Does Anyone Miss The Old "Nee-Nah" Sirens?
Posted by Fun-Ear6965@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 54 comments
Personally, the US style wailing sirens really grate. They sound like hysterical children.
The old British two-tone siren was far superior IMO - less panicky sounding and it was also safer, as doppler effects are easier to process when the pitch isn't all over the place.
Shouldn't we have kept the old ones? Was the change-over just the police wanting to pretend to be in a US Cop show, a la Hot Fuzz?
ElectricalPick9813@reddit
PSA. This thread is filled with more mature people, so just a reminder, that if you hear a vehicle with its sirens passing by, you are required to comment;
‘They’re not going to sell many ice creams going at that speed.’
Thank you.
MonkeyHamlet@reddit
I have genuinely never heard that joke before and it has brightened my day. Thank you.
ElectricalPick9813@reddit
Credit to the late, great, Eric Morecambe.
Brickie78@reddit
It was crumpets they weren't going to sell when the joke was on the Goon Show.
RevoltingHuman@reddit
The fire service round my way still uses two tones. Whilst the science suggests otherwise, I do agree with your claim that they are in fact easier to locate than the newer electric ones.
miemcc@reddit
No, they were not superior. The new ones are especially designed with different modes. A steady state one to warn drivers on a more open road, a more 'frenzied' one in tighter traffic, or where there are pedestrians.
Part of the problem is that cars are better sound-proofed and have better music systems, in some cases using noise cancelling systems. These prevent drivers from hearing the sirens. To counter that, the sirens are forced to be louder.
OmegaPoint6@reddit
A good video explaining when the different tones are used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6bUNnnL6wU
Jacktheforkie@reddit
I’m sure on the ANC vehicles they could set the software to not block out siren noises
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
All I hear is "look out! ahhhaaahhhh!" whereas the old sirens said "'scuse me, 'scuse me".
JakeN961@reddit
I feel this so much the new sirens are so hard to place when you initially hear them, then you start checking all your mirrors like a madman, just to see it fly out of a side road 30m up ahead 🤦🏻♂️
Laura_the_scorer@reddit
One of the joys of going abroad is listening out for the foreign nee nors
HighWaterSheriff@reddit
Can’t say I’ve ever given it any thought.
Odd that you should compare the new ones to hysterical children as I remember us all running about the playground shouting “nee naw nee naw” as kids playing cops and robbers.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
Don't you think we ceded a small piece of the cultural landscape?
HighWaterSheriff@reddit
No not really. It’s nothing to get nostalgic about it’s a noise for traffic to make way for emergency vehicles. Whatever is most effective should be used.
As long as we still call rear storage of a car the boot rather than the trunk and refer to motorways rather than highways I’m not going to get fussy.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
I don't think I am being nostalgic. A wailing siren is inherently harder for the brain to position.
I think is part of the vibe of a place. You must hear a French siren and agree it makes the ambience more, well, French?
BigManUnit@reddit
Being an emergency driver im not sure it makes all that difference.
The average motorist is still not going to realise I'm there until I'm right behind them giving them blues, twos and high beams
HighWaterSheriff@reddit
Ok start a petition then. Good luck.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
Aha, you fell in to my trap!
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/719424
HighWaterSheriff@reddit
lol well done
Real_Run_4758@reddit
yes, i agree with you completely. a survey around 20 years ago asked elderly japanese people what they missed most about the past, and a surprisingly common answer was ‘the sound of geta’ (wooden sandals).
people underestimate the importance of soundscapes to identity i think, and a distinct part of the ‘sound’ of british towns/cities has been lost, no doubt thanks to some slick sales pitch from SirenTech LLC or whoever.
sometimes these losses are inevitable (i’m sure a lot of coin-related sounds are rapidly disappearing from our surroundings) but i find it hard to believe that any advantage from sirens that sound like a toy gun from poundland were worth the loss of our distinctive nee-naws
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
I think we could change it back.
AClockworkLaurenge@reddit
One kid used to do it so much around our neighbourhood when I was growing up that 20+ years later, my dad still refers to him as 'Nee Naw'
Dimenikon@reddit
While I don't exactly lose any sleep over it, I have to admit sometimes when I hear a modern siren, a bit of me does miss the old 'nee-naw, nee-naw'.
