ON Beeping

 

   I just indicated that I am attempting to be more productive this month and rather than actually be productive, I will push out another post. In order to do so quickly I will simply state my case and then provide you with supporting sources. My case is again typically contrarian, so if you want sources that undermine my position you will need to find them on your own. 

   I think we should re-think the notion that "backup beepers" or "reverse signal alarms" are beneficial, or beneficial enough to offset the problems created by the noise they generate. We should "Shut the Beep Up!" to put it crudely. 

  It is an oddly ironic thing that my interest in noise has increased as my ability to hear has decreased. At this point a beeper defender could cleverly argue against me by noting that I want them done away with because I can't hear them and would not be saved from being crushed by, say a garbage truck. I could cleverly retort that since I can't hear them, why would I want them outlawed. In fact, what would I care if they were made mandatory and even put on walkers, so when an elderly person backed up, they wouldn't step on my toes.

  But, I can hear well enough that I do care.  I thought about this a few years ago when a construction project on our street meant that there was relentless beeping all day long. I am bringing it up now because summer is coming (only theoretically here in London) and we should soon no longer be hermetically sealed inside. From the patio it would be nice to hear birds rather than beeps. It is also the case that there is more beeping at night by all different kinds of vehicles and that there are proposals to put them on e-cars since we can't hear the motors and need to be warned of their arrival. 

  While I am at it, the beeps and bells that sound to remind you that you left your lights on, or which you activate to let you know that you have locked your car should also be banned. That might make it easier for some of us to support the current proposal to ban handguns.

   There are other options to backup beepers. For example, if you have a new vehicle it probably lets you know when something appears behind your car and doesn't beep loudly, continually,  to let the person outside know you are backing up.  There are also arguments against them, one being that the beeping is so ubiquitous we have become oblivious to it. 

Some Sources: 
   You can begin with the Wikipedia entry for "Back-up Beeper" where you will learn that they were first invented in the late 1960s. This is from the "Criticism" section:

"Back-up beepers have been criticized by the public and in scientific literature. Beepers are at or near the top of lists of complaints to government road builders about road construction noise. There is published concern that due to desensitization and the cry wolf effect people tend to disregard ever-present alarm sounds, diminishing their effectiveness. The normal level of 1000 Hz pure tone beeps at 97-112 decibels, considerably higher than the long-term hearing loss limit of 70 decibels."

One of the notes in that section goes to: Holzman, David C. (2011-01-01). "Vehicle Motion Alarms: Necessity, Noise Pollution, or Both?". Environmental Health Perspectives. 119 (1): A30–A33. The first paragraph says:

"Alarm fatigue or alert fatigue describes how busy workers (in the case of health care, clinicians) become desensitized to safety alerts, and as a result ignore or fail to respond appropriately to such warnings. Alarm fatigue occurs in many fields, including construction and mining (where backup alarms sound so frequently that they often become senseless background noise), healthcare  (where electronic monitors tracking clinical information such as vital signs and blood glucose sound alarms so frequently, and often for such minor reasons, that they lose the urgency and attention-grabbing power which they are intended to have), and the nuclear power field. Like crying wolf, such false alarms rob the critical alarms of the importance they deserve. Alarm management and policy are critical to prevent alarm fatigue."

To learn more about the "Crying Wolf",  see the Wikipedia entry for "Alarm Fatigue."

For a good general source in favour of silence see Noise Free America: A Coalition to Promote Quiet, where this is found:

The New York State Department of Health, after investigating an industrial accident, concluded that back-up beepers were completely ineffective: “Often, people who work near back-up beepers have become accustomed to their sound and desensitized to their use as warning signals.”

See also the interesting: Silence Wiki. 

To answer the very good question - "How many people are killed or injured by reversing vehicles, see a source like this one: Fatalities and Injuries in Motor Vehicle Backing Crashes."

This subject rang a very low-sounding bell for me and I recalled that I recently dealt with noise pollution in my "Advance Noise Alert" which is found in my post about Oddments (1)

Some Canadian Content: 
  They are attempting to deal with this in Ottawa. 

"City Considers Licensing Bylaw for More Ways to Eliminate Noisy Backup Beepers: A Larger Discussion Has Been Happening About Cutting Down Backup Alarm Beeps From Vehicles Doing Overnight Work in Ottawa," Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 21, 2001.

"The city has been swapping out the beep alert devices with quieter “broadband” devices on parts of its fleet. Coun. Diane Deans got the ball rolling in 2017 when she asked staff to look into the broadband alarms after residents were complaining about the backup beeps from snow trucks in parking lots.

The broadband device emits a focused whoosh sound to the area directly around the vehicle, rather than blasting the surrounding area with a repetitive ear-piercing beep."

The Bonus:

   A while back I did a post about Sound. At the very bottom of it you will find a link to a very quiet place - "One Square Inch - A Sanctuary For Silence at Olympic National Park."