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Transportation United Kingdom

Electric Buses on London's 100 Route Will Play a Soundtrack To Alert Pedestrians To Their Presence (wired.co.uk) 148

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
Matt Burgess, writing for Wired UK: Last year London's 8,000 or so buses traveled 279 million miles and completed 2.23 billion journeys -- more than half of all bus trips completed in England. But they're not green enough. Yet. According to mayor Sadiq Khan, London has Europe's biggest electric bus fleet with more than 200 currently in use. It's a small fraction of the total number of buses but there are already two fully electric bus routes: 43 (running between Muswell Hill and London Bridge) and 134 (North Finchley to Warren Street). Now the capital's electric buses are set to get a new soundtrack. The purpose? To help protect people around them. As electric vehicles are almost silent at lower speeds, they're potentially dangerous to the pedestrians, who may not be paying attention or live with visual impairments.

(Research from the US Department of Transportation has even suggested people are 40 per cent more likely to be hit by an electric or hybrid car than one with a noisy combustion engine). From July this year, EU regulations stipulate that all new electric need to include an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS). This system must play a sound to alert people to the vehicle when it's moving. Cars moving at speeds of less than 20kph must have a minimum sound level of 56dB and older electric cars have to be retrofitted with a sound system by 2021. The EU regulations also apply to London's buses. In order to create a consistent sound across the city's buses, Transport for London (TfL), the transport regulator, has commissioned a sound to be used by all electric buses in the capital.
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Electric Buses on London's 100 Route Will Play a Soundtrack To Alert Pedestrians To Their Presence More

Electric Buses on London's 100 Route Will Play a Soundtrack To Alert Pedestrians To Their Presence

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  • Each time an electric bus approaches, you hear "Dooo - Dooo - Deee - Daaah - Daaah". =)

  • I can't imagine how annoying it will be on roads in the future with crawling traffic consisting of electric vehicles all making some irritating warning sounds simply to ease the conscience of virtue signalling politicians in Brussels.

    Just how many people walk into a road just using their ears and not their eyes? Even blind people have help or a guide dog.

    Re London - given we're leaving the EU in a month so Kahn doesn't need to do this but he's just another politician who thinks some throwaway gesture politi

    • Re:Lorry reversing bleepers are bad enough (Score:5, Informative)

      by Barsteward ( 969998 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @07:07AM (#59557934)
      aah bless... don't let your xenophobia get the best of you. its also the USA https://insideevs.com/news/330... [insideevs.com]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It will be a lot quieter than the current fossil engines chugging away. 56dB is about as loud as a normal conversation.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        You've obviously never heard a modern petrol engine at low revs. They're almost inaudible and bentleys and rollers are silent but I don't notice any warning sounds required for them.

    • I can't imagine how annoying it will be on roads in the future with crawling traffic consisting of electric vehicles all making some irritating warning sounds simply to ease the conscience of virtue signalling politicians in Brussels.

      I can. It will be far less annoying that it is currently. Let your imagination run wild!

    • Re:Lorry reversing bleepers are bad enough (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AxeTheMax ( 1163705 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @09:45AM (#59558194)
      Many people do just that, i.e. use their ears to locate vehicles, because they learn consciously and unconsciously that all vehicles make characteristic sounds and that the sound indicates a vehicle. It is part of the survival instinct. If I hear a vehicle sound without seeing a moving vehicle that would be an indication that I was probably not looking in the right direction, and I'd be extra careful. This should be used for safety, not taken as virtue signalling. The EU is being used as a distraction here.

      • Except there are millions of near silent vehicle journeys for decades so using traffic noise to determine if it is safe to step out into the road is not valid. You risk killing the cyclist (I personally know of some killed by a pedestrian stepping out into the road and knocking them off their bicycle) or getting yourself killed by the cyclist (there was a high profile case in the UK where this happened recently). I have stopped giving money to blind charities and make no bones about telling them why if they

  • Is this 2019? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bickerdyke ( 670000 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @06:45AM (#59557878)

    Am I wrong or does neither the summary nor the linked article have an actual sample of the new sound? I thought multimedia was invented at some time in the 90s.

