Sneaky Car Problem

FAOL Community Sound Off
1

hybrid cars are very quiet when they back up and when they go slowly through a parking lot. this means pedestrians in front of you have no idea at all that you’re there. they wander all over the place, don’t corral their children, stop suddenly, and generally create an awful situation. i really don’t want to honk at them because it’s rude and loud and will upset them.

the answer is a Bermuda bell such as fancy cars used to have in the 1950s. it makes a sound like a door bell–DINGDONG!–which is just about right for the task. however, nobody makes them anymore, and my attempts to google one up have not been successful.

so perhaps a bicycle bell glued to the outside rear-view mirror would work. the plastic on that mirror has a most amazing finish, though: [i]nothing sticks to it.

[/i]my buddies on this forum have solved a lot of problems for me over the past few years–any ideas, guys?

2

toyota was in the news this week demonstrating a prius hybrid that made a whirring sound so people could hear it coming

blowing the horn that came with the car should help to warn people.

there are aftermarket kits to add the back up warning beeper to cars that dont have it.

3

thanks Normand. going forward is my real problem. and the horn is really too loud!

4

Casey, i know this may be a long shot but have you tried Ebaby for Bermuda Bells/other kinds of bells/whistles/etc ? You might find something there or at least some ideas.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

5

How 'bout stick your head out the window and make some funny sound with a Kazoo? ;o)

6

You could try something like this; http://www.cogapa.com/

7

MM, the last Bermuda Bell sold on E=Bay went in 2005. it was a real antique–or old-tique if you want to be technical–and cost over $100 dollars. hope i find something a bit cheaper.

8

Go to a auto parts store and explain the issue. I will bet they have something you can added under the hood with a inside button. Maybe something with a nice taser sound. You can alway wrap it in fiberglass or something non-combustible and tone it down a little.

9

Casey, i’ve got it ! A couple of ‘sleigh bells’ from Target or the like, fastened to something you can hold in your hand and out the window…they’ll think you’re Santa ! And yes, i checked Ebaby and the Bermuda Bells are spendy there. Other options would include a single hand held ‘dinner/school bell’ maybe.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

10

How about leaving the window down, turning up the volume on your CD player, and popping in the theme song to “Close encounters of the Third Kind”? (or “Dueling Banjos” in Nashville…)

Ed

11

Earl Pitts would say, " If it don’t make no noise nor spit out no black smoke, it don’t blong on da road! Pitts off!"

Guess you had to be a Pitts fan back in the 70’s. Come to think of it, he never did take the Ohirer Nationnal Guard and attack Californ i a, did he?

12

well, i’m certainly glad i have this group to throw out problems to! :slight_smile:

sleigh bells are expected at Michael’s any day now, and mine will be kept for me behind the register. i can hang the red leather ring off the mirror.

dinner bell is on order. that will make people think the Salvation Army kettle folk are out already, and they will certainly quicken their steps.

this car has no cassette player, so my Sports Jam tape will have to be converted by the friendly fellow at the local multi-lingual radio station; “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!” should just about do it, at least until all those Right Thinking People pass that noise ordinance they’ve been threatening.

(BTW, the last time i blew into a parking lot on two wheels blasting that particular tune, the campus cop couldn’t find where it was coming from. he simply couldn’t match a well-dressed, gray-haired lady teacher in a little silver Prius with his expectations. perfect camoflage. see? you can learn from the trout!)

and for Christmas, my family has been instructed to get me that mini-PA-thingie. that has to win the prize! :slight_smile:

13

I suggest a big fat woofer on your back shelf with a Matallica CD at top volume. That certainly would bet me to move far away in a big hurry.

jed

14

Casey,

Go to www.jcwhitney.com and search for horns. They have a lovely selection of musical horns, wimpy little European horns, animal horns, and my personal favorite, Aoogah horns. The also have “Make them jump out of their socks” 130 db air horns if you are feeling really ornery, or horns that sound like the ones on a diesel locomotive. They have been in business forever and have great customer service. If you can not find a suitable horn there, you just better give up.

15

kbproctor, thank you! i have always wanted a loud train horn to blow away air-headed drivers.

however, in this case, i need a gentle sound that won’t scare folks out of their skin.

and i found one! scroll past the wolf whistles, train horns, aooogahs, and you will find a Bermuda Bell.

www.nazztalgia.com/horns/

but really, some of your ideas are much more fun…:slight_smile:

16

Well, doesn’t the Prius already have a gentle sound?

What? No musical horn playing “La Cucaracha”? :lol:

17

I do not own a electric car, but when driving my Saturn VUE, anytime that I am backing up I have my driver’s window down! As I am backing up, I am yelling “Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep Beep…” Wish I could disconnect the cars security system alarm, again with the “Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep…” and somehow attach it to my transmission being shifted into reverse gear!

