Electric car might just kill you

Yes! Not only is it creepy to be in or around a car which is on but makes no sound, but it's unsafe for pedestrians relying on sight and sound to be aware of traffic.

So much for Clean Air if you still get hit by a Car.

As long as the car's functionality & gas mileage are not compromised in any way, I completely agree with this.

I drive a Prius and my mom is blind. So, I can completely understand the need for safety, but at the same time I should still contribute to the environment in a positive manner.

Same old problem with the world. Solve one problem,create another.

Easy solution that doesn't make cars loud and obnoxious is giving blind people a hearing aid that can sense higher/lower frequency sounds (these sounds aren't always painful or loud) allowing them to not only hear the car approaching, but more effectively. All cars could then have these "whistles" put on when or where necessary. Cheap, easy and effective if done the right way.

I think whistle tips would probably fix this, don't you?

Adding more noise pollution isn't the answer. Paying attention is. Distracted drivers and inattentive pedestrians are a bad combination and cell phone use during these activities tops the list of problems.

My mode is transport is riding a bike to get around central London and it does amaze me how often people just walk out in front of me without even looking simply because they PRESUME they should hear me. However the solution is not to make the cars more noisy but simply for people to get used to the fact there are quieter vehicals on the road and they need to look first. With enough of them on the road people's consciousness of them would increase and they would look more.

That is certainly a problem unforeseen by myself and I'm sure by many others as well. Although adding some noise to the car seems like a simple solution, I don't think it would be so simple. Perhaps the solution is to have the ''alert'' the hybrid would have to emit be a replication of an engine running.

Oh no! Quiet cars, what will we do. I'm sure they could develop something for the small percentage of people this so negatively affects, like car horns. This is nonsensical.

Personally, I dig the silence.

I dont think anyone read this post. BLIND PEOPLE, cant see cars coming.. AND NOW they can't hear some of them. The honking your horn idea is the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. This is why the world is so messed up. Dumb responses from people who don't pay attention.

This is what I have been talking about for seven (7) Years and I am just going to repeat myself until everyone gets it.

The Disability Community, (The blind, partially blind, deaf, partially deaf) aka, ADA; (American Disability Act); with their Lawyers lobbied the acoustic laws to serve the less the 1% of the disable population against 99.9% of the entire population and The Congress went ahead and approved these types of contradicted acoustic laws living the; (Health Department); and the; (Police Department); with their hands tied up and not able to tell the truth or ethically resolve any of this Traffic and Safety Issue properly.

Then it is safe to say that the Disability Community handled this beep signals, voice signals and whistles signals to anyone wishing to install it in their vehicles. Therefore anyone can go around harassing and trespassing everyone's living environment with these little urban ***Acoustic Weapons that have a range of a least 1/3 of a mile noise pitch and frequency variation. The blind is not there, the deaf is not there, it is impossible to be there to use all these noise signals because they are just less than 1% of the population and they can not be at all places at the same time. However, the true reality is that everyone is getting acoustically trespassed and abused to serve this less than 1% of the population and guess what? -With my and your tax pay money. Therefore is safe to say that they are using our own tax money to go around and acoustically abuse us, adding to the detrimental of human health and environmental pollution all over the United States.

Please USA, wake up! It is time to call Congress and let them know about their notorious and suspicious acoustic mistakes in the Law.
This is actually unethical and unlawful that needs to be corrected ASAP. Here in San Francisco, more and more accidents are happening because people are so stressed and; (falsely desensitized); with these beep noise signals, and other signals used in Public Transportation that they do not react any longer when real situations of danger are about to happen. I was waking downtown Yesterday and I saw this happening right in front of me. A truck was shooting ear piercing beep signals and the people did not care and walked right behind it anyways. That just prove that education and attention from motorists and pedestrians is that is the key to safety, not noise.

Trying to work on the bottom of City Departments will not work! We are in a the hands of a group of Acoustic Psychopaths with Legislation and Executive lobbying power that can give a rats ass about anyone's life or rights of quietness out there.

Ps: It has been seven (7) Years that I am suffering from beep signals, high pitch whistles, voice signals from the bus lines and; filming this for all these seven years; I have never seen any blind or disable people arriving at these bus stops. But all their noise signals assume everyone is blind or deaf.

The real question here is:

"It wouldn't be more reasonable to take care of these small group of disable individuals instead acoustically shooting the whole Universe of People?"

We need to hit Congress on this one. This mess comes from the top of the; (Legislative and Executive); that spills over to the; (Judiciary); with contradictions and no mercy to anyone in this Country.

Print this and start acting now! Thank You!

Conventional cars are noisy. Thus, people use audio cues to determine the presence of a vehicle. Once electric vehicles become more prominent people will adapt and use visual cues to determine the presence of vehicles. This includes pedestrians, cyclists and drivers of other vehicles. Cyclists may have to have rear view mirrors as extra equipment, and pedestrians may have to turn around to see if cars are coming before crossing a street.

My opinion is that the quietness of an electric vehicle is a non-issue in the long term. However, we must deal with the short term issue of retraining people in how they should act (and react) in a busy urban environment.