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Making Hybrids Noisy

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Making Hybrids Noisy
The federal government is considering legislation to set noise levels for hybrid cars. If passed, automakers will be mandated to add external speakers on all hybrid vehicles.

Maryland

Making Hybrids Noisy

A proposed law, HR 5734, mandates noise making generators on quiet vehicles.

The National Federation for the Blind has been lobbying congress for noise making generators on hybrid-electric cars, claiming that the noise will allow their members to better hear them. If passed, automakers will be mandated to add external speakers on all hybrid vehicles.

You can read more about the issue from this article published by AP / ABC News. NoiseOFF was cited in the article:

"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.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) held a public meeting to bring together government policymakers, industry representatives and public interest groups on the issue of noise making generators on quiet cars including hybrids, all-electric vehicles and quiet internal combustion engine vehicles.

Representatives from the National Federation for the Blind testified for mandating noise. They also provided grant money to a start-up company to design and build external speakers on hybrid automobiles.

Millions of people who live near busy roadways, thoroughfares, intersections and parking lots are adversely affected by vehicle noise at all hours of the day and night.

Hybrids reduce ambient street and highway noise. The reason why people purchase hybrids, among other reasons, is because they are quiet vehicles.

There are other viable solutions, including wireless audible receivers that can alert blind pedestrians to oncoming vehicle traffic.

Written comments may be submitted to NHTSA and must be received no later than August 1, 2008.

NHTSA Headquarters
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
West Building
Washington, DC 20590

The Federal Register Docket is: NHTSA-2008-0108.
stopnoise

50 responses // Making Hybrids Noisy

  • I agree, I almost get hit by one everyday(both as a biker and as a pedestrian), pulling outta their garage or from a steep hill.
    -
    thats when I ring my FREEEE bell (LOL)
    meligrosa
    3 responses to this
  • http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/04/that-blissfully.html
    "It's not just blind pedestrians who have to worry. An ongoing study from the University of California at Riverside has found that even slow-moving hybrids can get 40 percent closer to any pedestrian than a combustion-engine car before they are detected. This is also a problem for bicyclists, who rely on their hearing to place traffic around them -- far more than many realize."

    As a cyclist and a pedestrian, I've always hated hybrid and electric vehicles specifically because they're too quiet. I don't want a fast, thousand-pound vehicle to be able to sneak up behind me. Not all noise is bad.
    Allsunday
  • I like that they are quiet! I'm sure plenty of people are going to be booming down the road listening to their radio anyway. Why add more noise?
    shroomfairy
  • I have to admit those things are deadly quiet. I love it though. Perhaps we need to have the reverse mode beeping? I think I'd rather have them add collision detection alarms rather than FORCE them to be noisy....

    Driving a hybrid sometimes feels as fun as a bicycle with walls. You can actually hear the world around you when you drive.
    Stradius
  • What people fail often to understand it is that if a car is going to hit you it is going to happen and he or she is doing it on purpose. Thinking that your bell is going to save your life and fail to slow down or stop it is where the driving mistake is. People should ride , walk or drive defensively, not offensively. It is lack or education and impulse behavior that causes accidents.

    There is less than 1% of blind individuals in the City and available technology for them to move around. Raise the noise on the streets to 99.9% of the population because of that it is the no-sense issue that needs to be understood and fixed by our Government Today. Let us all get the real education and fix the problems instead of causing or staging them!
    stopnoise
    4 responses to this
  • Don't wheels on the pavement make noise? Rushing air? Are these cars really that quiet? Reducing noise pollution (as well as air pollution) is just an added benefit of hybrid cars.
    piratazephyri
    3 responses to this
  • - Why people want to make others responsible for their own driving mistakes by using noise when we all know that it is not noise but driving defensively is that will avoid and prevent accidents?

    Here is a question:
    - What can I our You do inside of our own homes or office to help drivers or people on the street so them will not get into an accident?
    stopnoise
    9 responses to this
  • This is too important to be left closed so here it is in the open so you do not need to bother to open the previous post and read. Leave the trolls alone!

    To drive or ride you must use both of your physical and sensorial aptitudes. Actually it is more, you must use your brain also. So here it is; to drive you must use:

    1. Vision
    2. Hearing
    3. Physical motor function
    4. Thought elaboration, (thinking)
    5. Perception

    You do not use or relay on you hearing alone in any of the circumstances. To say your cannot hear the cars and therefore it is dangerous it is a bluff because you can see them.

