I just posted a couple of thoughts.

I didn't want to replicate comments already posted.

Germans are just making excuses because they dont have hybrids

I should point you to "Flat Earth News", a great book by a freelance journalist explaining how the mainstream media has completely lost its way with regard to reporting the truth.

This smells exactly like a press release fed to a press agency. Press agencies do not purport to tell the truth; they promise to accurately report what was said. That's a very different thing.

The propoganda subtext is 'these cars are unsafe because they're too quiet' which is of course untrue. The motive is either a) let us keep selling these noisy gas-guzzlers (GM's line) or b) make the quiet cars have to have a noise-making component that we happen to sell.

The article noted in the OP is indeed a press release. It was sent out through (translated) the German Press Agency, which is a clearinghouse for press relelases from subscriber companies and organizations. America has several similar organizations. The article is bylined "Autos News", which I couldn't find as a specific entity. I'm guessing the source is not an American company and most likely a German company, based on the use of "Autos (plural)" in the byline and the German datelines in one or two other such press releases I stumbled upon, and the use of the German agency for distribution. As for its accuracy, at least one factual boo-boo leaped out -- the reference to "diesel-electric Priuses". Is there such a critter?

Mike, I may be quibbling over terminology between British and American English; if so, ignore the rest of this. A press agency might be an organization such as The Associated Press or United Press International. But in the context, I think it refers to a company that gathers and redistributes corporate press releases. It does not "promise to accurately report what was said". That is more in the model of the AP or UPI.

You are right on the face of it -- reporters aim to report facts accurately; unless they are doing an in-depth article, they don't necessarily claim the statements are true of themselves. Of course, a good reporter will generally let readers know if the quoted statements might be inaccurate by presenting evidence to the contrary.

VW perhaps? Either that or the makers of the devices.

IF at some point the regulators decide something 'must' be done to ensure the safety of hearing impaired people, I go for the vibrating wristband on the pedestrian There is WAY too much noise on the road already. The more noise we remove, the more likely the hearing impaired will be able to hear the 'wheels on the road' noise.

IF at some point the regulators decide my car MUST make noise, and they will throw me in jail if it does not, it won't be a Formula 1 engine roaring, it will be horse shoes clip clopping on cobblestones. Maybe we can have it emit the odor of horse sh1t as well so there is no question that something is coming. That would be appropriate as it is a good description of the whole 'make noise where there is no need' concept

I want a siren on mine, a loud one to alert everyone even the deaf and blind I am coming. Red and blue flashing light too please.

What sound to make at low speeds? How about Ice Cream Truck music?

btw Bruce - Have you contacted our Rep P Welsh and asked him why he is a co-sponsor? His initial response is the summary of the bill, after that, nothing. Makes me wonder if he's in over his head...

Homer Simpson's invention, the Everything's OK alarm, would be a good option for belling the hybrid

I still say that the first order of business is to REMOVE THE ICE. Then at least we'd have quiet cars to discuss.

And then, after we've belled bicycles, other pedestrians and giant vehicles that have their engines in the back... we can discuss what should happen with silent cars.

What we really need, is a press release that points out how dangerous it is to have ICE vehicles running around all over the place because - GASP - thousands of people per year die prematurely in this country just from the exhaust alone. Oh... and all that noise they make makes it harder to hear the quiet cars coming. Ban the stinky noise makers!

Is he really? Hadn't noticed. You would think that LOGIC and RESEARCH would kill this sort of thing. I'll be off to his website momentarily. Thanks.

Obama has nominated retiring Rep. Ray LaHood (R) for Department of Transportation that includes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Sad to say but on 9/18/2008 Ray LaHood signed on as a co-sponsor of HR 5734 after I'd sent data packages to the 50 cosponsors as of July 2008.

Yes, I'll send a data package to Rep. LaHood's offices but his career focus is already changing from representative of the people to cabinet head of the Deptartment of Transportation. The real challenge will be who he picks to be head of NHTSA. Understand this has more to do with personalities and less to do with policy but it has an impact.

My primary focus will be on the House and Senate committees that will review his nomination. It is critical that they have the facts and data to ask him "Will you be advocating regulations to force noise makers on hybrid electric vehicles?" I have to think about how to word this but the goal is to get this question into the hands of those who will review his nomination.

Obama says the right things about using a rational basis for transportation decisions but he has to depend upon cabinet members and their choices to implement these policies. Sad to say but by the time you get three hops removed from the source, a policy goal, "rational decisions," can often morph into counter-productive action like "Bell the Hybrid."

Bob Wilson

Has anyone compared the safety record of "trackless trolleys" (aka "trolley bus") with that of diesel and gasoline busses? They have been in use for over 70 years--latest are ADA compliant. Trolley busses often replaced streetcars, requiring two overhead conductors instead of one, so the overhead got a little messier, but the pavement less cluttered.

The MBTA (Boston and Cambridge) has dual-mode (electric and diesel) articulated busses on one route, the Silver Line, partially in a tunnel.

My recollection from childhood (Honolulu Rapid Transit, 1941-44, every school day) is that they make a fair hum at speed but are quiet at low speed. I would think that someone would have noticed ...

Again I am taking the other side...

Anyway, here is the original article:
Krach fr Sicherheit: Elektroautos werden lauter - Auto
(it also appeared in numerous other german papers)
I didnt read the whole english article... but the diesel electric prius for example was introduced in the english translation

the original text was also badly translated here:
Mit dem im Auspuff montierten System lassen sich Missklänge beseitigen, der Lärmpegel um bis zu 20 Dezibel senken und der gewünschte Sound verstärken.
It says here conventional ICEs can be made 20 decibels quieter just by modifying the exhaust.

I think it is a viable short term solution... but I will not discuss it at length again...

Well, go ahead if you want, attack him.. but I think the article is written fair...

Thank you,

I take it the author is "Von Thomas Geiger" and written "December 9, 2008"?

Now to find a postal or e-mail address for Herr Geiger.

Bob Wilson