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Soft wing mirrors

Self explanatory, innit?
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The pavement (sidewalk to non-UK folks) at the bus stop where I was waiting for my bus home the other night is very narrow. When buses slow down to stop there, very often the wing mirror on the bus protrudes onto the pedestrian side. On this occasion, a passing woman was missed by inches by one of these mirrors. Could've been nasty.

Why not make them softer? Obviously they need a degree of rigidity, but I'm envisaging big, comedy foam rubber or whatever, maybe in a ridiculous yellow. The bus service is a joke anyway, this'd add more laugh value.

And I know a lot of cars have bendy ones, but buses here don't. You could even make them luminous for the hell of it.

saker, Mar 08 2004

velcro side mirrors http://www.halfbake...ro_20Side_20Mirrors
[luecke, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]


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       This also happened with fatal consequences in my town, someone I knew who saw it said there was blood everywhere.
suctionpad, Mar 08 2004
  

       soft wing mirrors would be great for car owners too, they wouldn't get broken as easily
engineer1, Mar 08 2004
  

       The answer is to dig a ditch 3 feet deep in every bus stop so the mirror passes right over you.
phundug, Mar 08 2004
  

       Can't we just have a normal mirror that squirts a jet of water at nearby pedestrians just prior to taking the top 2 inches off their head (5 cm to you non-U.S. people)?
telepathetic, Mar 08 2004
  

       Even break away mirrors can hurt because they have considerable mass. To eliminate this problems the mirrors should fold in each time the driver hits the brake, as it is likely at a stop. They pop back when the brake is released. Other drivers in stop-n-go traffic would be entertained by those big busses flapping their mirrors, which could lead to less agressive driving.
kbecker, Mar 08 2004
  

       I could use these. I'm suchaklutz, I keep scraping my rear-view mirrors against walls at drive-ups.
spacecadet, Mar 08 2004
  

       [kbecker] Funny you should say that. I was stopped at the lights yesterday watching the bloke in front of me adjust the tilt of his mirrors, obviously using electric controls. I have heard of such things and even seen them on occasion but my nova is proudly lo-tech and any adjustments must be made by winding down the window and grappling the buggers manually. Just idly wondering, I thought how nice it would be to have the usual knobs for up, down, out, in and an extra one just for "waggle". Make the wing mirrors waggle up and down and then return to the previous position. Could even be used as a kind of "thank you" signal.
squeak, Mar 09 2004
  

       "Objects hit by the mirror hurt more than they appear"
FarmerJohn, Mar 09 2004
  

       In the event soft mirrors, or Springy Mirrors don't work, Why not AIRBAG Mirrors: A sensor detects an impact-to-be, and forcefully inflates an airbag to cushion it.
Goibneu, Mar 10 2004
  


 

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