Do horns and bells really prevent accidents? In order for e.g. a horn to work you need enough time that the driver processes the situation and decides the horn will communicate something AND enough time for the pedestrian or whatever to process that and react to it. Generally it's a lot easier just to press the brake, and more importantly be travelling at a speed and in a manner where the brake is sufficient. Structu…
Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
311–320 of 618 posts
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#312For a device that ONLY produces sound touted as such a re-vo-lu-tio-na-ry device this is a massive marketing failure.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#313This may also be of interest to people - emulating a car horn for bikes https://loudbicycle.com/ (of course, there's also the locomotive horn, but the equipment required is a bit impractical - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTQSWtK65PE )
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#314Coincidentally, I bought a 12v car horn yesterday with the intent of wiring it into my ebike's power supply with a little button on my handlebars. Not because of other cyclists or pedestrians wearing (anc) headphones but because modern cars are so heavily sound-proofed they don't hear a bicycle bell anymore. A recent incident with an inattentive taxi driver in a brand new EV nearly flattening me prompted me to want t…
If diy doesn’t work I’ve been using loud bicycle horn and it works great. https://loudbicycle.com/
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
A horn or bell is mostly for telling other people "hey I'm here, stay out of my way and dont suddenly cross into my path" My opinion as a cyclist is that I should basically only be using my bell on pedestrians when the pedestrians are wandering onto the bike lane. If im cycling through a shared space, I find it extremely rude to ring the bell, because it feels like I'm telling people to get out of my way, but they ha…
My solution to this is that I ring my bell when I'm far from people, usually twice while I'm still a fair way away. It just gets pedestrians conscious that there's a bike around, while also being far enough away that it's not going to surprise them and I don't think they assume it's an aggressive bell. My least favourite is when a cyclist speeds past and shouts "on ya right" (I'm in Australia) but they shout it when…
Pedestrians regularly wave acknowledgement or even say "thank you." Some other cyclists (especially on e-bikes) just blast by with no warning.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#316In the scenario presented (London, mostly not segregated bike paths), the solution is for the cyclist to ride in a way they're not endangering pedestrians. There's even a fairly recent UK law ( https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-highway-code-8-change... ) that more or less says in a collision, the "stronger" road user is at fault unless proven otherwise. That applies to car v. cyclist as much as cyclist v. pedest…
Political cyclists hate this because they think anybody who complains is just a car driver concern trolling, but having been hit by a cyclist I can attest to it being a real problem. Sure I wasn't in real risk of dying, but I was bruised and scraped up for a week after that. I've done my fair share of road cycling in my years, I don't do it now but I still cycle on trails. The way some cyclists push back on any criti…
Or is that too much of a nuance against tribal thinking?
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#317Draw a line, say this is for bicycles, pedestrians and cars have no business here, and bikes have no business being on any other lane as long as these exist. When bikes have to go through areas where people walk freely, they need to limit their speed to a walking pace. People should not wear headphones (noise-cancelling or not) when going through traffic as pedestrians. Take them off when crossing! People should not…
> Hey, we just solved 90% of the accidents. No, you didn't. And restricting cyclists and pedestrians will not result in even small dent in the numbers of maimed or killed people in traffic. It's one mode of transport that's responsible for the vast amount of it, and that's the motorized one propelling several tonnes. > and bikes have no business being on any other lane as long as these exist And cars have no business…
> And cars have no business being on other roads as long as highways exist ;)
Biking lanes are not comparable to highways. Where I'm living, if you bike on car lanes when biking lanes exist, or if you bike on sidewalks at all, you get a hefty fine depending on the situation and if you possess one, you get points on your driving license.
Exceptions are turning, leaving the road, the lane being blocked by a clueless driver etc. obviously.
Cars are also not allowed on biking lanes, neither are pedestrians. Same exceptions apply.
Highways are more comparable to railroads, maybe.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#318I'm very sceptical of their claims that ~780Hz is in some way special, especially the way they represent it graphically. Playing a frequency sweep while wearing WH-1000XM3 headphones, I don't notice any particular drop-off there. Near where I live, heavy goods vehicles are fitted with reversing indicators that make a "cshh cshh cshh" sound i.e. pulsed white-noise. White noise like that is the hardest for ANC to cance…
On my wh-1000xm2, wh-1000xm3, wf-1000xm4 and lastly wf-1000xm5, there is a quite high frequency pitch (usually coincides with some public transport beeps, and some accidental squeaking of doors) that toggles ANC to transparent mode automatically. I remember reading something about this on Sony's support website.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#319I think it's time for some sort of a safety standard for a sound frequency to be reserved exclusively for alarm/alert use and that ANC systems have to let through. It goes without saying, use of said frequency should be prohibited for other purposes, especially marketing.
Re: Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
#320I think it's time for some sort of a safety standard for a sound frequency to be reserved exclusively for alarm/alert use and that ANC systems have to let through. It goes without saying, use of said frequency should be prohibited for other purposes, especially marketing.