    • I don't think they've decided what sound to use yet and have announced the ruling, to give the big consultancies plenty of time to work out how to charge a vast fortune for licencing whatever new sound they come up with.

      • I don't think they've decided what sound to use yet and have announced the ruling, to give the big consultancies plenty of time to work out how to charge a vast fortune for licencing whatever new sound they come up with.

        The wired.co.uk article did, but ...

        Oops, we couldn’t find that track.

        SoundCloud.com

      • The whole article was about what sound and why they decided on. Minus an actual sound example.

    • This is Slashdot. You must be new here.

    • The EU rules (if post-Brexit UK will follow those) demand that you can tell from the sound whether the vehicle is accelerating or slowing down. The electric cars on the market that already have this feature emit something that's people recognize as "electric motor hum", changing in pitch with the speed.

      The EU rules don't prescribe the exact sound, so aftermarket kits doing "beep beep beep" might show up. (I hope not.)

      Related slashdot story: https://slashdot.org/story/360... [slashdot.org] "Drivers May Choose Electric Car

    • It was, but like many people, I have my PC default on mute anyways. Mostly because multi-media web is a bad idea.

      What really gets me, is if I am trying to look up syntax or to see if there is an easy command to a programming language being directed to a youtube video. Where I am forced to watch the video for a quick answer to a small question.

  • Won't someone think of the people? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nicolaiplum ( 169077 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @06:55AM (#59557900)

    Won't someone think of the people? That is, the people who live near bus routes or any busy roads - like me. I have been looking forward to a quieter life in future - quieter roads with quieter vehicles. Having laws that require vehicles to be noisy will remove any chance that my quality of life might improve. Cars are already much quieter than they used to be a couple of decades ago, leaving buses and motorcycles as the main noisemakers. I don't look forward to a constant stream of artificial noise instead of a quiet future.

    Well done, legislators of the world. You're making my life worse.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Viol8 ( 599362 )

      "Well done, legislators of the world. You're making my life worse."

      The thing about politicans is that if they had any brains (as opposed to merely the gift of the gab) they wouldn't be in politics but would be in business earning a fortune or some other discpline actually doing something useful.

    • can you not imagine all the court cases about being run down by a silent vehicle? no doubt detractors be first in the queue it it happened to them.

    • Re:Won't someone think of the people? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @08:38AM (#59558082)

      That is, the people who live near bus routes or any busy roads - like me.

      They are thinking of you. The end result of this will be orders of magnitude quieter than what you are currently getting.

      You're welcome.

    • So you're okay with the low rumbling of diesel engines then?

      EV sounds (Vehicle Sounds for Pedestrians, VSP) are typically higher pitch an somewhat melodic (and very sci-fi), so they don't carry as far and don't penetrate structures as easily as low frequency sounds. If you're indoors or more than ~50 feet away you probably won't hear it. The same can't be said for a diesel engine.
      =Smidge=

      • A turbo 5 cylinder from Audi is melodic, the whirr that comes out of an EV isn't.

        • Audis are unreliable pisspots and VAG cheats at diesel emissions. You would also need two or three of them to move a transit bus. Mercedes 5 cylinder diesels are also more reliable, but Mercedes also cheats. Those wacky Germans...

    • >"Cars are already much quieter than they used to be a couple of decades ago, leaving buses and motorcycles as the main noisemakers."

      Modern motorcycles (especially 3+ cylinder) are also much quieter than in the past. The problem is that many idiots immediately rip off the stock muffler and replace it with something extremely annoying. They do this for three reasons- they incorrectly think it will improve performance (which it does not), and/or they have the "look at me" syndrome, and/or they think it i

      • People do this with their cheap old Honda Civics too. I call them "Mighty Mufflers" Because all it does is forces people to pay attention to them, often in annoyance on how crappy their car really is.

