Quiet Hybrids and Pedestrian Deaths
The Mercury News has an article that pushes the idea that because hybrids are so quiet, they pose a risk to pedestrians who can’t hear them coming. The article goes to great lengths to state that this is the responsibility of either the pedestrian or the hybrid technology, but not one of the driver. Check out this choice quote.
For now, some drivers have their own solutions. When Joe Smith of Fremont pulls his hybrid into a parking lot, he says, “I try to remember to crank up the radio and roll down a window so they can hear me coming.”
Yeah, I guess that’s better than actually looking out for pedestrians and making sure you don’t kill anyone. After all, it’s not their sidewalk, it’s your driveway.
Meanwhile, over forty-thousand people are killed in car accidents in the US every year and nearly three million are injured or maimed.
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Comments (5)
This is why we need Carports. Like Airports every city would have a Carport or multiple Carports. The highways would only link from Carport to Carport. Once you got to a carport you would switch to a little electric car with a top speed of 20 MPG to drive around town with. No normal cars would be allowed on any roads but carport roads. And the electric cars would have pillows or vibrating massage pads for wheels so that if one of them ran over you you’d be all like “thanks, that was relaxing!”
I do that on purpose in my Prius. I try to sneak up on people in parking lots. It’s pretty easy, unless you’re driving on gravel.
so the obvious solution is to outlaw hybrids and give more tax breaks for SUVs — cuz in that end, that would save the children from dangerous hybrid cars.
i admit, i didn’t read the article, but sometimes you gotta wonder about stories like these. i mean, i do praise the journalists/editors for finding rather off-beat story idea and presenting a contrarian argument against hybrids, but you have to wonder what the motivation is. is it a warning to hybrid drivers? is it a warning to pedestrians?
nonetheless, good find, christian, and interesting to think about.
Ever notice that that word “hybrids” starts with an “H”? Much like another word, that ends with “omos”.
Notice she was driving a Hybrid SUV.
Quiet, but still gas consuming, and with an already skewed pedestrian fatality rate