Vroom, vroom! Would you drive a car with a fake sound?

What we need is a law to stop people using ipods and phones while crossing the road- as a cyclist I constantly have to protect pedestrians from their own idiocy. I think electric cars should make the slightly clattery squeaky sound of a Tiger tank.

The cars should make a sound to warn pedestrians.

The sound should be like what we would all recognise as a current model motor car.

Excuse the pun but I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous! Cars are noisy as a by product of the internal combustion engine not by design. Deaf people seem to manage OK so people with normal hearing would soon adapt. If they are going to enforce a sound for electric vehicles then it should be on the decibel level of the car. Therefore ANY car below a set level would have to emit the sound ie your Rolls Royces and Jags etc.

I agree with Fred about the constant use by some pedestrians of ear phones whilst out in busy urban situations. However I was always taught as a child to look left, look right, then left again before you crossed the road so initially I thought the “artificial noise” for electric cars was a bit silly. However I saw a BBC news report about blind people who obviously go much more by the sound of vehicles coming & whose guide dogs are trained to react to the sound of those approaching vehicles. That changed my mind. The simple answer would be to mimic normal car sounds but possibly at a slightly lower decibel level so we, and the clever guide dogs, can tell a car is coming.

To be honest most modern cars driven normally are very quiet anyway – So I do think a car horn is enough

There is too much noise at all times we dont need extra, if peple were used to quiet then we would not need extra noise for cars. Why do ambulances have sires so annoying and much much louder than police or fire engines

Dnt forget those of us who live in rural areas ! Car sounds are even more important than in towns.
If using country lanes and any windy road the only warning you have of a car approaching is the noise it makes, this applies whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist or horse rider.

I owned an electric car for a year. Although the owner’s guide warned about pedestrians not hearing it, there was never a problem. It’s drivers’ and other road users’ responsibility to be aware of what’s happening. All cars have horns and headlamp flashers for drivers to warn others “I am here!” How silly to make quiet cars (is there not too much noise everywhere these days?) and then suggest making them noisier!