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Screaming Car Horn

To motivate jaywalking pedestrians better than a standard "BEEP!" would.
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When I lived in Beijing, I (and about 6 million other drivers) were forced to drive with one hand on the outside of the wheel, and one in the middle, to alert one of the other 7 million people on foot and on bicycle that they had just wandered into the path of a fast-moving vehicle. The pathetic *beep* of the horns had all the urgency of a bleating goat, and caused the offending pedestrian or bicyclist to meander back into their proper lane no less casually than they left it, and without so much as a backward glance.

It was then that I got the idea for a new horn sound. One which would require some powerful, hi-fi speakers. After the horn has been pressed for a few seconds, the speakers would be activated, reproducing the shrieking of locked-up brakes, mingled shortly thereafter with the sound of crunching metal, and mixed at the end with the bloodcurdling scream of a human being in mortal agony.

I figure that anyone hearing this close behind them will become desperate to leave the roadway rather quickly. Of course, I'm not quite sure how practical this would be in the US, as pedestrian and bicycle traffic is not so prevalent. Perhaps it could be useful for clearing a path through mall parking lots during the holiday shopping season.

Guncrazy, Jan 13 2002


thumbwax, Jan 14 2002

       The bloodcurdling scream might be a bit much, but otherwise a really clever idea.
krelnik, Apr 09 2004


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