[nfbwatlk] Fw: Blind people: Hybrid Cars Pose Hazard

[Mike Freeman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bill Reif
To: il-talk at nfbnet.org ; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 5:57 PM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Blind people: Hybrid Cars Pose Hazard


This AP story came out today.

Bill

Blind people: Hybrid cars pose hazard
By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 3, 6:47 AM ET
BALTIMORE - Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the
environmentally
conscientious, are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn't
drive: the
blind.  Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when 
they
run solely on
electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on
their ears
to determine whether it's 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, chairwoman of 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 who were 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 percent nationwide in the first seven months of 2007
compared
with the same period in 2006, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an 
automotive
research
firm.
Toyota Motor Corp
. 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 Baltimore
-based National Federation of the Blind are quick to point out that 
they're
not advocating
a return to gas guzzlers. They'd just like 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.
The 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. On Wednesday, the president of the
NFB's Maryland
chapter planned to present written testimony asking for a minimum sound
standard
for hybrids to be included in the state's emissions regulations.
But those regulations are crafted by the Maryland Department of the
Environment
, which has no oversight of auto safety, said Robert Ballinger, a 
spokesman
for the
department. He said the department would work with the NFB to press the
issue with
auto manufacturers and federal transportation officials.
Manufacturers are aware of the problem but have made no pledges yet. 
Toyota
is studying
the issue internally, said Bill Kwong, a spokesman for Toyota Motor 
Sales
USA.
"One of the many benefits of the Prius, besides excellent fuel economy 
and
low emissions,
is quiet performance. Not only does it not pollute the air, it doesn't
create noise
pollution," Kwong said. "We are studying the issue and trying to find 
that
delicate
balance."
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.
While Stein said she would prefer that hybrids sound similar to 
conventional
engines,
other blind people said they'd be fine with any sound that was 
inoffensive
but easy
to detect. Both sides agree that it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive 
to
outfit
cars with an adequate noisemaking device.
"It's cheaper than an air bag 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. Some think that making hybrids louder won't
solve anything.
"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.
Others believe that distracted pedestrians are at greater risk than 
blind
people
from quiet cars.
"The only way to function driving any car, forgetting the fact that it's 
a
Prius,
is to just be very careful and see who's around you," said George 
Margolin
of Newport
Beach, Calif., who runs a club for Prius owners with his wife. "We have 
to
be as
careful as anyone else and perhaps even more so."
Blind people are not the only ones who've had close calls. Linda Murphy, 
57,
a personal
administrative assistant from San Marcos, Calif., has 20/20 vision when 
she
wears
her glasses, but she's almost been hit twice by hybrids.
"I'm walking right in back of it and it's moving and I didn't realize it
until it
nearly touched me," Murphy said, describing the first of her scares. "I
never realized
how dependent I was on my ears until I almost got hit."

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----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:billreif at ameritech.net Bill Reif
To:
mailto:il-talk at nfbnet.org il-talk at nfbnet.org
; mailto:nfb-talk at nfbnet.org nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Sent:
Wednesday, October 03, 2007 5:57 PM
Subject:
[nfb-talk] Blind people: Hybrid Cars Pose Hazard
This AP story came out today.
Bill
Blind people: Hybrid cars pose hazard
By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Oct 3, 6:47 AM ET
BALTIMORE - Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the
environmentally
conscientious, are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn't
drive: the
blind.  Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they
run solely on
electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on
their ears
to determine whether it's 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, chairwoman of 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 who were 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 percent nationwide in the first seven months of 2007
compared
with the same period in 2006, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive
research
firm.
Toyota Motor Corp
. 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 Baltimore
-based National Federation of the Blind are quick to point out that they're
not advocating
a return to gas guzzlers. They'd just like 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.
The 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. On Wednesday, the president of the
NFB's Maryland
chapter planned to present written testimony asking for a minimum sound
standard
for hybrids to be included in the state's emissions regulations.
But those regulations are crafted by the Maryland Department of the
Environment
, which has no oversight of auto safety, said Robert Ballinger, a spokesman
for the
department. He said the department would work with the NFB to press the
issue with
auto manufacturers and federal transportation officials.
Manufacturers are aware of the problem but have made no pledges yet. Toyota
is studying
the issue internally, said Bill Kwong, a spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales
USA.
"One of the many benefits of the Prius, besides excellent fuel economy and
low emissions,
is quiet performance. Not only does it not pollute the air, it doesn't
create noise
pollution," Kwong said. "We are studying the issue and trying to find that
delicate
balance."
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.
While Stein said she would prefer that hybrids sound similar to conventional
engines,
other blind people said they'd be fine with any sound that was inoffensive
but easy
to detect. Both sides agree that it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive to
outfit
cars with an adequate noisemaking device.
"It's cheaper than an air bag 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. Some think that making hybrids louder won't
solve anything.
"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.
Others believe that distracted pedestrians are at greater risk than blind
people
from quiet cars.
"The only way to function driving any car, forgetting the fact that it's a
Prius,
is to just be very careful and see who's around you," said George Margolin
of Newport
Beach, Calif., who runs a club for Prius owners with his wife. "We have to
be as
careful as anyone else and perhaps even more so."
Blind people are not the only ones who've had close calls. Linda Murphy, 57,
a personal
administrative assistant from San Marcos, Calif., has 20/20 vision when she
wears
her glasses, but she's almost been hit twice by hybrids.
"I'm walking right in back of it and it's moving and I didn't realize it
until it
nearly touched me," Murphy said, describing the first of her scares. "I
never realized
how dependent I was on my ears until I almost got hit."
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