    ***The reason some claims you cannot hear the cars it is because you must be in a noisy section of town or traffic. It is not only the hybrids cars you cannot hear, you also cannot hear the other vehicles since the noise on the streets it is so high and loud.

    Therefore use your vision and attention and do not try to relay on your hearing alone to ride or drive!

    Therefore the argument on hearing and drive does not follows through. That means that the justification for the use of noise just lost its meaning.
    stopnoise
  • would mirrors on your bike fix the problem?
    jade_azul16
    2 responses to this
  • The population as a whole cannot be responsible for people personal lack of driving, walk or riding skills.

    Qualifications for driving a machine requires that a person are in good mental standing and within their own sensorial capabilities as hearing, vision, knowledge of driving, traffic laws etc. That by any meaning does not qualify a person to drive as actually doing the whole process requires a little bit more experience. That is the reason we take classes on driving and study the traffic laws. There are no classes for biking but I will recommend you to take one. Some people do not have the necessary skills to ride forward. To ask for the traffic to be noisier to accommodate your lack of driving, walk or riding skills it something You should really reflect about it. There is no amount of noise that will help you out as our streets are already overload with it. That has not prevent accidents from happen.

    You must pay attention in what you are doing and take responsibility for yourself and not shift the responsibility to others.

    It is the drivers and their vehicles that should be fairly looking for pedestrians and for bikers not the other way around. Pedestrians and bikers should be looking after themselves and for the crazy drivers we all know it is out there. If we all pay attention and drive defensively there will be not need to stage an accident or make noise.
    stopnoise
  • This is the craziest idea I've ever heard. Making quiet vehicles NOISY because we're all used to so much noise, we're gonna get whacked if a "hybrid car sneaks up behind us."

    In a few years, we'll all be more alert to quiet hybrid cars. Please don't make them noisy.

    And if you're a bicyclist (I am one) I sympathize, but I'd rather bike on a quiet road with hybrids anyday and just turn down the volume in my iPod!
    Julie_Soller
    2 responses to this
  • You cannot have a world with people and have no noise, want to control loud stereos? sure there is a limit to what is acceptable, want to have a quiet morning without power tools and loud motorcycles? Absolutely, have quiet times set up, but to expect the whole world to be absolutely silent at all times? Boy doesn't someone have a god complex.

    Are we going to ban blenders next? What about all music except Yanni played REALLY soft?, dogs barking, lets remove their voice boxes, crying babies? Muzzle em. Where does this crazy bullshit stop?
    rabidlemur
    2 responses to this
  • As the population grows, there is increasing exposure to noise pollution, which has profound public health implications. Noise pollution creates a need for action at the local level, as well as for improved legislation and management. Urban noise pollution produces direct and cumulative adverse health effects by degrading residential, social, working, and learning environments with corresponding real (economic) and intangible (well-being) losses. The World Health Organization has documented seven categories of adverse health effects of noise pollution on humans.

    1. Hearing Impairment:
    2. Interference with Spoken Communication:
    3. Sleep Disturbances:
    4. Cardiovascular Disturbances:
    5. Disturbances in Mental Health:
    6. Impaired Task Performance:
    7. Negative Social Behavior and Annoyance Reactions:

    Summary of Adverse Health Effects of Noise Pollution Prepared by Louis Hagler, MD Based on the World Health Organization Guideline for Community Noise; Please See:

    http://www.who.int/docstore/peh/noise/guidelines2.html

    for complete report
    stopnoise
  • Stopnoise, we all understand that noise pollution is a problem. The article addressed it. What we're talking about here is safety, and especially (according to the article) for blind people. It's not about people operating other motor vehicles hearing other cars, it's about people who rely on sound to know where cars are, and avoid them. And meligrosa is just sympathizing, and relating to the situation.

    It really is something we will eventually get used to. Maybe we'll even adapt to listen for the "whir" of traffic, rather than the roar of it.
    cakemix
    1 response to this
  • Stopnoise, this is a tuff call, I have been reading peoples comments on this. I can understand the safety issue, but speakers are too much.

    Are blind people going to walk out into a street without a signal that lets them know its OK to cross? They already have those coockoo sounds at the intersections for the blind.

    Sometimes I think that big brother can go too far.
    jubal
    1 response to this
  • THE ELIMINATION OF VEHICLE NOISE IS A GOOD THING.

    There are plenty of other forms of technology to solve the "sneaky" problem.

    To add noise to a noiseless machine is just laziness.

    What about a clip-on sensor that blind people and cyclists -- or anyone truly concerned about these overly sneaky cas -- could clip on? Give EVs a radiating pulse or something.

