Are Hybrid Cars A Danger To Pedestrians?

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A bill intended to protect blind people and other pedestrians from the dangers posed by quiet cars will be introduced Wednesday in Congress.

The measure would require the Secretary of Transportation to establish safety standards for hybrids and other vehicles that make little discernible noise, including an audible means for alerting people that the cars are nearby.

The Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind has pushed for the legislation, part of its campaign to raise awareness of the potential for accidents involving hybrid vehicles and people who rely on their hearing to know when to cross the street.

While the organization is not aware of people being struck by cars they couldn't hear, NFB President Marc Maurer has said he fears it's only a matter of time.

Preliminary results of an ongoing study at the University of California-Riverside have indicated the cars pose some risk. The study found that hybrids operating at slow speeds must be 40 percent closer to pedestrians than combustion-engine vehicles before they make enough noise for their location to be detected.

Hybrid vehicles operate on battery-powered electric motors when idling and traveling at slow speeds; internal combustion engines, with their distinctive rumble, kick in when the cars speed up.

''The beneficial trend toward more environmentally friendly vehicles has had the unintended effect of placing the blind and other pedestrians in danger,'' said Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., who's sponsoring the bill with Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.

Stearns said he realized how important the legislation was when he had his own close call with a quiet car.

''I was down in Florida in the parking lot of a shopping center, and I was wheeling my groceries with my wife, and I didn't hear a car come up behind me,'' Stearns said. ''If all the cars are silent in the future, it does pose a problem, not just for the blind, but for people that are not paying attention, particularly senior citizens and also children.''

The bill would require the Transportation Department to conduct a two-year study before finalizing the safety standards. Once the standards are issued, automakers would have two years to comply.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a division of the Transportation Department, is planning a listening session this spring to look at possible solutions to the quiet-car problem. NHTSA is also working with manufacturers on ways to make the cars safer, deputy administrator James F. Ports Jr. said in a statement.

Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said he had not seen the bill and couldn't comment on specifics but said the alliance was eager to address the issue. The alliance represents Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, as well as Toyota Motor Corp., the No. 1 hybrid manufacturer.

''The alliance is committed to working with the National Federation of the Blind, policymakers and others including technical experts to address this issue on a national level,'' Newton said.
Clarence Ditlow, president of the Center for Auto Safety, said he favored enhanced safety standards for quiet cars but wasn't sure a two-year study was necessary.

''It seems to me that if we can put audible signals on walk signs for the blind, then we can put an audible signal on a hybrid,'' Ditlow said.

