hybrid havoc

i was reading on someone's blog today the danger of hybrids to pedestrians. apparently and logically, these hybrids are much quieter than the more popular petrol-pounding version of vehicular transportation, since they run on silent electric motors while at a stand-still. so apparently pedestrians don't hear the car and cross the street without looking. WTF!? this is something that is taught to you as early as you start walking on your own. look both ways.

granted here in india people don't look both ways, and i'm guessing when they don't at the wrong time, the village has a nice NON-veg meal that night. natural selection. they are harder than you, heavier than you, and faster than you, so keep a look out for them. i just wee so much wrong about this situation of the danger of quiet hybrids. to repeat, look both ways, everyone does and it doesn't take too much money. on the part of the driver... i'm pretty sure the horn still works. that's why horns are on gas guzzlers as well. if it looks like someone might step in your way or someone doesn't see you, honk. it's called defensive driving, treehugger. even more, internal combustion cars aren't THAT loud really. if it's a real clunker or you lost your muffler, installed glass packs, whatever, then they are loud, but the newer cars just aren't that loud. the only other time i can think of a traditional car being loud is when you are sneaking in the driveway after curfew (then EVERY sound and click is amplified), or in the early, early morning when you are trying to get to the abortion clinic before the fanatical protestors show up (you KNOW they're sleeping in the bushes).

i go back to natural selection. there are times when vehicular manslaughter is just thinning out the herd. 93.29% of the time, such would be the case in india. if i'm honking my horn, you aren't looking (of course, assuming i'm not barreling out of a dark alley in a stolen car, unmarked plates, and no lights on), and you happen to get hit... mahatama, fire up the coals.

this isn't to say i'm completely for cars hitting people. i've had an incident in washington D.C. on my 8th grade field trip. if i do recall correctly (it WAS traumatic, ya know), my class had crossed the street and i was day dreaming or something. a car had tried to run the light, but stopped in the intersection and was backing up. i'd noticed my classmates across the street and ran to get them when this cadillac backs into me. there was laughter (i wasn't hurt) from the kids, terror from the teachers (this is the same time one of the teachers lost his class on the subway, he got them on and the doors closed before he could get on). i don't know if by my own argument, i would've been a casualty of natural selection or not. i mean, grown adults with an IQ over 100, yeah. i might let the old people off because they are slower but they need a chaperone or something to tell them 'go ahead gramps, you can make it in time'. i was a kid. granted, an 8th grader, smart enough to know to look both ways, but he WAS going the wrong way (reverse), and i think i saw a budweiser can being tossed under the seat immediately after impact. either way, the lesson is, LOOK BOTH WAYS. hybrids aren't dangerous, stupid people are.

if i'd have my way, people who run red-lights would get their tires blown out by sharp-shooters with 12-gauges, and people who don't look both ways would get shoveled into trucks by pest control just like the other road kill (or thrown on the spit).