[Quietcars] From yesterday's USA Today

[Corbb O'Connor]

A colleague in the NFB of Virginia forwarded this to me from  
yesterday's USAT.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2009/11/620001194/1
****
Hybrid cars hit pedestrians and bikers more often than conventional  
cars, study finds

Hybrid vehicles, which creep along almost silently at low speeds on  
electric power, are more likely to hit pedestrians or bicycles than  
regular cars, a
study by the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
finds.

The report (see it by
clicking here
) is sure to give a boost to the movement to require hybrid cars to  
include noisemakers so that bikers, pedestrians -- especially the  
blind -- know they
are coming. Several makers already say they have
such a system on the way.

The NHTSA report was actually done about a month ago, but didn't come  
to light until it was
reported by  Consumer Reports last week
. It compared the rate of accidents among hybrid vehicles and powered  
only by gas engines when it comes to pedestrians and bikes. Said  
Consumer Reports
on its blog:

block quote
NHTSA looked at state-level crash files to compare crash rates on  
these two types of vehicles. Out of 8,387 hybrids 77 (or 0.9%) were  
involved in crashes
with pedestrians. Out of 559,703 conventional vehicles studied, 3,578  
(or 0.6%) were involved in crashes with pedestrians. In crashes  
involving bicyclists,
48 (or almost 0.6%) were involved in crashes with a hybrid vehicle  
whereas conventional vehicles were implicated in 1,862 (or 0.3%) of  
crashes.

block quote end

It's a shame in a way. For decades, automakers have been trying to  
figure out how to make cars quieter. So finally they come up with  
vehicles so quiet that
about the only sounds is the gravel crushing under the wheels and, lo  
and behold, it could be too dangerous because no one can hear it coming.

So the question is, how to create the proper hybrid noisemaker? Should  
it be a high-tech, spaceship sound? Maybe make it kind of a white  
noise like a TV
that doesn't work? Once Drive On heard a car coming a half-mile away.  
When it came into sight, it was a 1963 Chevrolet Impala low-rider  
blaring Led Zeppelin
from a pair of forward-aimed speakers. Thought it was pretty cool at  
the time.