Hybrids, the silent killers, part two

September 29, 2009 6:09 PM

Three and a half years ago, a wise and farsighted Metafilter member wrote a FPP warning that hybrid electric vehicles silent electric motors posed a danger to pedestrians and cyclists. Some ridiculed him, but a study just published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (PDF) documents that hybrids are twice as likely to be involved in pedestrian and bicyclist crashes as their internal combustion engine-powered counterparts. And hybrid manufacturers are planning to add sound to their vehicles. In the mean time, is their a way to clip playing cards against the wheels?
posted by mojohand (23 comments total)

Does linking to your own MetaFilter profile page count as a self-link?
posted by grouse at 6:13 PM on September 29, 2009

The depth of human stupidity knows no bounds.
posted by DU at 6:13 PM on September 29, 2009

I'm just going to start screaming constantly when I drive. Wait, I do that already. God, I hate driving.
posted by boo_radley at 6:14 PM on September 29, 2009 [3 favorites]

Also did you break your wrist making this post?
posted by boo_radley at 6:14 PM on September 29, 2009 [6 favorites]

Man, you took self-link to a new level! I remember that post. I was still a lurker then. I read meta for almost two years before joining.

The Fisker Karma luxury plug-in hybrid might use a sound halfway between a jet engine and an F1 racecar.

Can I say, as someone that suffers from worsening tinnitus, that this sounds like an incredibly bad idea. I'm all for keeping blind people and pedestrians alive, and this seems like a more realistic option than Start Seeing Cars bumper stickers, but one of the appeals to me is these cars are so quiet.

Even moderate road noise can be painful to me, and some cars have engines so loud I would never consider buying one.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:16 PM on September 29, 2009

I am also fucking awesome.
posted by fire&wings at 6:18 PM on September 29, 2009 [4 favorites]

Is narcissism a form of excessive editorializing?
posted by GuyZero at 6:18 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

The depth of human stupidity knows no bounds.

To what does this refer? Understand, I'm not arguing the point, but...

You really can't hear these things, and early in the ownership of my Prius I learned that I needed to assume that people really didn't know I was there, especially in the parking lot of my school (where it gets pretty hectic in the afternoons.)
posted by Huck500 at 6:18 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

WOW YOU SURE SHOWED US
posted by Flunkie at 6:19 PM on September 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

Does calling yourself wise and enlightened in your MetaFilter post which contains an egregious typo count as a Muphry's Law?
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 6:23 PM on September 29, 2009

I am also fucking awesome.

Well, your blog is.

Looks like the linking to the OP's profile is causing a derail. Previously?
posted by cjorgensen at 6:23 PM on September 29, 2009

Farsighted. Not enlightened. The law, she giveth and she taketh away...
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 6:24 PM on September 29, 2009

Oh dear. Either the preamble was not as funny as I thought it was, or some folks are extra cranky this evening. I'm going with the latter, but I got a feeling I'll be in the minority.
posted by mojohand at 6:26 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

To what does this refer?

Incorrect solutions applied to symptoms, rather than correct solutions to underlying problems.
posted by DU at 6:29 PM on September 29, 2009

The law, in its majestic equality, allows bicyclists and pedestrians alike to be smashed flat by hybrid cars.
posted by turgid dahlia at 6:29 PM on September 29, 2009

I envision a future where we walk in to buy new cars and one of the options presented to us is Which Recording Would You Like Your Tires To Belch Repeatedly? like on a little clipboard ... and I will write, Mr. T.
posted by mannequito at 6:29 PM on September 29, 2009

boo_radley: "Also did you break your wrist making this post?"

posted by mojohand

eponysterical
posted by Joe Beese at 6:31 PM on September 29, 2009

I, for one, will not be satisfied until they make little Jetsons noises as they cruise by.
posted by webmutant at 6:33 PM on September 29, 2009 [4 favorites]

I don't see any harm in adding noisemakers, but is this a real problem, or is it just that hybrids are driven way more in urban areas where pedestrian collisions happen? I have heard some pretty damn quiet gasoline cars, when they're new and/or well-tuned.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:34 PM on September 29, 2009

I'd love to snark at this post, but having once almost been run over by a silent hybrid in a parking lot, I find myself constrained to simply observe that one often doesn't realize how much one relies on the sense of hearing for cues to the environment.
posted by darkstar at 6:37 PM on September 29, 2009

I took the wise and farsighted advice to heart years ago, and perform all my drive-by shootings in a golf cart.
posted by Tube at 6:37 PM on September 29, 2009

Is there any way they could surreptitiously mumble "hybrid." in the "landshark" voice? Cause I would be on board with that?
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:38 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Which just goes to prove my theory: in the future, whistle tips will be legally mandatory.
posted by koeselitz at 6:39 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]