One of the scourages of urban areas is the requirement (I presume) that heavy equipment make a loud beeping noise when it’s backing up. It’s meant to warn anybody standing behind the vehicle, presumably because the driver doesn’t have the same field of vision to see you, and because people are more wary of standing in front of a moving vehicle than behind it.
As such, as we all know, the sound is really piercing. And more to the point, it travels, often for miles. It’s a major noise pollution anywhere near any work site. I presume part of the problem as well is workers wearing hearing protection need it even louder.
So my challege is, can we do a better job? Can we make an attention getting sound that is more directional (aimed backwards, and perhaps down from the top of the vehicle) so it won’t travel as far or distract people not behind the machine?
Can we standardize rear-view cameras, which are so cheap now, so that the operator’s view of what’s behind is top notch?
Can we combine a quieter sound with really bright, moving lights, the kind you would see on the ground if your back were to the beeping machine? Could we blow air with high pressure streams or those long-distance vortexes like the AirZooka makes, or would this be too much of a problem with dust (or in wind?)
Can we have object detectors that spot objects in to the rear of the machine and make the beeps louder when there is something? (Admittedly they are going to go off for a wall or wheelbarrow as much as a guy, and they have to be really reliable because people would start depending on them to know how much caution to use.) Perhaps they can detect that everything they have seen has left the area and reduce the beeping, because if there is one person behind the truck, that assures you somebody is watching and will move anybody who doesn’t see the lights or hear the beeping.
I solicit other ideas to safely warn people about moving equipment that don’t ruin the peace.
Yeah - and you really dont care about children.
It does not supprise me that you want to do away with safty features like the beeping on backing up vehicles. You simply do not care about morals, children, and society in general.
Your website should be shut down for having pornogrophy, and the usage of the word "Tits" in "Criticial Tits". This is general indecency and you should be arrested and put in jail for exposing children to this pornographic material, especially since some of your material on your site violates House Bill #2257
Hmm, I fail to see how I
Hmm, I fail to see how I violate the Medicare Osteoporosis Measurement Act of 2005.
2257
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo...
sheesh!
OMG, talk about trying to solve a problem where none exists.
Maybe you should close your windows? Most construction noise is
transitory anyway -- eventually the job is finished and the heavy
equipment is moved somewhere else.
While I'll admit the beeping requirement is largely a CYA measure,
your proposals make little sense. Cameras? "Object sensors?"
(Would have to be optical or radar.) Your proposals are at least
a couple of orders of magnitude more expensive and more complicated
then a simple beeper wired into the backup lights. And when they
fail -- and they will -- then there is a liability issue as well.
Your musings on this illustrate the worst about people who think
every problem or issue can be solved with technology.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP 5am- EVERYDAY ALL DAY
A CONSTRUCTION SITE HAS OPENED NEXT TO MY RESIDENCE, AND AT ANY GIVEN TIME THERE CAN BE 5 TRUCKS BEEPING AT 1 TIME.
IT'S LIKE HAVING ALARM CLOCKS NEAR YOUR HEAD THAT YOU CANT TURN OFF
THE CONSTRUCTION STARTS AT 5 AM AND WAKES ME UP OUT OF A DEAD SLEEP. I PUT EARPLUGS IN MY EARS AND THE BEEP STILL PIERCES THROUGH.
ID LIKE TO TAKE THE PERSON WHO INVENTED THIS LOVELY FEATURE AND PUT THEM IN A ROOM WITH WITH 50 BEEPERS FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
AS FAR AS SAVING LIVES, WELL, I'M SURE THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE IT DISTURBES OUTWEIGHS THE ADVANTAGES.
THE PROBLEM IS NO ONE HAS MADE THE BEEP SOUND FRINDLY.
IT'S LIKE THE TELEPHONE WHEN IT FIRST WAS INVENTED, THE RING WAS LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS.
I'M LISTENING TO THE BEEPS RIGHT NOW, SO IF I SOUND ANGRY , WELL I AM!!!
OH AND GOD BLESS THE HAMMERJACK
The Prius actually has this
The Prius actually has this same beeping while in reverse - but one can only hear it in the car. It's not piercing, but I'm not sure it serves any real point either.
I don't get the earlier comment: "You simply do not care about morals, children, and society in general." - why do disagreements suddenly become moral issues? please. Does this person actually think a child would think oh - a truck is backing up so I should feel that the driver is serving the morals of this country? If one is in an urban environment where this annoying sound is one of many sounds, does one actually believe that everyone is going to filter this sound and move out of the way of a truck going in reverse? Do pedestrians actually stop walking in the crosswalks when they're not supposed to? No. Perhaps a flashing bumper light might help, but not really if we overuse lights Vegas-style. It just gets filtered out. Too much is just too much.
Why are the comments so mean?
Someone has an idea so you decide to send rude and irrelevant comments his way?! What is wrong with you? Oh my, he uses the word "tit." Why don't you get laid and maybe hearing the word tit would not be such a big deal... So did this site pop up onto your screen and then somehow force you to read the content and view the graphics? I am guessing you came to the site, read the content, viewed the graphics, and then decided that everyone should conform to your "moral standards." The internet should be open to all types of information. As long as no one is "seriously hurt" by the content. For example, child pornography. That would be scarring for a child. But I "think" we are all adults, so the word "tit" shoulf honestly be the least of anyones concerns. If you do not like what he is saying or displaying on the site, leave and go on with your morally appropriate day.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! ...
