I have never understood the rationale for the beeping anyway. These beepers have only been required since, iirc, about 1971. Some places probably used them before that, but not many. Certainly, I never heard the stupid things until my teens.

Guess what, none of my schoolmates were squashed by reversing trucks. As with so many safety regulations, there is no realistic cost-benefit analysis. The sheer level of irritation these things cause - every road construction site in every neighborhood in the entire country - is worth something. Yes, even a life or two, because life is not perfectly safe, and a human life has a finite value.

Just like TSA: The billions hour hours of passenger time they waste adds up to many, many lifetimes worth. Do they save enough lives to be worth the cost? Almost certainly not.

None of us were squashed by them, either. I live near a business district, and some of the businesses use a city parking lot for their deliveries -- across from the neighborhood -- and it is just rotten to have that in your home environment periodically throughout the day.

Still, I know people will argue that there are children squashed by, say, parents' SUVs. Well, in the case of the Geek Squad vehicles, again, backup cameras put the cost on them.

The TSA example is a good one.

First World problem.

At least one industrial site here near Augusta, GA mandates them for all vehicles inside their fence. Industrial noise is a big deal - nearly a tenth of their facility requires hearing protection - and the publicity of an injury or fatality as well as the actual event will cost the company millions.

Not kidding. Millions.

So they do everything possible to save the unwary, or insufficiently unwary, because people get used to things, even get comfortable where they obviously shouldn't.

By the way, there's at least one fallacy employed here in attempting to make the noise go away. You haven't been robbed, either, so you shouldn't have locks on your doors, because the fire department can't rescue you as quickly.

Short story: Geek Squad driver knows how to park, no noise, no notice. No offense taken.

And a reminder tweeted to me from @HarpersNotes -- on a subject I'm well-acquainted with:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_from_noise

Guess what, none of my schoolmates were squashed by reversing trucks. As with so many safety regulations, there is no realistic cost-benefit analysis.

Don't know your age, but I'm guessing back then the test for getting a driver's license didn't consist entirely of being able to fog a mirror. Drivers back then knew to check behind the vehicle.

The road test when I took it in Florida at 16 was pretty comprehensive, covering many situations you might encounter in real life driving. I bombed the parallel parking part of the test and had to retake it.

A few years after that, Florida governor Bob Graham (yes, that Bob Graham), decried the parallel parking test and signed legislation removing it from the road test, stating that no one parallel parks anymore. Well, Bob, going to college later in Tallahassee, I found many parking spots near the Florida Capitol [insert phallic joke here] that required parallel parking. And I discovered more than few in other cities in Florida. Funny thing, I have discovered that parallel parking skills come in handy in California, Illinois, Georgia, and North Carolina. So much for "no one" needing them anymore.

Many states have similarly removed parallel parking from their road tests.

Parallel parking skills teach you where the back of your car is and how to judge the amount of room you have, along with how to use your mirrors.

Like so many things in our country these days, we've dumbed down the driving test to accommodate those who will not bother to learn the skills necessary in the name of "fairness" to those who say they cannot afford to practice or study.

Bob Graham also presided over the elimination of the admittedly annoying vehicle inspections in Florida, resulting in many cars on the road with headlights pointed directly at the oncoming driver (where shade tree mechanics didn't properly align the headlights).

So, now we're stuck putting loud back up beepers on vans so the incompetent behind the wheel doesn't back over a toddler.

Conan,

I've lived in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. In roughly 20 years of driving I've parallel parked once. It really isn't a common event for most people.

As for the beeps protecting a toddler, does a toddler know to get out of the way? The beeps are aimed at adults.

I've lived in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. In roughly 20 years of driving I've parallel parked once. It really isn't a common event for most people. ~ Ben at April 11, 2016 7:55 AM

Depends on where you're parking. I've done it a few times, but not often, partly because I avoid parallel parking when I can.

As I said, it's not that it's a common event, it's the skills that learning how to do it teaches you that makes it valuable.

Admittedly, I couldn't parallel park when I had just learned to drive, but I lived in the suburbs, and there was never any need for it there. (I scheduled my license test in the city of Farmington, instead of Farmington Hills, where my parents lived, because they didn't make you parallel park.)

I know how to do it now, but I am not exactly a star at it.

Thank a combination of lawyers and the Feds.

To be fair - there are more than 200 deaths and 10,000 reportable injuries in the US each year resulting from vehicles backing up onto pedestrians. So the problem is real.

