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shineoftheever
> Teenager of the Year <
Canada
4307 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2007 : 00:24:49
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Blind people say noiseless hybrid cars pose safety risk
BALTIMORE - Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from a group that does not drive: the blind.
Ben Nuckols, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Because hybrids make virtually no noise at lower speeds when they run on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it is safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot.
"I'm used to being able to get sound cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn't imagined there was anything I really wouldn't be able to hear," said Deborah Kent Stein, who chairs the National Federation of the Blind's Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. "We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn't hear it."
The tests, admittedly unscientific, involved people standing in parking lots or on sidewalks and being asked to signal when they heard several different hybrid models drive by.
"People were making comments like, 'When are they going to start the test?' And it would turn out that the vehicle had already done two or three laps around the parking lot," Stein said.
As gas prices continue to rise, along with concern about harmful emissions, hybrid cars are increasing in popularity. New hybrid vehicle registrations grew more than 49 per cent across the United States in the first seven months of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive research firm. Toyota has sold nearly 460,000 of the most popular hybrid model, the Prius, since it hit the market in 2000, according to the company, which pegs total hybrid sales at just over 900,000.
Officials with the National Federation of the Blind are quick to point out that they are not advocating a return to non-hybrid vehicles. They just want the fuel-efficient hybrids to make some noise.
NFB president Marc Maurer said he received an e-mail from an environmentalist who suggested that the members of his group should be the first to drown when sea levels rise from global warming.
"I don't want to pick that way of going, but I don't want to get run over by a quiet car, either," Maurer said.
NFB, the leading advocacy group for 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States, made pleas to the auto industry and to federal and state agencies, with little concrete success so far.
Manufacturers are aware of the problem but have made no promises. Toyota is studying the issue, said Bill Kwong, a spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales USA.
The Association of International Auto Manufacturers, Inc., a trade group, is also studying the problem, along with a committee established by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The groups are considering "the possibility of setting a minimum noise level standard for hybrid vehicles," said Mike Camissa, the safety director for the manufacturers' association.
Officials with two separate arms of the U.S. Department of Transportation - the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration - said they are aware of the problem but have not studied it.
Both sides agree that it would not be prohibitively expensive to outfit cars with an adequate noisemaking device.
"It's cheaper than an airbag or other safety devices," Kwong said. "Any kind of audio device is going to be relatively inexpensive."
The blind, however, will have to win over some hybrid owners, as well as advocates for reduced noise pollution.
"To further expose millions of people to excessive noise pollution by making vehicles artificially loud is neither logical nor practical nor in the public interest," said Richard Tur, founder of NoiseOFF, a group that raises awareness of noise pollution.
The waxworks were an immensely eloquent dissertation on the wonderful ordinariness of mankind. |
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tisasawath
= Cult of Ray =
Wallis and Futuna Islands
783 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 02:29:27
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it'll be as with cell phone ringtones; everyone will want their signature sound. i think i'll have the sputnik beep-beep-beep..
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move along, nothing to see here |
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PixieSteve
> Teenager of the Year <
Poland
4698 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 04:37:24
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they should screech 50 times/s and use echolocation
I like to complain |
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misleadtheworld
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
1222 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 14:16:44
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How is this any different to say, tram systems? Many trams I've encountered around the world are almost silent. 'Silent Killers' my friends called the trams in Prague. I think this a silly 'issue'.
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 14:41:42
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| Biking to work and home everyday I've noticed this problem. I've become pretty reliant on being able to hear that a car is behind me and then there's an electric car unexpectedly cruising past me. |
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ObfuscateByWill
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1887 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 15:32:17
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Can't you hear the "whooosh" of the tires?
*Take a bite of the chocolate coffin. |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 15:38:04
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| You're asking me? I definitely hear the hybrids as they pass, but when they're further back they're not as loud as normal cars and the tires on the ground isn't enough (maybe it would be enough if I weren't used to the noisier cars). Also, in my town there is a growing number of electric cars and carts, which are even quieter than the hybrids (except for golf carts that tend to have higher pitch whines). |
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shineoftheever
> Teenager of the Year <
Canada
4307 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2007 : 17:36:09
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i listen to my iPod while i ride. if a car's close enough to hit me, i don't want to know it's coming. that's how i ride!
The waxworks were an immensely eloquent dissertation on the wonderful ordinariness of mankind. |
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The Blind Want To Destroy The Earth