The (British) Noise Abatement Society has suggested using broadband noise alarms rather than the more piercing single-tone beeps that carry for miles. This would improve the quality of life for people (like mself) who live near a building site where the beeping continues twelve hours a day, six days a week. This solution doesn't compromise safety, in fact it probably improves it since the noise is highly directional.
http://www.noiseabatementsociety.com/tcms/view.do?page=304
It's sad there are a lot of nutters writing about tits on this page. I love tits and have many in my garden.
I, too, detest those beeping
I, too, detest those beeping vehicles. How does any work get done if the trucks are in reverse all the time? I grit my teeth day in and day out. I not only live adjacent to a construction site, but also to a huge building with a loading dock that takes deliveries all day long. So even when the construction is done, I will still be tormented. What can be done about it?
Yes, this is a big problem
Maybe I have sensitive hearing, but this is a big problem for me going back over 20 years.
Right now, there is a construction project going on 2000 feet from my apartment, and I can hear the beeping right through my closed windows with the blinds or curtain drawn, depending on which window.
When I am visiting my parents in New York City, I can hear the beeping noise as trucks back up some 4 blocks away. I've looked out the window and scanned for the source of the noise, and that's what I've found.
As an attorney, the way I would approach this is that I would try to generate a campaign and get the attention of a governor or attorney general. Such a person could get political capital out of resolving this situation.
A governor might indicate that s/he wants to hand out engineering grants so bright engineering minds can come up with alternative solutions.
An attorney general would probably file a public nuissance lawsuit, and then try to negotiate a settlement whereby industry agrees to put some bright minds on this, and then when a solution is found, to build it into new vehicles and machinery, and to retrofit the existing stock by a particular date.
I just wrote a letter to the attorney general of Virginia and I'll write another to the governor.
Brad- contact me if you want to cooperate on this.
Yes, the Beeping Must Go !
I agree; this is a huge source of noise pollution, and very annoying. I wonder how the construction workers tolerate it. Maybe they just learn to block it, which sort of defeats the purpose. There's got to be a better way of addressing safety concerns.
Since moving into our house a year ago, a new subdivision went in down the street, then the next door neighbor decided to teach himself how to use a back-hoe in his yard (8 AM New Years Day, no less!), and now, as I type this, the developers down the street have figured out how to squeeze one more house into that sub, so the heavy equipment is back, backing and filling, backing and filling... I can't hear the engines, or pounding, or other work-site sounds -- but the beeping carries for miles through the frosty New England morning air...
Glad to hear the Brits are looking at alternatives; maybe our American legislators will take notice (we can hope...)
This IS a SERIOUS problem if you've ever lived next to it.
No problem eh? Get a life, you say? What are some of you folks, lobbyists for the beeper industry? Just wait until somebody builds a monstrous ugly building right next door to you, where they start every morning at 7am (and sometimes earlier), the beeping goes on for two straight years, and the general contractor won't even return your phone calls to tell you when it will be finished. Close the windows you say? Yeah, right. The beeps are cranked up so high they go right through walls. I can hear them in my shower. These beeps are designed to do exactly this... cut through everything, including hearing protectors. And even if the windows did cut the noise more than 12 decibels (which they don't at close range) who wants to live all summer in an apartment where you can't even open the windows for fresh air? Construction sites are enduring fixtures. We are not talking about hearing a garbage truck once a week.
Furthermore, as the machines do their thing all day, the beeping patterns basically stop and start at random, which makes them especially headache-inducing. Incidentally, annoying loud noise produced at unpredictable intervals is a classic form of torture, dating back thousands of years. It's a standard way of softening up prisoners for interrogation. The effects of noise like this should not be underestimated. The stress of this adds up. Believe me.
So don't say it's overly sensitive to even suggest this to the point of personal insult, not until you've have it shoved down your own ears ad nauseam. The guy is not a bleeding heart. The guy has a point.
The Beep Must Go
I agree. There is a hot spot in hell waiting for the "well meaning" legislature that came up with the back up beep. It's a classic example of solving a problem with a much worse one.
The maddness with these
The maddness with these beepers must stop! They must be rounded up and burned, every last one of them.
NYC is way to much when it comes to this high pitched nusance. Day in and day out that is all i hear every hour
of almost every day. The only break that seems to come is on sunday. Write your congressmen and senators.
The backup beeper must be erraticated!
broad band sound
Well you are all in luck , i work for a UK company that produces broad band reversing alarms for vehicles, which aim to replace the annoying beep beep sounds everyone hates so much, not only does it reduce the noice pollution its more directional so its easier to identify where the sound is coming from.
www.brigade-electronics.com
I agree with Brad. The
I agree with Brad. The moral issue is are we as a society going to continue to disregard humanity? It is inhumane for responsible members of society to be subjected to this torturous noise pollution. Seriously, if it werent for the beep, the project sites would be bearable. The issue like aforementioned is to find a less piercing torturous sound. However, since a bunch of idiots run things in this country, and we have to go through them to try and get things done, nothing will come of this. We will just have to simply snip the connecting wires on the beepers!!!
Localize beep with two ultrasound sources
That beeping is extremely annoying and easily fixed. There is a type of speaker system that has extremely directional sound. It involves combining two ultrasound sources that interfere to create an audible sound. The point is, ultrasound is extremely directional and using this type of speaker setup, only someone behind the equipment in a certain area would hear the reverse alarm at any noticeable volume. I saw this type of speaker setup in a magazine a few years ago, and they were saying that malls would start using it for advertising, and people might use it in home theaters so they can have them louder without disturbing anyone.
Some countries don't have the BEEP
It would do your cause well to research accident statistics from countries that have never seen the need for BEEP legislation, e.g. Germany. I've been trying to find out which countries do have BEEP legislation, but English wikipedia articles on Automobile Safety and Traffic Safety don't even mention this.
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