"Bell the Hybrid" - 111th Congress

I suspect one reason that the data doesn't show a higher rate of blind pedestrian injuries caused by hybrids (compared to standard ICE-driven vehicles) is that the vast majority of blind pedestrians are likely to have a companion (human or canine) who are working extra hard to keep their blind friend safe. Once they have the help of the extra set of eyes or extremely keen ears, that becomes the great equalizer. The noise level produced by any particular car passing by becomes a non-factor. If the blind pedestrian ventures out without a companion, I suspect they are likely to only traverse familiar paths and use intersections that are blind-friendly (equipped with crosswalk audible signals).

One reason that there just isn't much data (for or against) is that there is an extremely low number of blind pedestrians out there. From my own experiences, I've lived in only very large cities my whole life (Baltimore-Washington, Philly, Seattle, and San Diego, and I can count the total number of blind pedestrians I have seen on one hand.

 

Why don't the organizations and lawmakers pushing to "bell the hybrid" actually concentrate on more worthy safety causes ... such as mandating that all cars have backup rearview cameras and video screens? I don't have the raw data, but based upon the numerous stories I've read in the news about children being run over by a vehicle backing up, I suspect this would be a far more worthy cause and save far more lives than making quiet cars noisier. I think the wrong fight is being fought.

But if they must choose to fight the quiet hybrids, where do you draw the line in determining which cars are the "quiet ones"? And where do you draw the line in determining how much noise is enough? And why apply it to only blind people? Why not the countless idiots walking the streets with headphones blasting? They can't hear any vehicles, so perhaps we should make ALL vehicles noisier! My point is that this is all unbelievable nonsense.

Perhaps it may make more scientific sense to actually reduce the noise of all the "noisy" vehicles, so that the cumulative ambient noise out there is lower overall, thus making it easier to hear the quiet vehicles.

 

Uh, how much time did you live in Seattle? I don't actually live there, yet have seen significantly more there than that.

(No other dispute from me. My own sampling, as a hearing pedestrian, found that many non-hybrids are already so quiet that I first detect them by tire noise, not engine noise.)