[nfbwatlk] Fw: letter from Maryellen

[KAYE KIPP]

That's a really good letter.

Kaye
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "NFB of Washington Talk" <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 9:45 PM
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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>
>


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