Many commercial vehicles have back-up alarms because OSHA mandates them for any vehicle entering a construction site. While a given vehicle may seldom, if ever, enter a construction site, it's safer and easier to ensure compliance by fitting every commercial vehicle with an alarm. And, of course, once the Feds set a requirement for back-up alarms in one situation, the creeping poison of liability lawyers pretty-soon makes them mandatory everyplace else.

Backup cameras will be required as original equipment on all passenger cars sold in the US in model year 2018. Aftermarket backup cameras are now available for less than $50. This technology is stunningly-better than any alarm. However, there does not appear to be any movement to change the OSHA regulation, so don't expect backup alarms to go away anytime soon, even if enlightened operators install backup cameras. UPS has been installing or upgrading to backup cameras for a decade or more, for example, but they still have backup alarms.

llater,

llamas

if I were a bettin' man, I'd guess this was an insurance requirement... as others have noted, there are various regulations on construction vehicles and the like, but not commercial vehicles in general. OTOH Virtually every commercial vehicle from breadtruck, to tow truck seems to have one... so prolly insurance.

A camera is a moot point, that is a tool for the driver... the beeping is a tool for the pedestrian, or other person on foot.

In any event just like a commercial leaf blower at 6am on a Sunday, or that F-ING Harley Owner who revs his engine early in the AM before work... human beings are powerful rude, ya'know?

The irony being that the places where the beepers were supposed to do the most good, that being large construction sites, are now partially exempt. Why? Because, as usual, government regulators are incapable of understanding the principle of alarm fatigue. On a large construction site, you've got vehicles backing up all the time. When the din is continuous throughout the day, and when several are going at once such that due to the high frequency you can't isolate what direction the noise is coming from, the beepers are useless -- workers tune them out -- and only contribute to site noise. It's like the latest version of Microsoft Office which present you with a dire-looking "SECURITY WARNING" every single time you open a document with any macros in it. It becomes an automatic click-through.

The British have obsoleted the annoying beep alarm. Instead they
use a "white noise" alarm. It sounds like compressed air venting.
Not only is it less annoying, but humans can get directional information
about where it's coming from. The beep-beep alarm's direction is
not so obvious. Further information for the curious:
http://brigade-electronics.com/product/reversing-warning-alarms/overview-was

Yea, as others have said, it most likely is an insurance requirement.

But, that doesn't change the fact that the driver didn't have to keep backing in and out, and in and out. and yet again!

He should have been aware that his truck beeping was annoying and try to reduce the number of times he backed up.

We have a neighbor who has a car alarm set very sensitive. It goes off ALL the time. Just a strong wind will set it off. I swear it won't be a car thief that does away with his car - it will be an irate neighbor.

People don't go to Hell for murdering someone. They go to hell on the installment plan, making people miserable one little bit every day for all their lives.

Unnecessary noise. Not using your turn signals. Being sarcastic or obscene. Racking up Hell points every day. A murderer might get a bunch at once but the impolite get them in wholesale lote.

The use the beepers in Japan. Mandatory on all vehicles, not just commercial.

It isn't the serene zen country everyone thinks it is.

I have never parallel parked in Japan, but I know how to do it. I can also back a towed trailer into a parking place.

I think the beepers have two purposes, the first is to let other drivers and pedestrians know someone is backing up.

The second is to remind the driver, that the gear shift is in reverse.

Ron: "The British have obsoleted the annoying beep alarm. Instead they use a "white noise" alarm."

That just makes sense. Also, alarms only need to be heard up to about 30 feet from the vehicle, just far enough to give cell phone-preoccupied pedestrians enough time to notice it and look around to see where it's coming from. So the volume could be a lot lower. And it doesn't need to be that high pitched, piercing sound everyone has become accustomed to ignoring. It could be a lower, less annoying tone.

Amy Alkon: "rudeness is theft -- theft of someone's time, sleep, peace of mind..."

Talk about stealing someone's sleep: I work in a hospital at night. You would think that if there's anyplace and time that someone should be quiet it's a hospital in the middle of the night. But there are people who work there who slam every door they pass through, wear hard shoes that clip-clop like horses, and talk and laugh out loud like they're at a party or something.

I want to remind them while shaking my finger in their face that it's the middle of the night, the kids really need to sleep, so shut the bloody hell up! Then duct tape their mouths shut and throw their f***ing shoes out into the parking lot! Instead, being professional and all, I have to settle for politely shushing them. This usually results in them apologizing and lowering their voices as they clip-clop on down the hall and slam the next door, then linger on the other side blabbering away in their party voices until they finally go their separate ways.

What is wrong with people these days? When I was a kid the areas around hospitals were marked with signs that said "Hospital Zone". My mother would make us be quiet in those areas, even in the middle of the day. And when we drove by a hospital my mother slowed down and we lowered our voices even inside the car.

