So you’ve gone out and bought yourself a shiny new hybrid car. How good is it? The fuel economy’s fantastic, the thing is whisper quiet and people stop to look at you in the street and think, “That person’s doing their part to save our planet”.
But what about the blind people? Did you ever stop to think about them? How they rely on the physical noise of a car to help them judge when it’s safe to walk on the road, and your new near-silent car is a death trap, enticing blind pedestrians to stroll directly into it eco-friendly maw?
Chances are you didn’t think about that, which is why the US National Federation of the Blind (or NFB, for short) is lobbying for makers of these new hybrid cars to install noise making devices, so blind people don’t have to worry about stepping in front of a silent killer.
There are currently bills pending approval in a number of US states,
and a taskforce has been setup to try and find a practical solution to
the problem. If it means that every hybrid car gets its own siren, then
I’m so getting one.
[CNet]
Jon
Monday, February 25, 2008 at 3:22 PMWhat about pure electric cars?
I would so go for a Tesla Roadster with a switchable soundtrack, imagine: ferrari v8 *click* hemi-v8 *click* WRX *click* harley *click* honda vtec *click* rotary *click* …. etc.
tom
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 12:58 AMHybrid’s aren’t totally silent, the vibration of tires on the road causes some noise at least, but i wouldn’t think it would be wise of a blind person to walk in the road anyway, hybrids or not.