Let’s keep electric cars quiet — even if they hit a few pedestrians

I have never much liked cars. I am aware that they serve a purpose, much as do security measures at international airports – but then I don’t like them very much either. Cars are horribly noisy, arrogant, dangerous, foul-smelling and claustrophobic and bring out the worst in us. The noisy thing bothers me most – and so I was delighted by the advent of electric cars, which are almost silent and also smell less bad than normal cars. Now I read that there are plans to fit them with some kind of noise-making device because too many pedestrians are being killed by their sudden, silent, approach. Here’s my suggestion: scrap the noise-making device idea and let the pedestrians die. I am one of them and am fully prepared to take that risk. Let them die. Two or three people killed every year is a small price to pay for a bit of peace. Shove a 10mph speed limit in urban areas if you must, so that pedestrians are merely maimed a little, rather than killed. But let us enjoy the benefit of improved technology.