    • Well as long as we have motorized transportation intersecting pedestrians we will need some additional noises for general safety.

      I drive a Prius, I was riding a road where some kids were playing basket ball in the street. I drove up to the area, they kept playing, I waited for a few seconds, where I saw a kid turn their head towards my car and they didn't notice me, until I honked my horn and scared the heck out of them, because they didn't realize there was a car there, even when they glanced in my directi

      • Omg! I’ve had this exact thing happen with my ICE. Clearly ALL cars need to be noisier. Someone call Brussels!

    • Simulated engine sounds... You turn around expecting to see a Harley and it's an electric bus.

  • So they will need sound and flashing lights at a minimum.

    Probably a cow catcher on the front to shunt the morbidly stupid out of the way as well.

    • The deaf often know to look out for traffic, having no sense of hearing, they need to rely on their sight for their safety. People who are blind need their hearing and feeling to navigate a city.
      People with all their senses will sometimes feel that they can be distracted, looking at their phones while judging their safety while crossing the street.

      On a tangent. Did you realize if in the 1980's if I said their is a safety problem because everyone was looking at their phones in 2020. They would be very conf

      • Problem is it never was morally acceptable to use traffic noise to determine if it is safe to step out into the road. You risk killing a cyclist and/or yourself so encouraging this behaviour is beyond stupid. Then again the blind are and entitled bunch who get no money from me anymore for lobbying for this.

  • Soundtrack choice (Score:3)

    by knghtrider ( 685985 ) on Thursday December 26, 2019 @09:14AM (#59558130)
    Imperial Death March anyone?
  • Godzilla? Tottoro? Submarine? Itâ(TM)s a small world. Jaws? The main problem are vehicles moving at high speeds in pedestrian areas. Tight schedules riders rely on efficiency. Road size and design compromised for space constraints. Silent vehicles sneak up on people at high speeds. The noise idea helps same as an emergency vehicle with flashing lights and siren. Advertising seems like an opportunity. Life insurance commercials? Your family protected if u get hit by a bus ?

  • There has been talk that the tune selected was What have I done to deserve this from the Pet Shop Boys

  • Maybe they won't figure it out for a while, but eventually the soundtrack will be advertisements. Given the nature of bus rountes, the advertisements might actually be locally applicable. . . like for the sandwich shop around the corner from the stop.

  • In the US, people might mistake that for an ice cream truck. Mmmm . . . ice cream.

  • Surely this should have been a job for Brian Eno.

  • ... save lives.

    But seriously, OID (opiate induced deafness) [opiates.com] is a serious problem in Seattle. The bums jaywalking just look crazy. In reality they can't hear the traffic coming.

    • I like how the article about opiate induced hearing loss notes the problem seems to occur almost always with opiates + acetaminophen. Almost like deliberately making your product to poison people trying to abuse it has some side effects.
  • Because that's what everything else does, right?

  • When electric buses were introduced a century ago, they were known as "the silent death" because of how quiet they were, sneaking up on people with no warning.

      They just need to make the motors run louder to be more on par with buses running old fashioned diesel engines. A bit quieter, but loud enough that people know they are coming.

    • Why not use jingle bells? That's the very reason they existed, the "One Horse Open Sleigh" song is actually portraying an old winter road safety device, to warn people you were riding it. The original (thanksgiving) song was about just having fun with racing sleighs, no Xmas content at all. But its no accident that they often play that sound with Santa's sleight, perhaps there was a time when all of them had to, because they were too silent sliding on snow and the horse steps completely muffled by the snow.

  • Are they required to make noise as well? They have to actually *share* the sidewalk with pedestrians, but I don't see anyone calling for them to be making noise. Why the fuck are they making noise pollution when it's not actually needed? At slow speeds, a driver has more time to safely stop the car to avoid hitting someone who might not see them, and at anything more than maybe 8 to 10 kph, you can hear the sound of the tires on the road anyways.

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