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Quiet Hybrid Cars 4/9/2008 1:50:00 PM As a bike rider I also rely on engine noise to know when a car is coming up from behind, and that the biker needs to keep a stright line. Many times cars do not provide adequate passing space if the bike rider needs to swerve to miss an object in the road.
Quiet Cars 4/9/2008 2:37:00 PM Electric scooters and pedestrians in a noisy factory encounter the same problem. We added an intermittent beeper to each electric scooters, and these annoyed the scooter drivers, giving them headaches that motivated drivers to disconnect the beepers.
A real problem 4/9/2008 3:08:00 PM My hearing is just fine, but I've almost been hit by a hybrid car twice in the past year. "It's only a matter of time" before somebody gets hurt or killed. This would be such an easy problem to solve. Why are the car makers making it so difficult? Perhaps they don't want to cut into their profit margins.
Quiet cars 4/9/2008 3:08:00 PM Next will we have to put annoying buzzers on bicycles, roller blades and skate boards?
ridiculous 4/9/2008 3:14:00 PM Quiet cars are a blessing and they already have a noise maker installed: a horn. Perhaps the solution is to place some of the burdon for self-preservation back onto the pedestrian. We have enough noise pollution without making cars noisier.
Quiet Cars 4/9/2008 3:38:00 PM Many of the high end, non hybrid cars are very quiet. Every life is precious, but the move to more efficient, less poluting cars can save lives in the long run! The problem can be solved and all things considered, this is a good problem to have!
Quiet all non-hybrid vehicles 4/9/2008 4:07:00 PM "ridiculous" makes an important point! Quieter vehicles is a wonderfully radical but practical solution to the problem of being unable to hear hybrids bearing down on us. The knee-jerk response to solve noise problems by making even more noise is silly and self-defeating! The underlying problem is not that hybrids are too quiet. It's that other vehicles are too noisy! Vehicular noise now dominates the outdoor ambient noise in all urban areas, and for the vast majority of people throughout the world. This noise has huge economic, health, and quality of life consequences. Fortunately, the problem can be greatly reduced if the public wills it by application of known noise control methodologies. Solutions are especially practical for low speed traffic in urban and suburban areas where engine and exhaust noise dominates. The money saved by quieting and/or rerouting vehicles is vastly greater than the cost of quieting them.
hybrid noise 4/9/2008 5:08:00 PM I gaurantee you at slow around town speeds on most cars less than 10 years old all you will hear is tire on pavement noise unless the cars are accelerating or have been modified. I have a 3 yr old pickup that makes very little noise other than tires on pavement. Has anyone bothered to ask a blind person what they really hear? You are much more likely to hear the brakes sqeaking than engine noise.
Congress Out of Touch 4/9/2008 8:16:00 PM This article shows how out of touch Congress is with real problems. I rented a Prius for a week on a business trip. Engine kicks in at less than 15 mph. Pedestrians should look before they step into street. Blind should have a dog or a cane and should stick cane out into street for a few seconds to give drivers a chance to recognize they are there. Don't let the government figure out how to add noise, they'll come up with something that sounds like a backup alarm on a bulldozer to make sure even drunks hear you coming. Then we will be getting run over by the V-12 BMWs since we'll all be deaf from the noise from the Hybrids. Sorry I'm so sarcastic, there's a ton of more important things for Congress to work on.
Quiet Cars 4/10/2008 1:39:00 PM Maybe the reason that there have been know problems with quiet cars to date is that the driver are also doing their job of being careful of pedestrians. Also it is important to be careful of anecdotal accounts. Lets face it near misses occur with all cars and therefore some of them will be with quiet cars.
Creating Problems From Nothing 4/10/2008 3:02:00 PM So, the National Federation for the Blind says they are "not aware of any people struck by cars they couldn't hear". Sounds a lot like a non-issue at this point, and as for Representative Stearns' experience, he didn't mention if the car he had an encounter with was a hybrid or not. Or if he was paying attention or not, although I could hazard a guess on that one. Some of the burden of accident avoidance MUST be placed on the pedestrian, as "people not paying attention" probably shouldn't be out walking around in public in the first place. If people manage to walk out in front of something as silent as an oncoming train, nothing we can reasonably do to a hybrid car will help these people "not paying attention" except maybe adding cowcatchers. "Ridiculous" has it exactly right--all cars come with a built-in noise-producing device--a horn. Getting people to pay attention to horns, lights, crossing gates, etc--THAT is the challenge.
Car sounds, why we need them? 4/10/2008 3:04:00 PM Personally I like more quiet. I think our urban areas are too noisy and anything we can do to reduce sound levels is welcomed. I think if something is done to help the blind hear cars, great. Maybe it is some kind of near field radio system or something else. I would hate to have beepers on vehicles. One thing that needs to be stressed, generally it takes two people to get hit. If both people are inattentive then someone is going to get hit even if it is a regular car. What is the statistics for normal car vs pedestrian accidents anyway?
