Hybrid vehicles may be too quiet for disabled pedestrians to hear

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The silent approach of a hybrid car could have catastrophic results for pedestrians who can’t hear them, which is why blind people are working with the auto industry to research the idea of adding sounds to the otherwise quiet new cars.

“They not only can be dangerous for blind people, they can be dangerous for sighted people. as well,” said Bob Riibe, a blind person who relies on the sound of traffic to know when it is safe to walk across streets in Sioux Falls. “When that motor is going, you just don’t hear it.”

A hybrid runs quietly when it is powered by electricity at lower speeds on city streets. At higher speeds, such as on a highway, it relies on a combustion engine.

Their numbers are on the rise, and Julaine Arient-Rollman, Rapid City, S.D., fears that she and other blind people could lose some independence if they are no longer able to safely cross streets.

Riibe — who originally is from Sioux City, Iowa, and now lives in Sioux Falls — is vice president of the South Dakota chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. The federation is working with automakers to find a solution.

Congress also is getting involved in the issue. The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 would require a two-year study exploring possible solutions, and regulations put in place based on the study’s findings.

Automakers have been doing intense research to figure out what sounds are helpful to blind pedestrians, among other questions, said Wade Newton, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, an industry association of 11 automakers including Toyota, General Motors and Ford Motor Co. Researchers also are trying to learn more about how vehicles produce the noises people hear, such as the sound of a car piercing the wind at higher speeds.
Hybrid vehicles may be too quiet for disabled pedestrians to hear | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota