Electric cars - silence is deadly?

Electric cars, especially the very small cars, are basically greenwash and a major strategic policy mistake, about on a par with Seventies promises that smaller cars would 'ease congestion'--more units were sold, and the exact opposite happened.

Agreed. Electric cars simply move the pollution to the nearest power station. Better for a city centre but probably worse on the whole. Biggest load of bollocks since Y2K. Around 70% of the electrickery is lost on transmission alone, then there are generation losses to consider. If you can generate all your own power sustainably and charge your car up from that it could work, but then your house would need traditional mains power as the car would use everything you could feasibly generate.

My primary sense is nonse-sense, kept me out of trouble for years.

Fucking nonses driving in their electric cars, makes them easier to spot.

I neve use my hearing at all.

interesting

yes it's interesting isn't it? I never had any close run with an electric car, yet you do, I never use my ears, you do.

spokey-dokes for electric cars, simples…

arrospok for electric cars so you can hear a faint whistling of one coming from behind you.

or it's probably asm.

in that case, I've seen loads of them, they aren't a problem.

I disagree, since I had a crash with another cyclist (who was relying on his sense of hearing to warn him of vehicles behind him) I think to rely on sound at all is dangerous.

Always look... look, look and look again.

I'd say it was the less experienced cyclists who reply on their hearing at all.

Totally disagree, sound is crucial. Relying solely on sound, unless you're a bat, is not a good idea but equally we have forward facing binocular vision and cannot see everywhere at once. Sounds alert to things that happen outside the field of view.

but we do have neck, actually neck is more important than hearing come to think of it!

yes it's interesting isn't it? I never had any close run with an electric car, yet you do, I never use my ears, you do.

this is quite boring. Read my post and my follow up to your post. I've never had 'any close run' with electric cars.

Do you wear ear-plugs when riding?

this is quite boring. Read my post and my follow up to your post. I've never had 'any close run' with electric cars.

Do you wear ear-plugs when riding?

ahem, before you dig a hole: Ed's riding gear:

Blind drivers, however,use the force.

Fixed.

^^^^^Blind drivers who don't possess such Jedi like skills simply use the braile method. You can spot them quite easily, their cars are covered in dents.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/5313370.stm

Totally disagree, sound is crucial. Relying solely on sound, unless you're a bat, is not a good idea but equally we have forward facing binocular vision and cannot see everywhere at once. Sounds alert to things that happen outside the field of view.

thing is mate, in a city with lots of building and vehicles during rush hours, it can be diffcuilt for some to determinded certain sound, and in that close space, sound can be misleading coming from a different direction, you won't hear peds stepping out during a gridlock, you won't hear a bike messenger appearing out of nowhere, etc.

rely on your eyes more than your ears, not the other way round. (and I'm deaf, that how I know).

ahem, before you dig a hole: Ed's riding gear:

that work better now in clear simple helvetica;

It's pretty ironic though... I spend ages tuning my bike to get it as quiet as possible (and constantly scare peds), and now you're complaining about cars being too quiet and "sneaking" up on you

When I did visit London though, I found it extremely annoying trying to have a normal conversation whilst trying to walk down the street. Bloody buses are way too loud.

Cycling home this week into an 20 mph east wind for the best part of an hour I noticed I couldn't hear a thing behind me. I'm sure someone years ago suggested/invented some 'earcups' sort of apparatus (the open cups facing backwards and shielding the oncomeing wind noise).
Good job I'm with the neck.

not as daft as you'd think - the derny riders at HH have this arrangement on their helmets so they can hear the instructions from the riders

Didn't we have another electric cars thread somewhere or am I imagining that?

Anyway, I wanted to post this summary on electric cars by Bob Davis:

https://rdrf.org.uk/2019/10/28/whats-wrong-with-electric-cars-are-they-a-small-step-forward-or-a-red-herring/#more-1947

So, this is devastatingly bad. Far from being 'perfect for Paris', anything that's deliberately aimed at replacing journeys that would otherwise involve physical activity (see e-scooters thread) is wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/ami-the-tiny-cube-on-wheels-that-french-14-year-olds-can-drive

This is especially if middle-class parents actually do buy these en masse for their 14-year-olds. Let's hope they never get legalised here, but given the current fiasco around e-scooters, I'm not very hopeful.

For context: Every time cars have been made 'greener', smaller, 'more fuel-efficient', more aerodynamic, the upshot has been more driving that easily offset any gains and has made people more ill and destroyed the environment more.

This vehicle was announced last year, and rather predictably for boosting an investment made by a French manufacturer, regulatory hurdles appear to have been overcome very quickly.

As ever ...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/26/suvs-and-extra-traffic-cancelling-out-electric-car-gains-in-britain