In Berkeley, the Toyota Prius has replaced the Volvo as the car of choice. The local Toyota dealer proclaims himself the number 1 Prius dealer in the USA, and based on what I see on the streets, I believe him. About every 4rth car I see on my walk to work is a Prius (for whatever reason, the Honda Insight is a distant second in hybrid market share). Given the local mores and conditions in Berkeley, it makes sense, and I applaud people for putting their wallets where their mouths are. Priuses are a bit pricy upfront, but they are safe, energy efficient, minimally smog and greenhouse gas producing, and unlike so many other things that are good for you, they are even attractive. They seem like the perfect commuter car, which is what most of us use our cars for 90% of the time. So what's not to love, if you can afford one?
The quiet. When the Prius is running on battery power, as it often does in city driving it is very quiet. So quiet, you can't hear it from 5 feet away. Aficionados of the car refer to it as being in stealth-mode when it is on batteries. While I imagine this is a boon to the driver, it means the car is a menace to pedestrians. At least in my case, without realizing it, I generally use my hearing as much or more than my vision to guide me in crossing the street. Glance to the left, glance to the right, and go. I depend on my ears to tell me if a car is approaching the stop sign too fast to stop, or turning right on red without stopping, or crossing against the light. With the Prius, you don't get any warning -- the car literally sneaks up on you. After nearly being run over several times in the last month, and again this night on the way back from the Berkeley Cybersalon, I did a little research and turned up quite a few mentions of this problem, the scariest from a blind person's perspective, something I hadn't even thought of. I wasn't able to find any statistics on the matter, but I'd bet that the number of car-pedestrian accidents per mile driven is quite a bit higher for Priuses than most cars.
Technology and humans are such a fun mix. Ridiculous as it seems, the Toyota engineers need to find a way to make the car nosier, even if it involves something as silly as recordings of internal combustion engine noises that the car plays through an external speaker when the car is in battery mode. Or maybe they can be more creative, and create a mechanism whereby people can download "pedtones" to their car for their cars to play. Maybe some Priuses will purr, while others roar or bark or repeat the chorus of the latest pop tune? In any case, human society has evolved in conjunction with the internal combustion engine for the last 100 years, and it will be a lot simpler to modify the new technology to add noise than to change people's habits. Think QUERTY vs. Dvorak keyboard. I just hope the Toyota engineers solve this problem before the class-action lawyers spring into action. In the meantime, when crossing the street in Berkeley, WATCH out.
Cross posted in the Berkeley Blog.
Posted by Geodog at July 17, 2005 02:05 AM | TrackBackMy apologies, but my web hoster has turned off commenting, due to a flood of obscene spam bringing the server to its knees. I hope to have this weblog transitioned over to Wordpress in the near future, so that I can have commenting up and working again. Until then, please feel free to send me your comments via my email contact form.. Please ignore everything below this comment.
Didn't your parents tell yout o look both ways before crossing the street? I understand where you are coming from but it gets to the point that you just have to use some common sense.
Yes, and I am teaching a child how to cross the street right now. That's how I learned that we say LOOK both ways, but what we actually do is LISTEN.
Plus, what about blind people?
Posted by: Tim on July 18, 2005 01:24 AMWe drive a Ford Escape hybrid and have been laughing about being in "stealth mode" for some time, but the issue of having some audible warning is a serious one that we'll have to discuss.
Personally, I like the idea of loud purring, with occasional meows thrown in for good measure. But I suppose there'll have to be some sort of universally recognized sound that means "I am a an electric or hybrid car sneaking up on you from behind."
Of course, we could just open the windows with the radio or a CD playing, but I'm sure someone will come up with an iPod mod of some type real soon.
