In honor of blind, deaf, or elderly people, I will just continuously honk my horn during my hour long commute back home...

 

I wonder if that means that all drivers of hybrids are careless and inconsiderate?

 

I thought I could in my Camry. Park or Neutral, just step on the accelerator and the ICE will rev.

 

Those blind people should also learn to do what this kid does

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49dS76KhGc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1QaCeosUmw

 

I doubt it. In the Prius, you can press the accelerator all you want but nothing will happen. The engine can't rev on its own.

 

I'll see. You try driving around on campus when it's that time between classes. Kids just cross the road without looking, listening to their iPods. I don't think even matters if you drive a riced-up Civic, they won't hear you.



Hmm, I've already surprised a couple of people. Some woman crossed in front of me (although a bit of a distance away) and didn't hear me coming. Then she decided to look for traffic midway and found that I was already pretty damn close. She freaked out and jumped onto the curb.

Another time, I was parallel parking along the street. It's like 12am so the street's quiet but there were parked cars cause it was a restaurant. This woman was talking to her friends as she stepped down to the road behind her car. I proceeded to park since I know there's plenty of space between me and the car if she decides not to look and I know I won't hit her. Anyway, as I was 45° in and I was turning the steering wheel the other way, she finally said goodbye to her friends and turned around to walk around to the driver's car. She screamed when she saw the front of my car coming in lol. Her friends sorta laughed (cause they knew I was parking as they were facing the road). She smiled after that. It was just.. sort of a "oh, I didn't hear you coming" kind of scream.

Oh and of course the various times where I've followed people walking in the middle of a parking lot. Most of the time they don't know I'm there so no screams or jumps there


It's kinda fun ... in a sadistic way. No worries, I do keep a good enough distance just in case something stupid happens.

 

I almost turned around and walked directly in front of my cousin's Highlander Hybrid when he drove by to pick us up.

 

I can see their point. I live by the University where there is a lot of foot traffic. Even in my 99 LS400 I find myself slowly following pedestrians in the middle of the side roads for quite a while before they realize there is a car behind them. Here in Hawaii, we generally don't honk our horns as that is for emergency cases only. If you honk your horn it is kind of considered rude and you can end up in a bad situation (Road Rage) so people avoid doing so. Honking your horn here is almost like fighting words. Anyway, I can imagine if the LS is quiet enough for many pedestrians to not here it while moving slowly, the hybrids would be worse. I've never come close to hitting any pedestrian before, so my opinion would be that drivers of hybrids and regular cars alike just need to pay more attention to pedestrians. Always expect them to jump out in front of you. Always assume they don't see you. I mean, you can't blame the blind for not noticing a quiet hybrid is coming their way. What else would you expect them to do?

 

buy a new seeing eye dog.




no actually, I can see this easily. happens with my aging LS400 all the time in parking lots. It seems a little unfair though; since hybrids put out a different sound than other cars, its not that they can't hear it; its that they don't know what they're listening for. They expect one thing, hear another and so it doesn't even register. Automakers need to keep such things in consideration, yes...but it seems like a good form of self-preservation for a blind person to simply look into different ways to become aware of a hybrid on the road.

 

ICE? what do you mean? you talking about camry hybrid?

on the rx400h, you can press the gas all you want, nothing will happen

 

How about we just move all the blind or deaf people into one city in one big subdivision?

Sounds silly right? About as silly as the people complaining about hybrids.


WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE TODAY!?!!?!?

 

o give me a break, i know blind ppl have it bad but jesus christ. ppl in other countries r getting killed by guns and natural disasters and diseases, and blind ppl here r complaining about cars being to quiet. only in america

 

i have revved these 400h's b4 and u will have to hold the gas pedal for awhile. Like 5 seconds b4 it will rev just a bit and slowly increase. it won't rev much

 

Fine.. if you want to "rev" you can hold the brake and accelerator pedal at the same time. It's a neat way to recharge the battery but it only revs to a few thousand rpm (2,000 by my ears... the Prius has no tach and I don't have a scangauge)

 

Kind of like Little Miss Sunshine.