Only if Chevy introduces a hybrid Astro van.
Yes, and the horn should go “RUH-ROH! RUH-ROH!”
I’m thinking a rotating medley of attention-getting, but not terrifying sounds:
High heels echoing in a hallway.
Children giggling, then going shhh.
A crowd cheering on a radio.
A cheap duck call that doesn’t sound much like a duck.
The Big Bopper’s “Helloo, baayby.”
Breaking glass.
Number nine, number nine, number nine…
Sounds of a tennis ball being whacked around.
A gentle drum fill with brushes on a tom and closed hi-hat.
An umpire’s cry, “Saaaafe!”
Four repetitions of Pete Seeger singing the line, “I’d hammer out a warning.”
Bacon sizzling.
“Cruisetones”. The perfect name. Has all the right associations, everything from lowriders to Fifties to Beach Boys to racers, depending on your particular culture.
I go to design the marketing collateral. We’ll mock up the product later.
I could see the average noise level of city streets gradually decreasing as more and more cars in city traffic are running on electrics. Perhaps an adaptive volume control to make the car just a little quieter than the average surrounding vehicles. (Obviously, it wouldn’t be a good idea to make it just a little louder, because then you’d get positive feedback in a group of such vehicles, as each out-loudened the others. We want a virtuous circle.)
Exactly!
Ooh, you might be onto something with this one. If we program all the cars to be on rhythm but with different patterns, we could have a constant drum jam on the highway!
I call dibs on the 'duns! 
And someone will show up with their car on Electric Guitar setting. And someone else with tablas. And vocal samples. And the mighty pipe organ. And each night, as the sun goes down, the Symphony of the Streets begins again.
Sorry, we need more cowbell.
I mentioned this thread to a friend of mine, and her suggestion is Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”.
She also likes the “putt-putt” sound that cars used to make in old cartoons.
I would support something to make these hybrids noisier. Maybe someday they will be common and we would have a chance at making the roads quieter overall, but until then we may as well make these few cars louder for the sake of safety. It’s not as if having 1% of the cars be silent will serve any purpose.
I don’t agree that someone is stupid not to look for them. It’s just something that people get used to, that becomes a habit. Anyway, it’s better to be able to hear cars. You can’t constantly be spinning your head around in a parking lot, for instance.
Yeah, but I posted a few months ago about a pedestrian on a cellphone that stepped in front of a fast moving cyclist and me (also a fast moving cyclist). My injuries were nothing to write home about (although I had to buy a new helmet), but the guy on the bike ahead of me was hurt pretty bad and needed medical attention.
You can still get quite seriously injured or cause serious injuries if you just blindly step out into a street. A bike crashing into a pedestrian at 20 miles an hour can do a lot of damage to both pedestrian and rider. In the aforementioned case, there wasn’t even time to ring a bell, but the dolt on the phone probably wouldn’t have noticed it anyway. (She didn’t even know she’d caused an accident, despite all the bystanders who were yelling at her.)
This I agree with. I can’t stand the thought of making noise for the sake of noise. If you’re careless, then you should have to deal with the consequences of your own behavior.
But as a matter of accommodating disabilities, there’s got to be a happy medium. Our computer keyboards could be silent, but most of them make ticking sounds as you type, just to help you out.
I still favor improving tools for the visually impaired, rather than making extra car noise.
My buddies in-laws live in Spain and their car makes beeping sounds whenver another vehicle passes through their blind spot, that way they never have to do shoulder checks when they change lanes. The beeping makes him crazy and he avoids getting into their car whenever possible.
Uh, what about blind people?
Please read the full post.
ETA: Also, the almost duplicate thread.
What? No love for Speed Buggy?
Or perhaps by occupation?
Cooks: sizzle of a steak
Writers: typewriter clicking
Music teachers: a metronome
Retail sales: ka-ching
Ranchers: cluck, neigh, bleat or oink
Weather forecasters: the sound of rain
Stripper: zipper
Teachers: fingernails on chalk board :eek:
Dentist: drill :eek: :eek:
How about adding a cowcatcher.
Then for a sound I go for Good Humor Truck.
Actually, “cruisetones” would be a good idea. I’ll add the Fran Drescher as one of the tones.
We could all have sirens, that would be helpful and it makes since to a bureaucratic mind.