Posted by: ginny on July 18, 2005 03:44 PMI know of what you speak. Kat and I have had a Prius since 2001, and I'm now more concious of the fact I don't make as much noise when driving. When I have to drive another car, it always seems very, very loud. In "stealth mode" at even 30 or 40 MPH, the Prius is very quiet. I had a close call while driving in Great Sand Dunes, NP in Colorado several years ago. A guy was hiking along side the road, and it not being a frequently visited park, he just started crossing over to the other side without looking. It was almost his last mistake. He looked sheepish when I screeched to a halt, but also looked totally surprised that a car was within a mile of him.
I don't think Priuses (Priii?) are particularly expensive up front at $22K for a 5-passenger car with a good amount of cargo space. Sure, if you pay a premium to get one *now* they can be, but that's not necessary unless you need a car *now*.
I'd be interested to see the stats on where Priuses sell best. I've seen a lot in Berkeley, but the area I've seen the most is right here at home in Oakland, 94611. We were even partly responsible for two different neighbors getting hybrids (one a Prius, the other a Honda Civic). Besides the great mileage and low emissions, they're just great cars.
And BTW, it's QWERTY, not QUERTY (or are you trying to type on a Dvorak keyboard? :-) And in fairness, the resistance to change to Dvorak seems legimate, as the 'big speed increases' were shown in studies done by Dvorak and his supporters. Other studies showed little or no speed increase.
Posted by: Gene on July 19, 2005 09:08 PMThis is a strong argument for people to be riding Harleys...
Seriously, after much research my spouse decided that the car to buy was a Jetta diesel which he is driving on biodiesel and plans to convert to 100% WVO (waste vegetable oil) in the fall. Not as quiet, but uses even less fossil fuels than a hybrid, and the turbo gives it some power as well. OK so the noise and the subtle french fry odor will let you know that we are coming.
As a friend who has a Civic hybrid said "I feel good driving the hybrid, but would have more fun driving the biodiesel"
Posted by: Claire on July 20, 2005 01:48 PMHey Geodog -- I think I agree with most of your cockamamie positions on politics and whatnot, but this has got to be one of the most assinine ideas I've ever had the displeasure to read.
Noise is the enemy of all natural society, both for animal and man. The LAST thing we need to do on Earth is create more noise, especially in a realm where unnecessary noise has already been eliminated. We already have to deal with the hourly intrusions of some idiot's cell phone playing J-Lo or 50 Cent every time they get a call and now you want people to be able to "play ringtones" out of their fucking car?
Jesus H. Christ! Just make the effort to look both ways before stepping into a road where cars are known to pass. As for blind folks, they (and their hearing) are much more sensitive and adaptive then yours or mine, so I don't think we need to create a special class of protected citizenry just so they can walk across the street safely in the age of electronic cars.
Please don't help the world of idiots out there trying to make products that are noisier and more intrusive than what we already have. You truly would be doing no one a favor.
PS - 4 out of 5 bloggers prefer wordpress over, well... whatever this whole mess is.
Posted by: David M. on August 5, 2005 09:40 AMHey Geodog -- I think I agree with most of your cockamamie positions on politics and whatnot, but this has got to be one of the most assinine ideas I've ever had the displeasure to read.
Noise is the enemy of all natural society, both for animal and man. The LAST thing we need to do on Earth is create more noise, especially in a realm where unnecessary noise has already been eliminated. We already have to deal with the hourly intrusions of some idiot's cell phone playing J-Lo or 50 Cent every time they get a call and now you want people to be able to "play ringtones" out of their fucking car?
Jesus H. Christ! Just make the effort to look both ways before stepping into a road where cars are known to pass. As for blind folks, they (and their hearing) are much more sensitive and adaptive then yours or mine, so I don't think we need to create a special class of protected citizenry just so they can walk across the street safely in the age of electronic cars.
Please don't help the world of idiots out there trying to make products that are noisier and more intrusive than what we already have. You truly would be doing no one a favor.
PS - 4 out of 5 bloggers prefer wordpress over, well... whatever this whole mess is.
Posted by: David M. on August 5, 2005 09:42 AM