Plumb121@reddit
I never accepted the nee nar over the bells.
NecktieNomad@reddit
But then how do you differentiate between that and ye olde towne cryer?
Elegant-Ninja-8166@reddit
I had this exact problem, I was walking to market and heard the bells. Thinking it was the village policeman I jumped into Mrs Miggins doorway as she came through. We collided, she dropped her freshly baked bread and as we composed ourselves the town cryer walked by.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
Old school!
DefinitelyARealHorse@reddit
They aren’t there for aesthetic reasons. They’re designed to get your attention.
SidneySmut@reddit
Nostalgia really is the British disease
Mr_Reaper__@reddit
The old low pitched fire engine sirens did sound fantastic. The amount of science involved in creating siren tones is huge though, the newer sirens are proven to be safer and more effective.
Brickie78@reddit
From what I remember the newer ones are designed to be a lot easier to figure out where they're coming from - especially ones that have that fart sound in the middle.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
They could have saved themselves an effort and just used the old sound!
PeppercornWizard@reddit
Modern sirens have different modes. These are cycled through by honking the horn. This is why when emergency vehicles get to junctions it sometimes sounds like the sirens are crapping out or making weird wibbly-woop noises.
Basically higher pitched / faster sounds are for slower speeds or city spaces with lots of buildings.
Slower and lower pitched sounds travel better in open country or at high speeds.
Brickie78@reddit
Well, why not go back to ringing a little bell then?
noddyneddy@reddit
Well they’ve totally failed in my case
Terr0rBytes@reddit
This question reminds me of the Bill Bailey commentary on sirens.
https://youtu.be/oGSNxkCIln0
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
He's not wrong - it does set the ambience!
Campievanner@reddit
It’s the volume that gets me. Presumably due to the loudness of car stereos/people with headphones wandering around etc now they seem to have ramped the volume up they now deafen predestrians especially if you live or work near a hospital. It may just be me.
earthworm_express@reddit
Most ambulances have three settings, the wail (I’m coming) which is allegedly easier to determine sound direction and Carry’s further. The yelp (I’m here) for short range notification, much faster cycling, less range, more noticeable. And the ray gun (ultra low range, distracting, almost painful, a proper “lookatmeyoimoronimrighthere” of a siren. There is also a bull horn for really making yourself known.
I used to drive a response car that also had “continental” and “dur dur” settings and used to enjoy cycling through them all at random.
Icy_Solution5604@reddit
Im in the highlands and one of the local fire brigade vehicles (must be specialist kit) is an L Reg leyland van, it still uses the old siren and its glorious, its also hilarious watching wheeze past at 40…. I’m pretty sure that’s flat out!
tomatohooover@reddit
Fire appliances still have the nee naws .
BuncleCar@reddit
I heard many years ago on radio 4 that the nee nah sirens in research had been shown to actively misleading people as to which direction the vehicle was coming from, and this was one factor in their being replaced
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
I thought it was the other way around - since moving to wailing sirens they were harder to locate, and hence they were putting blobs of static in to help.
A-flea@reddit
I think traditional sirens bounce off buildings better.
08ghosty@reddit
Nee-naw, it's the sound of da police...nah, doesn't work.
FizzbuzzAvabanana@reddit
Yeah. Kids still make that noise too, never heard one go wooo wooo wooo riding their toy fire engine/police car.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
Get on it! https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/719424
noddyneddy@reddit
I prefer the older ones as I found I tastier to detect their direction. New ones just panic me- they are non- directional so when I’m driving, I can’t always tell where they’re coming from and how best to manoeuvre my own car
SentientWickerBasket@reddit
This might be the least consequential problem that's ever happened.
draenog_@reddit
Sirens are supposed to be functional. If we develop improvements that help people locate where the sound is coming from more accurately and that help prevent collisions with fast moving vehicles, that's more important than how pleasant it sounds.
Fun-Ear6965@reddit (OP)
Indeed. The old ones were much easier to locate.
Ok-Opportunity-979@reddit
NGL I do enjoy listening to the different sirens in other countries and the ‘New-Nah’
The US one doesn’t grate me personally, just a siren from another country. Gets your attention nevertheless.
djashjones@reddit
Don't hear them much now as there's hardly any coppers about.
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