If one of our neighbors was sick or recovering from a serious illness at home, the parents in the neighborhood would remind us kids to be quiet when we were near that person's house, or tell us to go play somewhere else.

Nowadays a lot of people act like it's some kind of affront to their dignity to show consideration to others.

"The British have obsoleted the annoying beep alarm. Instead they use a "white noise" alarm. It sounds like compressed air venting. Not only is it less annoying, but humans can get directional information about where it's coming from."

Ahh, yes, the British, so it must be good... nope.

Out here, rushing air and steam are the normal sounds.

Beeping means a truck, and nothing but a truck. I bet that was obvious to Gregg and his sleepy neighbors, too.

Nowadays a lot of people act like it's some kind of affront to their dignity to show consideration to others.

Ken R at April 12, 2016 12:18 AM

Well, I find it amazing that people who WORK in hospitals can't remember the basic rules or the need for them, but when it comes to general society, I think it has to do with overpopulation, in a way. As in: If you're at home and you can't make noise outdoors at night OR in the daytime, because someone who works at night is sleeping, when CAN you relax and make noise? Not necessarily in someone else's neighborhood, for the same reasons - and remote areas are getting more and more scarce, because of development.

In a more serious vein, some people think that face-to-face nasty, vicious conversation (as opposed to online conversation) is somehow essential to one's mental health, and it enrages them that they can't talk that way at work, or on dates, or anywhere where there's someone within earshot who isn't their clone. (Of course, that's not an overpopulation problem, per se - it has more to do with failing to grasp that common courtesy is not "political correctness." As Miss Manners wrote in 1994: "Even outlaws are outraged when others do not follow [the protocol rules of the mob."])

And here's a good follow-up to that one, from 1997 - she refers to road rage, in part:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-05-22/features/9705220349_1_miss-manners-etiquette-crime

"and remote areas are getting more and more scarce, because of development."

Seriously Lenona? I love your comments because every wrong strerotype about civilization, sexism, rape, crowds, democrats, republicans crime, and child rearing eventually makes an appearance.

Every fly cross country? The US is almost nothing but remote areas between the coasts.

And the fallacy here is that quiet in cities historically was some kind of norm. It never has been. Horse drawn carts are really really noisy, and quite a bit stinkier than cars.

The assault on your olfactory senses and lungs and ears, in 19th century London would make you long for living next to a 21st century airport.

Bedrooms are at the back of those Victorian townhouses for a very good reason.

"The assault on your olfactory senses and lungs and ears, in 19th century London would make you long for living next to a 21st century airport."

This. For most of human history, cities have stunk to high heaven. It took the 20th century to make progress on this.

"Bedrooms are at the back of those Victorian townhouses for a very good reason. "

There was a lot of resistance to indoor plumbing at first. "I'm not going to do that in the house! It's unsanitary!"

I never said cities were ever quiet. But people who choose to live in noisy cities often seem to have a strange aversion to a little extra noise.

To add further to the parallel parking issue . . .

It doesn't matter if you use that skill or not later. That you learn how to do it is a sign that you have learned how to master the car in tight spaces. Well, worth testing on.

Just like, sure maybe Amy doesn't NEED to know how to diagram a sentence as a writer; but, you can bet that her having learned that skill no doubt helps to make her a good writer. (of course, it isn't her only skill at writing) In the very least being able to diagram a sentence allows one to make complete sentences.

Now, if only we could come up with a test to see if someone is polite enough to let roam out in public?

Coming home from work tonight, we had some asshole plow his way onto the subway car just as the doors were closing. He knocked one woman down! He said: "sorry, but I cannot miss my train." But, it is okay to injure someone else because of YOUR time? Such rude assholes don't belong in public.

Coming home from work tonight, we had some asshole plow his way onto the subway car just as the doors were closing. He knocked one woman down! He said: "sorry, but I cannot miss my train." But, it is okay to injure someone else because of YOUR time? Such rude assholes don't belong in public. ~ charles at April 13, 2016 6:33 PM

It's even more fun when the guy plowing his way through the closing door overloads the circuit and breaks the door; and everyone has to get off the train and wait of the next, invariably overcrowded one.

"Admittedly, I couldn't parallel park when I had just learned to drive, but I lived in the suburbs, and there was never any need for it there. (I scheduled my license test in the city of Farmington, instead of Farmington Hills, where my parents lived, because they didn't make you parallel park.)"

Was that the one on Grand River? If so, that's where I had my test. Although, I did learn to parallel park because Coach, my driver's ed teacher said I'd learn if it killed us both.