I would guess that people get used to loud noises; by making it obnoxious, you’re making it very hard for those exposed to it every day to ignore it.
Apparently, they do some good, but could be done differently with hopefully better results and less annoyance. Cite.
Most industrial sites that I’m familiar with now require a flag-person whenever a large truck is backing-up. What this usually means for contractors is that a truck that normally just had a driver now has a driver and a flag-person. Think what it would do to your unemployment if you Yanks mandated a flag-person for all reversing large trucks!
I can’t do that for you, but I can tell you when I was driving a big truck with a back up bell, people would routinely walk right behind it as I was backing up. It was only because I was extremely paranoid about watching my mirrors that I didn’t hit anyone, but there was one close call where a guy smacked the back of the truck when I got too close to him. I jumped out of the cab and ran around to make sure I hadn’t hit anyone to find this pissed off guy yelling at me for not watching where I was going! Uh, dude? I can’t see directly behind me, hence the back up bell? Duh.
Oh, we still have them - garbage trucks every Wednesday morning (three each day), construction trucks, UPS, etc.
I have back up bells on my van. I also honk my horn. I can’t SEE, get out of my way.
It makes me crazy when people look at my van, they even make eye contact with me and then they run behind me anyhow.
As for not using them…I have a crippled friend who was working construction and someone disabled their beepers and backed up over my friend. He’s got lots of money now. He will never get his leg back.
Once, I almost ran a kid over backing out of a grocery store parking lot in my car. I was looking around, using my mirrors and moving out slowly. One of those very responsible parents let her toddler run to their car behind my car and I knocked him on his butt because I couldn’t see him.
Please, parents of small children, don’t let them run around in parking lots. They are hard to see and if their small size makes it so that someone can’t see them while backing out, bad things could happen.
Considering your username, do they go BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP?
Don’t even get me started about the loud-ass barking dogs in my neighborhood. Oh how I want to cook up some special, poisoned steaks and slip them to them in the dead of the night. (I wouldn’t do it but yes, I’ve considered murdering a dog before - it’s that fucking obnoxious and persistent)
That and the jackasses with motorcycles (and the occasional unmuffled car engine) louder than jet engines roaring down the roads at every time of day and night. Do these assholes think everyone is ooohing and ahhhing at how powerful their engines are? A close cousin of these guys are the ones who go around with booming stereos that can shake the foundation of every building within a 10-block radius. Fuck them all. Fuck them in the ass.
I wonder if rear-view cameras wouldn’t be a better option? My car has one, and it’s totally changed how I back out of a spot. If I’m parked on a slanted-space parking lot, I can see the entire way down the lane, and due to the ‘fish eye’ effect things directly behind me are exaggeratedly large. It would be incredibly difficult for me to accidentally hit something while backing up.
They can’t be that expensive. Why not just make it a standard safety feature?
7? The garbage trucks in my neighborhood come any time between 11pm and 6am, and it’s daily! If I ever get hold of the city councilor in charge of that…
Quoted for unintentional humour.
Yes, if I’m about to be squished, I would like to be alerted quietly. Quiet alerts. Nextly, I’d like to tone down the palette of warning colours from garish angry reds, oranges and yellows. Something subtle involving pastels.
Awesome post/username combo.
to be fair:
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they have to be annoying, that’s how they get your attention. Ever wonder why alarm clocks have such a screechy tone? Same reason, it’s unpleasant and attention-getting.
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having driven box trucks, the lack of a rear-view mirror is really limiting. The driver cannot see anything directly behind the truck! Sorry it bothers you, but I’d rather not have to live with having injured or killed someone by backing over them.
Thanks to those who endorse me. To those who stress that there’s worse things in the world, you’re right, but if only those people got to post here who have a legitimate beef with the universe (“Fuck this fucking famine - Get us some food down here in Africa already!!!”) and all other pit threads were disallowed, we could probably dispense with the pit. There’s always someone who has it worse, thank goodness! But yesterday I was raging (:mad:) and wanted to vent so I would feel better (:)).
As for all the horrible stories of people run over - unless I can get a cite that this system saves lives and there’s no other way that would work at least as well (and I don’t believe such a cite is forthcoming) I am going to stick with my rant. For the moment, I think the balance between individual responsibility and the collective burden is way off.
Finally - whatever you might find funny about my posts, I meant for you to find funny. It’s all intentional, my humor!
The truck drivers who service the loading docks in my office building and the one across the alley every day have apparently determined that the backup beepers are not sufficient, so they honk their horns multiple times too.
This is my complaint. People ignore them unless they find out its THEIR car. I’m all for making the key fob make the same obnoxious noise as the car alarm. That way you’ll know its YOUR car and you’ll at least pay attention to it!
Reminds me of the local snowplow driver. Always comes by and does a remarkably thorough job of plowing the street. At least he tries. I know he tries because at three in the morning he’s driving up the street…and backing (beep beep beep) up, and driving up the street again…and backing (beep beep beep) up. Then he turns the corner and drives up the street…and backs (beep beep beep) up. Then back up the street…and back (beep beep beep) again. Then he turns a different way and goes up the street…then he backs (beep beep beep) up.
And this isn’t blizzard plowing either. This is maybe a quarter inch of snow. He will not rest until every last single solitary snowflake is plowed out of the road. Nobody else will rest either. Maybe that’s the point though. God knows if I was out of my comfy comfy bed at three in the morning, I’d be pissed enough to punish those still sleeping.
Perhaps you can rant quietly. It should be just as effective.
A flashing light would be as effective and less annoying, perhaps.
Yes - then when people who were looking at the vehicle reversing toward them saw the light flashing, they would instantly know the vehicle they were watching reverse toward them, was reversing toward them.
Well, since most people object to the noise at night, then yeah, unless they were blind, they’d notice a flashing light even if they weren’t facing the vehicle. In short, lights at night, beeps in the daytime. (This might pose some problems in extremely well-lit places, I can see)