Quiet Cars 4/10/2008 4:01:00 PM Instead of requiring a noisemaker on the cars AT ALL TIMES, install a noise maker that an individual on the sidelines could remotey activate when necessary. That way the cars stay quiet most of the time and noisy when needed. FORCING adding noise to a car will only encourage the disconnection of them and make them inaudible again.
A problem that barely exists. 4/10/2008 7:32:00 PM "A Real Problem" said "Why are the car makers making it so difficult? Perhaps they don't want to cut into their profit margins." Are they kidding? Does 'A Real Problem' blame corporations for every problem they they have? The car makers haven't refused to do anything yet! Has 'A Real Problem' even written them a letter yet?
Silent Hybrids Don't Need Noise 4/11/2008 6:40:00 PM I discovered the quiet car issue after driving a GM EV-1. I don't think making a quiet car noisy is the answer. For those sharing the roadway needing more than a visual recognition system, likes bicycles and pedestrians, I would suggest using the same technology being developed to allow cars to communicate with each other. This could be added to cell phones or independent proximity warning devices which would be very inexpensive.
My Recommendation 4/11/2008 9:45:00 PM The only time I had a pedestrian problem with my hybrid is when I'm at Safeway near a busy intersection with noisy regular cars racing by. In this situation I found the brake pedal very effective. Seriously though, a hybrid in electric mode makes quite a bit of noise. There are fans and a pump that moves inverter coolant and the inverter itself that makes a fairly loud whine while moving the car. I'm not sure how a blind person with their acute sense of hearing could miss that.
Add buzzers to bicycles 4/12/2008 9:52:00 AM How many blind people have been hit by bicycles? Let's put buzzers on them? How many people have been killed while listening to a cell phone and walking in front of moving vehicles? Let's have a law requiring an automatic mute button when walking on the road. People, GET A LIFE AND STOP THIS INSANITY.
Quiet Cars verses Trains 4/16/2008 9:21:00 PM Trains make a lot of noise but people and cars still get hit by them. Lets ban lawyers from becoming Congressman so our Government can get on with real business for the people!
Congress Helps Keep Engineers Employed 4/16/2008 9:33:00 PM I love this. Without our legislators dreaming up new problems for us to solve where would us engineers be? Lord knows there aren't enough real problems left on this earth for us to solve. These guys have my vote! ; ]
No More Noise 4/17/2008 6:48:00 AM The goal should be to quiet everything down, not make things nosier. Half of the youth today will be deaf in their forties due to loud music playing from their I Pods & car stereos. The base noise from their car won't allow me to talk to my passengers in my car and vibrate my vehicle. It's all called Noise Pollution for a reason.
make everything noisy - stupid idea 4/21/2008 9:56:00 AM Should we add noise makers to all bicycles and inline skaters? How about banning cluless walkers and runners who are effectively deaf and blind to the world because of jamming to the music in their headphones. People who walk near other people and vehicles need to be alert at ALL TIMES to what is around them. This is more difficult for the blind but they have been doing it for decades.
electric vehicles 4/25/2008 7:28:00 AM I was a driving instructor for United Parcel Service in NYC in 1964.They had a fleet of many odd delivery vehicles they had built up over the years...They would never throw anything away... just repair it, paint it brown again, and send it back out on the street. We had about a dozen 1929 "Rockets" that ran completely on electricity. We ran them in Midtown Manhattan where they did not have hills to climb, but the drivers had many scary stories about pedestrians stepping right out in front of them because the vehicle made NO noise.
Dangerous Hybrid Cars 4/25/2008 10:10:00 AM These are the people we elect. You reep what you sow. This is one of the stupidest things I've heard of. This is why you need to write, call, e-mail the people in Congress and tell them you object to these type of bills. If you just do nothing this will become law. What's next smog checks for mopeds? Just wait.
EV1 had problem solved 5/1/2008 2:56:00 PM I drove an EV1 quite often and had an astonishing number of pedestrians WALK INTO the front corners of the car at cross walks if the nose of the car was intruding. (My bad.) But it was AMAZING that people, walking forward would "not see" a RED EV1. This is REAL. But the EV1 had a cool solution! Under 5mph if you "flashed the brights" it would make a pretty soft "burble" from the horn - a lot like the Bugg's Bunny Road-Runner's burble. (Not the "Meep Meep", but the other sound.) It was awesome fun, and effective. You could be polite with it, or you could wait and startle the bejezus out of someone by "appearing from nowhere," even though I'd been stopped for 20 seconds or more! It was spooky! Fun, but spooky.
What a waste 6/10/2008 8:00:00 AM I couldn't agree more with all the comments stating how absurd this bill is. Once again we are making exceptions for the few at the expense of the many. My kids can't have a peanut butter sandwich at school because of mentalities like this. The effort should be to conserve energy. This is a complete waste of human energy.

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