Yeah, beep-beep, your car is locked -- and you're an idiot
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Noise-pollution activists are honked off at horn-sounding remote keyless entry systems that are standard on most new models -- so much so that they'd like the matter to get a hearing in Washington.
The auto industry has received a "Noisy Dozen" award from Noise Free America, a nonprofit organization "dedicated to fighting noise, especially from boom cars, car alarms, leaf blowers, barking dogs and motorcycles."
According to the Noise Free folks: "Remote keyless entry horn honking creates completely unnecessary noise, which disturbs babies, children, students, retirees, and nighttime workers. Many pedestrians in parking lots are regularly jolted by this constant, aggressive noise. Many car owners seem to be saying, 'Look at me! Look at how much noise my car horn makes! I'm so cool!"
The group says locked car doors can be confirmed in other ways, such as flashing lights, a modest electronic chirp or the simple sound of locks engaging.
"Inexplicably," says Dr. Cullen Ruff, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine, "some thoughtless engineer must have decided that the rest of the earth needed to hear a loud noise every time a car was locked. Day or night, urban or rural, we are now bombarded with sudden, jarring honking at excessive decibels, for absolutely no benefit to anyone. It's time to say 'enough.' "
Dr. Ruff's take-no-prisoners solution: "Ban the sale of any new car in the United States that has a honking remote lock mechanism or an audible car alarm."
