Letters to the Editor
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"extraordinary careful about bicyclist anxieties??"
Maybe in the Berkeley Hills, but in San Francisco Prius drivers have a reputation for being the most self-absorbed reckless idiots on the road. I guess their "hybrid" is so green it makes up for all the near misses as they drive through the city with a latte in one hand, a cell in the other, smug in their greeness.
Careful. Ha. That's NEVER a word I've heard applied to Prius drivers.
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Not just the Blind?
When I'd first heard people complaining that the Prius was too quiet, it was made as a complaint from an organization for the Blind and I heard it on NPR. I didn't think, and still don't, that the answer is to make the Prius more noisy. Noise pollution is also a problem. Instead, I suggest a device in Priuses (Prii?) that emits a radio signal. Blind people, and anyone who wants to pay for them, can wear a device that detects this signal and informs the listener of the distance, direction and rate of speed of the vehicle. Individuals would be able to adjust how far out the detection range is and what kind of message they get.
This prevents further noise pollution and gives options to those concerned about not being able to hear the cars.
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fair is fowl, and fowl is fair
In Hawaii, where many jungle fowl wander by the side of the road, the Prius cars are nicknamed "chicken killers". Which begs the question... Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it didn't hear the oncoming Prius.
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The solution is obvious.
Make wire wheels mandatory on all hybrids, and equip them with clothespins and baseball cards.
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I Foresee a Sequel to the "South Park" episode
about Priuses (Prii?) and San Francisco.
SNIFFFFFF!!!!
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Shhh, I don't hear a Prius
There are far more bicyclists on the roads than Priuses, and I've seen more close calls when someone steps into the street in front of a bike than in front of a Prius, yet no one is demanding that all bicycles on the road make more noise.
And of course when pressed, the proponents of laws to turn up the Prius' volume are not able to point to a single incident that was caused by a Prius' silent running.
I like driving my Prius in stealth mode, and I just know that I have to be more aware. I don't need no stinking cow bells.
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My suggestion
OK, I get sick and tired of traffic noise, so in my books quieter cars are a good thing.
Of course, I can depend on my vision to provide the cues I need to deal with them.
So, my suggestion...to balance safety with noise prevention...is low-powered radio beacons. Require that quiet cars broadcast some sound on a given frequency, at a power level that would emulate an approaching car, and then the blind (or those concerned about drive-by shootings), can buy recievers that will warn them of approaching vehicles.
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The perfect noise:
Jetsons: b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b
Perfect!
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Added problem with the Prius
And all new Toyotas, it seems, is that all the gauges are in the middle of the dash instead of above and behind the steering wheel, which means the driver's eyes are now drawn *away* from the road when doing things like eyeballing the spedometer. I drove a Prius once and a Matrix a few times (thanks to Zipcar!) and found the gauge placement incredibly inconvenient and slightly dangerous since I kept having to turn my head to look at them instead of just being able to flick my eyes down to them for a split second then back up to the road.
Don't get me started on the multi-level control panel *touchscreen* on the Prius. Yeah, that's not a dangerous distraction or anything...
But back to the topic, I'm down with the Jetson's "b-b-b-b-b!" noise suggested by someone else just below!
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KitchenGirl
I have a 2006 Prius and the gauges are behind the steering wheel, like on every other car.
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Time for universal backup beeps
Not everyone is blind or deaf, but a good fraction of people (like me) have hearing loss and impaired vision. Many of them are driving cars. I've had one of them nearly back over me, and yes it was a silent Prius.
I am all for improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the streets. As traffic czar, I would mandate that every new car emit a beep when backing up, just as trucks and buses do. Next, I would mandate that cars stop blatting their horns when the owner walks away--a secondary horn with a mellow tone would be allowable as an opt-in feature. Finally, I would mandate that car alarms transmit a signal to the owners' keysets or cell phones--their choice--and emit no audible noise to the surroundings.
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But what about when the callous buttheads start driving them?
Luckily, they pose little danger, as nearly all Prius drivers are extraordinarily attentive to cyclist anxieties and give us a wide berth when they pass. But I can understand why a blind person might be nervous.
RIGHT NOW, Prius drivers are mostly progressive people who probably ride bicycles themselves and have all kinds of wonderful PC sensitivities to laboratory mice and whales and blind people etc.
Why should the blind people and cyclists be nervous? Because eventually these silent car-weapons will be wielded by the aggro-driving butthead types of people who aren't sensitive to much of anything at all.
We won't have accurate statistics on the safety of the Prius until they're selling outside of the sensitive PC early adopter green demographic.
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The only thing more dangerous than a silent prius...
Is the silent, black prius without headlights on at night. That stealth prius will mow you down!
I've seen this multiple times in LA...
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@ kitchengrrl
And all new Toyotas, it seems, is that all the gauges are in the middle of the dash instead of above and behind the steering wheel, which means the driver's eyes are now drawn *away* from the road when doing things like eyeballing the spedometer.
Don't think the Prius has the center instruments, but my Echo certainly does. And I love it.
It was a little weird to get used to at first, but I can now check all my instruments with a quick glance. I find when I drive other cars, checking gauges is actually more of a distraction because my view is blocked by the wheel, and sometimes my hands. As a result I have to move my whole head to see the relevant numbers. Reading center console gauges is no different than checking the rear view mirror.