[nfbwatlk] Fw: letter from Maryellen

[Gloria Whipple]

Great letter! 


Gloria Whipple
First board position
nfb of WA
Inland Empire Chapter

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 10:45 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Fw: letter from Maryellen

----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Lalonde
To: list at cfb.ca
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 6:57 PM
Subject: letter from Maryellen


This is an excellent letter written by Maryellen, which she has sent to 
a
local radio station
Thanks Maryellen.
-
Dear Phil,
I'm writing because of your interest in the ethics surrounding the way 
we
use automobiles.
I agree that the global romance with the automobile has been a somewhat
tawdry love affair. Cars are a wonderful convenience. They've broadened 
the
horizons
of millions of people and helped this vast country come together by 
making
it easier for Canadians to travel from sea to sea to sea. They've also
encouraged
urban sprawl, created air pollution, and filled countless junk yards.
Because practically everyone relies on the private automobile, public
transportation
has been treated like a poor relation. People who don't own cars or who
can't drive them practice creative problem solving in order to get 
around
efficiently.
They succeed because staying home is not an option. Those who can't find 
a
way to get access to wheels live as second class citizens. .
I'm impressed that Kelowna is trying to dethrone king car, or at least
making sure that public transit shares a corner of the throne. However, 
I
doubt most
people will easily give up the freedom and convenience of the private 
car.
Though my husband Paul and I are both blind and use the bus, we pay for 
a
car
and arrange to have it driven because it's more convenient to load 
groceries
in our trunk than to schlep them home in a back pack or grocery cart. 
Like
most North Americans, we're willing to pay in order to be lazy. I'm 
ashamed
to say that, like most North Americans, we're willing to make the
environment
pay, too.
That's why the hybrid car sounded like such a good idea to me. We could 
save
the environment and gas money at the same time. What a deal! 
Unfortunately,
it's a deal which gives us all more than we bargained for.
Hybrid cars are quiet, very quiet. In fact, when they run on their 
electric
motors they're virtually silent. It's a great selling point for people
wanting
to eliminate noise pollution, but it's a terrifying prospect for blind
pedestrians who use the sound cars make in order to know where vehicles 
are.
Imagine
a technology that could make cars invisible. They would still way 
several
tons. They would still travel fast enough to knock you flat and injure 
or
kill
you. The only change would be that you would no longer be able to see 
where
they were. How confident and safe would you feel walking through a 
parking
lot or across a street?
Blind people aren't the only ones endangered. Traffic safety programs in
schools teach sighted children to stop, look, AND LISTEN for good 
reason.
Everybody
 needs sound to be alerted to the presence of an unseen moving car. As 
the
number of hybrids grows, I predict pedestrian injuries will increase, 
too.
The
walking public may come to think of hybrids as stealth killers.
Some have suggested that installing audible pedestrian signals at 
traffic
lights will solve our problems. These are walk lights with sound, 
usually
chirping
birds or other beeping apparatuses. Sorry, no cigar, not even close. 
First,
the beeping and chirping obscures noise, particularly the miniscule 
noise
made
by hybrids. Second, audible signals cost several thousand dollars 
apiece. It
would cost millions to install them at every traffic light in Kelowna!
Third,
there are many intersections without traffic lights where a pedestrian 
could
be struck by a quiet car, not to mention parking lots or cars backing 
out
of driveways. But perhaps the most important flaw in the reasoning
underlying the advocacy of audible signals becomes clear when 
considering
traffic safety
taught to sighted people. Would you be willing to put your faith in the 
walk
light without looking at what the cars are doing? Not if you intend to 
live
a long and healthy life. No one has ever been injured by a walk signal, 
but
many people have been injured by cars who haven't obeyed the signal. 
That's
why sighted people look at the walk sign and the traffic. It's why blind
people must be able to hear the traffic.
Hybrid manufacturers could solve the problem inexpensively with a little
engineering. All they would need to do is design electric motors that 
sound
like
a car idling. The sound wouldn't need to be as loud as the internal
combustion engine, just loud enough to alert pedestrians to the presence 
of
the vehicle.
Noise pollution could still be significantly abated.
No one set out to endanger blind pedestrians when they designed silent 
cars.
It never occurred to them to consider us at all. We weren't on the radar
screen.
The National Federation of the Blind in the United States and the 
Canadian
Federation of the Blind intend to educate not only car manufacturers but 
the
general public. I believe your listeners would want to know about this
problem. I would appreciate the chance to talk with you about simple 
things
we could
all do now, before anyone is injured.
Blind people walk the streets with confidence and pleasure. We are
determined to keep it that way. Staying home is just not an option.
Mary Ellen Gabias
491-7226

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