Safety on crazy roads

[OakLeaf]

You know, nine times out of ten, when someone tells me how quiet my Prius is, the gas engine is running.

The other day I was running in the middle of a quiet street, as I often do to avoid the crown. A car came up behind me, a great big American gas-only land shark. But it was following me at my jogging pace - and so the tire and wind noise, which is the great majority of noise from ANY car these days due to EPA noise regulations, was too faint for me to hear, and I didn't know they were there until they gently tapped their horn.

That whole thing about hybrid exhaust noise is driven by people who want to put straight pipes on their motorcycles and claim it's for safety reasons. And, to a lesser extent, by people who want license to run down bicyclists in the street (even more license than they already have, that is, since they nearly have carte blanche already) because we don't make noise... and, I must admit, by pedestrians and cyclists who want to tool around just like motorists do, with their phones or iPods blasting in their ears, completely oblivious to the traffic around them. At root, it's mainly driven by people who have contempt for anyone who wants a more fuel-efficient vehicle. I can see how popular that viewpoint would be in Texas, since we have enough oil and gas extraction here for people to act that way too.

Please don't perpetuate that myth.



Also related to this thread is issues of visibility. See my post in the other thread about why a little bit of visibility aid is worse than none at all. Be very alert for motorists who will target fixate on you.