More people get run over by vehicles in parking lots, by vehicles backing out of parking spots, then being run over by by walking in front of a motor vehicle.

Either which way, people do not stop and look both ways when they step off the curb. Then there are those that do not cross at 90 degrees to the roadway, they cross on the diagonal, all of these pedestrian seem to all suffer from stiff necks when walking! Does not matter if it is a parking lot, or crossing a street (including the Jaywalkers who cross where there is no crossing painted across the pavement from curb-to-curb, and most of them have either Ipods or the new cellphones stuck in their ear (ears) not being able to hear any car honking its horn!

I am beginning to believe that drivers should be complimented, instead of issuing moving violation tickets, for this “THINNING OF THE NERD”, who seemed determined to remove themselves from propogating another generation of idtiots!

Then there are the joggers, that are out at O’Dark Hundred, running down the middle of the road, wearing a jogging outfit that is completely black, with no battery operated flashers to show that their is a pedistrian on the roadway! Pedistrians that are walking or jogging, folks riding bicycles in the dark with no reflectors or lights (wearing black biking clothing) where motorize vehicles are licensed to drive.

When I was a contract carrier delivering newspapers for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, I pulled around a corn onto a the route, and there in my headlights was a jogger running down the middle of the road in front of me. Iwas able to swerve the vehicle and not hit the jogger, who as I passed punched me in the face through the open drivers window of the my vehicle.

Another time I almost hit 3 men standing in the middle of the road in a area of the road with no street lights to illuminate, the men were drinking beer.

Delivering newspapers every night year round, I also get stopped by the police to see if I have been drinking. Since this when the local police department make all their money, arresting druck drivers as the bars clear out. During my 5 years as a Contract Carrier for the paper, I average 18 pull-over per year, which cause me a delay in delivering of the newspapers, while the police officer is running my driver’s license number through the computer. The police cars are the scariest thing on the road at night, they pull out of their ambush site, and pull up on your bumper, before they hit the lights and the siren! So of the officers that I met in this fashion, pulled me over numerous times in the same year… even though they know my vehicle, and that I don’t drink and drive, and I am delivering newspapers…

This is a true story from the http://www.darwinawards.com/

(12 September 2007, Florida) A woman wins two concert tickets from a local radio station. The Dave Matthews Band, live! She can’t believe her luck. She invites her friend to join her, but they are in for more than a concert experience.

Flash forward to the next morning. My buddy, head of operations at the amphitheater, looks like hell. He tells me that two women were killed the previous night at the concert. I am shocked. Nothing like this has ever happened at the amphitheater. I ask for details.
Flash back to the previous evening, 8:30pm and pouring rain. The show is delayed. Two women leave the venue to escape the rain. They pass multiple free shuttle buses that run directly to the parking lot. Instead, they opt for a shortcut across a 7-lane Interstate.

They run a hundred yards through wet grass and jump a six-foot fence that borders the road. Ahead are 3 lanes of freeway traffic, a 100’ median, and another 4 lanes of traffic. Beyond that is another six-foot fence, the maze of an ‘under construction’ garage, and a long hike around a casino.

All in all, the ‘shortcut’ to their vehicle covers a distance of half a mile. And the women are in a torrential thunderstorm. Free shuttle bus, or mad dash across dangerous territory?

My buddy was an eyewitness when the first vehicle struck the women at 8:30 pm. Oddly, this was in the first lane of traffic, on a straightaway where one can see headlights for miles in either direction. The impact hurled the women farther into traffic, and each was struck by a second car. They did not survive the collisions.

Ironically, one of the women was an “energetic and gifted athlete” who won two national championships in gymnastics. Physical prowess is no substitute for the homespun maxim: “Stop. Look. Listen. Or tomorrow you’ll be missing.”

18

Parnelli,

You can get a replacement bulb for one of your backup lights that is a beeper as well as a lightbulb. If they don’t have it at the local Auto Parts store, try JC Whitney online.

19

Well, doesn’t the Prius already have a gentle sound?
oh, yeah, the rest of the story…to cut to the chase: the 1992 Prius hit a large raccoon on I 895 south of Baltimore one night last November, and even though it ran fine for a couple of months, my son-in-law insisted i take it in. $2000 later the extra radiator that cools the battery had been replaced, along with plenty of other bits and bobs. then the news about the brakes came out. i’d spent 6 years complaining about them to no avail. off to the Ford dealership to try out the new Escape hybrid. the fly rods fit front to back and that’s all she wrote!

people could always hear me in the Prius, but not in the Escape. go figure…