are they TOO quiet?"
 
I just don't see why the Gov. should be required to protect individuals ,when they should be using common sense (look both ways when crossing the street) .If these vehicles are mandated to have a noise added and they become popular then your not going to hear a specific vehicle anyway and your going to need to look to see how close they are to you.Seriously are there a lot of deaf people being run over by Gas vehicles now or do people with hearing difficulty have the common sense to PAY ATTENTION before they step into the street.People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop demanding that others be required to care for them.
 
A.B.Normal said:
I just don't see why the Gov. should be required to protect individuals ,when they should be using common sense (look both ways when crossing the street) .If these vehicles are mandated to have a noise added and they become popular then your not going to hear a specific vehicle anyway and your going to need to look to see how close they are to you.Seriously are there a lot of deaf people being run over by Gas vehicles now or do people with hearing difficulty have the common sense to PAY ATTENTION before they step into the street.People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop demanding that others be required to care for them.
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Flip side to your coin is the responsibility of the driver to watch and be prepared for a vast majority of the situations like these.
 
A.B.Normal said:
I just don't see why the Gov. should be required to protect individuals ,when they should be using common sense (look both ways when crossing the street) .If these vehicles are mandated to have a noise added and they become popular then your not going to hear a specific vehicle anyway and your going to need to look to see how close they are to you.Seriously are there a lot of deaf people being run over by Gas vehicles now or do people with hearing difficulty have the common sense to PAY ATTENTION before they step into the street.People need to take responsibility for themselves and stop demanding that others be required to care for them.
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And what about inattentive drivers who run stop signs or don't stop for pedestrians? Is that the pedestrian's fault too?

One night a few months ago, I was walking in a crosswalk when I had the little "Walk" symbol, and this idiot who was probably drunk blows the red light, then swerves at me. I had to like jump to the side, and even then his mirror was like two inches from hitting me. The dumbass went on to illegally pass a guy, then run a red light.

If I hadn't been paying attention, and heard him coming and jumped out of the way fast enough, I am 100% sure that he woulda hit me. And probably fled the scene too, because he was pretty obviously drunk.

I have almost daily encounters with idiot drivers. Nearly every crosswalk here has a freestanding orange thing that says "STOP for pedestrians" along with a regular "STOP" sign on both sides of the road, and "STOP" written in 6-foot white letters on the road. I can't count the number of times I've been walking through a crosswalk when some mongoloid blew through the stop at like 10-15mph. And, sometimes I even make eye contact with them, and they still don't stop for me.
 
Altron said:
And what about inattentive drivers who run stop signs or don't stop for pedestrians? Is that the pedestrian's fault too?

One night a few months ago, I was walking in a crosswalk when I had the little "Walk" symbol, and this idiot who was probably drunk blows the red light, then swerves at me. I had to like jump to the side, and even then his mirror was like two inches from hitting me. The dumbass went on to illegally pass a guy, then run a red light.

If I hadn't been paying attention, and heard him coming and jumped out of the way fast enough, I am 100% sure that he woulda hit me. And probably fled the scene too, because he was pretty obviously drunk.

I have almost daily encounters with idiot drivers. Nearly every crosswalk here has a freestanding orange thing that says "STOP for pedestrians" along with a regular "STOP" sign on both sides of the road, and "STOP" written in 6-foot white letters on the road. I can't count the number of times I've been walking through a crosswalk when some mongoloid blew through the stop at like 10-15mph. And, sometimes I even make eye contact with them, and they still don't stop for me.
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So knowing these asshats are out there YOU pay attention ,even though ,you would have the legal right of way .Thats the common sense thing I'm referring to ,you don't assume that since you have the right of way its gonna safe .
 
A.B.Normal said:
So knowing these asshats are out there YOU pay attention ,even though ,you would have the legal right of way .Thats the common sense thing I'm referring to ,you don't assume that since you have the right of way its gonna safe .
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Yes, and a big part of that is being able to listen and pay attention. For example, when crossing a street at night, I look at the windows of the parked cars along it, to check if I can see any headlights reflecting in them that I can't see directly. If I'm walking on this one "pedestrian only"walkway on campus that the idiot janitors always drive their trucks on, I listen closely for the sound of an engine behind me, so I know when to get on the grass and avoid getting run over.
 
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