    DON'T RUIN A GOOD THING!
    recommended by  jubal, stopnoise
    flamegarden
    1 response to this
  • This is crazy talk ! I think it must be some ploy to downplay the hybrid car. External speakers is just crazy!!
    cibalin
  • Seriously, it is sometimes scary being too silent. I am an avid skateboarder, and although people are taught to be defensive, they aren't. Skateboarders and I'm sure cyclists too always need to be dodging around stupid drivers who think they are more important because they are encased with thin walls. Cyclists have the luxury of a bell, what can I do? I can curse, so that's what I do. Cars are for lazy people anyway, wanna be environmentally friendly? We already got the technology people, man-powered vehicles.
    drewsuf721
  • Hi Drew, Thanks for your comments! Actually the word "silence" it is totally figurative as "silence" does not exist here on Earth, maybe in the cosmic space. But even there you will be able to hear your heart beat. What we are looking for it is quietness from a World that got excessively loud because some people are passive, some misunderstood it and some mischievously have taken advantage of it. However we can regain what we have lost by step down and exercising our rights of quietness.
    stopnoise
  • Chiming in.

    Really loud motorcycles work my last nerve.

    That said: a few weeks ago, I moved into the right lane on the highway, and cut off a guy on a motorcycle. When I saw him in my rearview mirror, he was just shaking his head. Holy shit! I could've killed him! I slowed so that he would pass me. I felt so bad, I followed him (he probably thought I was a crazy person), and at the next stop light I got out and apologized profusely. He was pretty cool about it. Said "[It] happens all the time." I apologized again, gave him my number, and told him I owed him a beer. He laughed and I ran back to my car, as the light had turned green.

    For the record, his 'cycle was a rather loud Harley, and further: my driver's window was down.

    He hasn't called ("... yeah, she was definitely a crazy person").

    I've always been, what I consider, a good driver. Never been in an accident ... not even a fender-bender (knock on wood) ... haven't even been a passenger in a car that's had an accident (knock on noggin). But I guarantee, now I'm way more careful to look over my shoulder EVERY time I switch lanes (I'd only looked in my side mirror).

    Hrm. Now I'm wondering if this is a relevant comment.

    *Amber goes all doe in the headlights* (no pun)

    I guess what I'm saying is: his rather loud 'cycle didn't make up for my stupid mistake. I'm not saying that blind people would make a "stupid" mistake by walking into oncoming 'quiet' traffic ... just. Oh hell. I dunno. I'm gonna shut the hell up. (again, no pun ... shhhhhhh)
    Amber_LaStrega
  • you have got to be kidding me. now i cant afford one, but anyone go for a ride in a benz or any other new high end car, that is not a sports car. you cant even here some kias comin at ya. use the senses you dont think you have, then you know where everything is, even those anyoing sneak up on ya hybrids.

    Bruce
    theammixman
  • the part of this thread that bugs me is the idea that responsibility for safety is being forced upon "the other guy" in most of the rants.

    if a blind person can't hear a prius stopped at a light, it MAY BE because the engine has stopped! do you want it to NOT stop, and kill the fuel-consumption benefits so that on the rare occasion that a blind person is in the intersection, they can HEAR IT???? that's abject nonsense and totally counterproductive!

    if you can't hear a prius because you're on a skateboard, maybe you should get bigger, softer, quieter wheels for your skateboard!!!! bad idea? screws up the experience? the fun?

    quit making the other guys responsible for your safety.

    skateboard or rollerblade or bike or walk more safely; pay even MORE attention to your surroundings than you do NOW, because if something the size of a prius is jumping out in front of you, neither you NOR the prius driver is paying enough attention.

    shared responsibility.

    i've almost merged to the right and into the path [or position] of a motorcyclist, and when i first started driving my prius, i came close to hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk because the car has "unique" forward and side visibility limitations. the A-pillars are wider than in "regular cars."

    it took me some self-training and accommodation, and now when i drive i take extra looks to the left, right, front and back when i'm starting or driving.

    after having several CARS "sneak up on me" at wide-open intersections, i've trained myself to look both ways MORE THAN ONCE at all intersections!

    if drivers, bikers, boarders and pedestrians did this, there would be no need to "noisy-up" a car like a prius.

    and all y'all are beating the drums for FULL-ELECTRIC CARS?!?!?!?!? what will you want THEN??? full stereo surround sounds coming from the car, maybe choreographed to acceleration, deceleration and idling?????

    c'mon!
    plusaf

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