In a city known the world over for its accent — a rapid-fire patter of dropped “R”s, cups of “cawfee” and “fuhgeddaboudits” — New York City’s municipal fleet sounds a bit like a tourist.
A newly installed audible alert on the city’s non-emergency trucks and vans now tells nearby pedestrians — in a British accent — when the vehicle is preparing to turn.
A Daily News reporter recently heard a blue-and-white Department of Homeless Services van proclaim, “Caution, vehicle turning right,” in a posh accent as it cruised through Crown Heights.
The reason for that is simple, said Keith Kerman, deputy commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, who heads the city’s municipal fleet: The system came that way.
“VisionTrack is our current vendor, and VisionTrack is a British-based company,” Kerman told The News. “They did the voice.”
The firm came to the city’s attention through an international conference in London.
“It is literally the voice of someone that works with VisionTrack that was the voice that we launched with,” he said.
New York is a city where even some crosswalks have an accent straight from central casting.
When the Department of Transportation installed accessible crosswalks in the 2010s, its announcements were recorded by DOT electrician Dennis Ferrara — whose Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, accent had a distinctly local flavor.
Kerman said the voice of New York’s turning trucks was chosen in part because it would be noticed.
“We weren’t necessarily thinking bout the accent, per se, but we thought it was a very strong, noticeable voice that would cut through in the street,” he said. “Ultimately our point is to be noticed — our point is that when you cross and a truck is coming, you are alerted.”
“If this voice, in its distinctiveness and its British-ness and its politeness, helps achieve that, great,” he added.
Kerman didn’t rule out the possibility that the voice could be changed to something more regionally familiar later on.
“Who says we don’t have a contest to have a ‘Voice of Safety’ at some point?” he said. “Frankly, one question we have is, do we change it just so that people don’t get used to it?”
So far, the audible turn-alert system has been installed on roughly 1,100 trucks and vans out of the city’s 4,000-strong non-emergency fleet. Kerman said another 500 units are on order, and should be installed by year’s end.
DCAS is also in the early stages of testing the system on emergency vehicles, like fire trucks.
“So far, reception from our own agencies and drivers and — to the extent we’ve heard — from the safety community and the general public has been very positive,” Kerman said. “Most people who’ve encountered them have been happy to do so.”