Heelychat, the forum for heelys, the shoes with wheels - View topic

Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Posts: 1391 Location: UK

Lately I've been thinking about the issue of public safety with regards to Heelys. Because of the bearings I use for example, my favorite "rumble" wheels are actually totally silent on smooth shop floors, even when rolling at speed. Now, even when someone stops dead or turns suddenly into my path without looking, I have always been able to stop - because like in slicer's guide I always assume they will: generally when heeling I also use my knowledge of driving on the road to help keep me safe and prevent such situations from occuring whenever possible: always check before pulling out of "junctions" (i.e., the end of an aisle) etc, but that gave me an idea: Wouldn't it be useful if there was some polite way of letting people know you were there so that they wouldn't suddenly decide to jump right into your path without so much as a look before they leap?

Although it is often misused now, this was the original idea behind putting a horn on a car: so if you were just cruising along and someone was about to step into the road, you could say: watch out fella, I'm here! Nowadays sadly they're just used as a means of venting aggression in some cities, for example on TV I've seen cars in American cities honking when in a line of traffic . . . of course, the car in front is only waiting because the car in front of him is also waiting to move, and honking at him isn't going to do any good except make everyone more stressed out, so I don't mean having something that should be misused like that or used aggressively as if heelers have any more right of way than walkers, just something that could help make things safer so that if someone was about to inadvertently put themselves in harms way, you could politely alert them to the risk.

My solution thus far has been to record a copy of road-runner's "meep meep" from the cartoon onto my cell-phone, and keep a finger on the button. . . whenever someone steps out right in front of me without looking, I of course slow-down ready to stop, but also press the button for a nice "meep! meep!" LOL. I only do it when I'm a way back, so as not to shock people by suddenly shooting by at speed, but it's working great so far so I thought I'd share the idea and see if there were other variants people could think of?

The other option I tried for a while was some custom wheels that (unlike rumbles) actually did "rumbled" by means of having some sideways grooves in them. . . but with those there is the problem that they do it all the time, which can be annoying, and of course it slows you pretty quick.

But the roadrunner "meep!" seems to be working great so far, and a lot of walkers I meet seem to think it's a great idea too since I only used it politely. Of course, if I started misusing it as a way of saying "get out of the way" then that would defeat the whole point. . . I'm not trying to say "I'm bigger or faster and therefore more important than you" which is what people seem to use their car horns for nowadays, even when they don't have right of way, but just for safety and to politely make people aware. Smile

Hmm. We have a difference in philosophy.

The problem with everyone else being Helen Keller is that they can't hear you no matter what you do. And if you CAN make them react, they might *mis-react* and go the wrong way.

I bike on public sidewalks as well and it's much easier to let people continue on their way than wait for their reaction times to catch up. The only time people know I was behind them is when I pass them, and sometimes not even then...

Basically it's a nice gesture ME, and a lot of fun to do as well ("Meep meep!" "Wait, what's THAT?!") but it can only be a gesture.

Make sure you give people time to move. A "meep" and an automatic run-over wouldn't really be a good thing. Still like the idea Smile

Joined: 15 Jun 2008 Posts: 1391 Location: UK

LOL true. Yeah, busted, I just love to go "meep meep" Very Happy

Joined: 19 Jan 2009 Posts: 74 Location: union sc

lol kinda reminds me of a movie i just watched: Ace Ventura junior lol he uses what i think are heelys lol