[Quietcars] Bob Wilson and others contributing.

[Mary Ellen]

You raise an interesting point. In my view, cane travel and guide dog use
are not just different mobility tools; they're fundamentally different
approaches to how blind people move through the world.
Blind people using canes approach the world nonvisually. The cane acts as an
extension to the arm; we "feel" what's in front of us. We hear feedback from
the environment around us by listening to the sound the cane makes as we
move it. If there's an obstacle in our path, contacting it with our cane
alerts us to avoid touching it painfully with our bodies. All the mental
work of orientation comes into play, but the cane is just a tool for
extending our reach.
A guide dog is a canine sighted guide. We have control over what it does and
how it works. This is different from working with a human guide; we wouldn't
want to order a human around the way we must do with a dog. The dog uses its
vision to guide us around obstacles. Orientation is still vital; after all,
we do the complex thinking. The dog just handles obstacle avoidance. I say
"just" not to disparage such an important function. I use the word to point
out that the more complex questions of deciding where to go and how to
interpret the environment are the responsibility of the blind handler. (When
traveling with a sighted human guide, these decisions are much more
democratic.)
Quiet cars pose a much different challenge for cane and dog users. We don't
want to get close enough to a moving car to use the extended touch function
of a cane. Yet the chief tool we use for understanding the environment out
of arm's reach (or cane's reach) is our hearing. Because these cars are so
quiet, hearing is not a viable method for discerning their presence. So what
other method can we use?
With a guide dog, we have the animal's eyesight available to us. In many
ways, that's an asset. In other ways, it's a serious problem.
A dog's sight is an asset because the dog can avoid obstacles at a distance.
Dogs are taught to think of moving obstacles, such as cars, as things to be
avoided. They see quiet cars; they avoid quiet cars. The problem comes when
the blind handler orders the dog "forward" not knowing that a quiet car is
whooshing past. Dogs are trained to intelligently disobey their handlers, If
the dog could put its thoughts into words, the question might sound
something like this. "Do I obey my master who's getting royally ticked off
at me for not doing what I'm told, or do I stay put until that Prius
passes?" 
Intelligent disobedience is uncomfortable for the dog and confusing for the
handler. Sometimes we learn why the animal disobeyed. At other times we
don't know whether the dog had a good reason or is just being a "bad dog."
An occasional incident does no harm; in fact, it increases the trusting bond
between dog and handler. But if these incidents are common, and if the blind
person really can't determine whether the dog was disobeying intelligently
or just disobeying, the team could break down. That's the serious problem
guide dog trainers and handlers must solve. Cane users have no way of
detecting quiet cars; they're effectively invisible to us. It's a stark, but
simple, problem. Guide dog users have the safety margin of using the dog's
vision to detect silent vehicles. They have the more complex problem of
insecurity resulting from repeated, and unexplainable, instances of dogs
disobeying commands. The cane traveler's difficulty is physical; the guide
dog team's difficulty could become relational.
Parking lots and driveways pose additional problem for both groups, as well
as for the sighted public. 
At an intersection, it's relatively easy for a sighted individual to avoid a
pedestrian accident with a quiet car. The pedestrian is, or at least should
be, on the watch for automobiles in intersections. At intersections with
large traffic volume, there's usually enough noise to know which direction
has the right of way. Intersections without traffic lights and with a low
volume of traffic are dangerous for pedestrians who cannot hear quiet cars
coming.
Parking lots and driveways are a danger for all. In a parking lot, cars can
move in a variety of directions. Sometimes they approach from the rear. When
they do, the noise they make is essential for everyone. Cars backing out of
driveways are hazardous because drivers have blind spots and don't
necessarily see the pedestrian walking past on the sidewalk. If pedestrians
aren't alerted to the motion of the car by the sound of its engine, the
results can be disastrous.
I travel with a cane, and I've worked with a dog in the past. I see the
problems of quiet cars as being most acute, in the physical sense, for cane
users. The problems for guide dog teams are more complex; there are
implications for the team that go beyond avoiding a particular car at a
particular intersection. For either group, hearing cars would solve the
problem. For sighted pedestrians, car noise adds a margin of safety. Deaf
individuals have developed techniques to alert themselves to cars visually.
I'm guessing, though I haven't ever discussed it with a deaf person, that
they are constantly scanning their environment visually. This probably means
constant head turning in parking lots. (I haven't even begun thinking of the
issue for cyclists, though as a mother of boys who aren't always as
observant as I'd like them to be it worries me.)
I don't know if these thoughts have answered your question at all. Of course
I agree that we must all inform ourselves as much as possible about this new
technology. That education need not extend to learning technical
specifications about each model. We need to know what cars sound like at
different speeds and under what conditions they're inaudible to us.
Over time, cars may become smart enough to avoid pedestrians through the
kind of systems I've read about on this list. It's in everyone's best
interest to make cars as crash proof as possible and blind people will
benefit, along with everybody else, as this technology improves. In the
meantime, I need to be able to use my own hearing and thinking to help me
travel. That involves training and confidence. It also involves technology
(such as a simple car noise) that helps me use what I know to keep me safe.





-----Original Message-----
From: quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:quietcars-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of michael townsend
Sent: September 23, 2009 9:27 AM
To: quietcars at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Quietcars] Bob Wilson and others contributing.
Sensitivity: Personal


I read both articles submitted today with interest, and, in the second
article, which featured commentary by selected designers of Nissan's war
with noise both for and against, and by representatives of Japanese blind
organizations, again, there was no mention of how blindness orgs who train
guide dogs to work with hybrid cars.  It is not just the cane user who is at
risk here, but it would seem as if the cane traveler was the only concern of
the NFB and other blindness orgs.  Both ACB and the NFB have dog guide users
as members, and I am wondering how much input guide dog handlers have into
this mix.  

Could it be that a guide dog is trained to work on motion and acts as eyes
for the handlers and is trained to intelligently disobey commands to proceed
forward into the path of the car, thus keeping the handler safer than a cane
traveler might be?  Assuming that is true, then, why wouldn't a sighted
pedestrian be as safe as a guide dog team?  

These are just questions I have for anyone who is part of a study who may
have actual guide dog handling experience.  I don't want to hear any purely
negative responses from someone on list, as I have in the past, stating that
I'm putting myself above anyone else, as I'm not.  I travel as do you cane
travelers on city streets, take buses and trains and frequent shops, museums
and businesses and will be put in as much potential harm as you with regard
to these noiseless carriages, but I work with the tools I'm given and am
blessed to work with a dog and I don't use terms like Silent Killer to
endeavor to promote safety.  

I look forward to the accident studies that the government is undertaking,
and to further research by Nissan and other companies who are trying to get
a handle on this problem, but whenever the results are compiled, it may be a
couple years until such measures are implemented.  I say again that those
blind organizations who are making the most noise should endeavor to get the
persons who may be effected to be more familiar with the hybrid until such
safety measures are implemented. It seems that there is a very narrow-minded
focus going on here, and that there is a lot more open-mindedness that need
be pursued.  

 

"I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself...but I think
I have a right to resent, to object to, libelous statements about my dog."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt Mike Townsend and Seeing Eye dog Brent Dunellen, New
Jersey  08812
emails:  mrtownsend at optonline.net; 
michael.townsend54 at gmail.com
Home Phone:  732  200-5643
Cellular:  732  718-9480
 


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