I love peace and quiet too, but I can only imagine how dangerous it would be to be blind and try to cross a street when one of the cars coming down the road wasn’t making any sound. A generated faux engine sound to help the blind is one I’d be happy to put up with.
When I’m crossing a street, all I hear is tire noise, not engine noise.
We live in a city with a school for the blind and yes electric cars and bicycles are an issue for them. And of course once they graduate they are off to other parts of the country so it is an issue everywhere. Actually for kids too that don’t always look where they are going.
Insightful makes a good point. ICE cars are quiet, most of the noise is tire noise.
I like the food at Chili’s but the loud music drives me away. I once asked the manager if he could turn it down so we could actually talk. He refused and said it was “part of the Chili experience”.
I’ll leave that experience to others.
1 Like
"I’ll leave that experience to others. "
+1
If a restaurant has the type of environment where I have to shout in order to be heard by the waitress, and if I can’t converse with my dining companions without shouting, I will not return.
1 Like
It’s there, insightful, you just don’t notice it because you have your sight to rely on.
I’ll accept the word of those who don’t have that luxury.
My experience with the Tesla that drove behind me on a clean, smooth parking lot made me realize just how quiet they can actually be. It’s spooky.
So I would prefer to equip people who have limited vision with an apparatus to help them rather than subject everyone to some obnoxious noise. A pleasant noise is not going to work, it has to get your attention. Just look at backup beepers. Do they really need to be THAT loud? Seriously. I mean you can hear those from 1/4 mile away.
So why not have the vehicle emit some type of warning tone in a frequency range that humans cannot hear? Free receivers if you’re vision impaired. Maybe even built right into a cane or one you wear around your neck that buzzes and beeps…
Yeah, I’ve asked them to turn down the dang music too to no avail. Seems like if you are at a place with a bar and restaurant, they seem to think they need to cater to a younger crowd and crank up the CD player.
Now I have my sight, and hearing, and am not crippled but I would just ask you to reconsider what some folks go through on a daily basis. With the ADA we have curb cuts for wheel chairs, and braille room numbers (even on libraries), and HC parking places, and outfitted restrooms. Businesses provide electric carts for those that find walking difficult and we make many other adjustments for people with challenges. (Wake up Europe) Just seems a small item to provide some type of warning for those that cannot see in this age of reasonable accommodations.
There have been cases where noisemakers have been added to electric trains specifically to warn blind people of their approach.
People that depend on hearing, like the sight impaired, can cross at corners with 4-way stop signs. In cities with traffic lights, I have crossed at traffic lights with audible alarms. They chirp slowly when the don’t walk sign is illuminated and quickly when the walk sign is lit. We just had a few street corners modified in my neighborhood to accommodate sight impaired people. Those yellow rubber m ATS with the bumps were installed to alert those that can’t see the corner, and there were stop signs there already.
Around here the trains are supposed to whistle every time they are close to a passing, no matter where/when. Don’t ask me how I know! It is a safety requirement. The same logic could be applied to hybrids too.
I have had a few close calls with distracted hybrid drivers on local streets when jogging. You really have to be careful.
Why not put a detector on the quiet vehicles that emits a warning sound when someone is close ? Even my Dakota with AS tires is quiet enough to slip up on most animals, my moter comments on how quiet it is (I am sure it wasnt specifically engineered to be quiet) still have never figured out why they didnt put the CRD engines in those things ,believe the sales would have jumped it would have made an mediocre package quite frugal .
Agree 100%. Unfortunately, I have had to rule out many otherwise good restaurants for that reason. Don’t understand why they think loud music enhances the dining experience … I suspect some restaurateur’s magazine did a pseudo-survay and published that result, and they all are copying that idea.
About like the current trend to turn the bar seats by 45º because it looks inviting. Someone started it and now they all are. Innocuous, but silly.
Hopefully the loud music bit is a fad and will die away. Hopefully…
The Toyota RAV4 is quite impressive and quiet. Take one for a spin and judge for yourself.
Hey folks:
Craig Fitzgerald here from BestRide. I have a somewhat definitive answer for you on quietness among the smaller crossovers.
When the updated CR-V Touring arrived last fall, we compared its interior noise against the prior generation CR-V. The noise in that was the number one complaint about that vehicle.
We also compared it to the Ford Escape Titanium.
We used a sound meter to measure decibels at the same speed, on the same stretch of road.
The result: the current CR-V was significantly quieter than the CR-V it replaced, by a lot at the peak.
But the Escape was significantly quieter inside, despite the fact that by the time I drove it on the same stretch of road, it started raining steadily and the wipers were on.
You can see the full results here: http://bestride.com/reviews/previews/first-drive-2015-honda-cr-v
Hope this info helps.
2 Likes
Craig - please remove the link, could be considered spam.
Best Ride is a Car Talk partner so not really Spam but does seem silly to add to an old post .
Hi there. Nothing to be alarmed about - I can vouch for Craig. I’m going to leave the link in. And as for the recent arrival of a response to something that had been answered some time ago – I wouldn’t call it silly. Problems come around again and again, and who knows? Someone will likely be searching for that info.
2 Likes
A wet road significantly changes the sound spectrum, so the comparison is not valid.