Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from a group that does not drive: the blind.
Because hybrids make virtually no noise at lower speeds when they run on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it is safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot.
"I'm used to being able to get sound cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn't imagined there was anything I really wouldn't be able to hear," said Deborah Kent Stein, who chairs the National Federation of the Blind's Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety.
"We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn't hear it," Stein said.
The tests, admittedly unscientific, involved people standing in parking lots or on sidewalks and being asked to signal when they heard several different hybrid models drive by.
"People were making comments like: `When are they going to start the test?' And it would turn out that the vehicle had already done two or three laps around the parking lot," Stein said.
As gas prices continue to rise, along with concern about harmful emissions, hybrid cars are increasing in popularity.
New hybrid vehicle registrations increased more than 49 percent across the US in the first seven months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to R.L. Polk & Co, an automotive research firm.
Toyota has sold nearly 460,000 of the most popular hybrid model, the Prius, since it hit the market in 2000, according to the company, which pegs total hybrid sales at just over 900,000.
Officials with the National Federation of the Blind are quick to point out that they are not advocating a return to non-hybrid vehicles. They just want the fuel-efficient hybrids to make some noise.
NFB president Marc Maurer said he had received an e-mail from an environmentalist who suggested that the members of his group should be the first to drown when sea levels rise from global warming.
"I don't want to pick that way of going, but I don't want to get run over by a quiet car, either," Maurer said.
NFB, the leading advocacy group for 1.3 million legally blind people in the US, made pleas to the auto industry and to federal and state agencies, with little concrete success so far.
Manufacturers are aware of the problem but have made no promises.
Toyota is studying the issue, said Bill Kwong, a spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales USA.
The Association of International Auto Manufacturers, Inc, a trade group, is also studying the problem, along with a committee established by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
The groups are considering "the possibility of setting a minimum noise level standard for hybrid vehicles," said Mike Camissa, the safety director for the manufacturers' association.
Officials with two separate arms of the US Department of Transportation -- the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration -- said they are aware of the problem but have not studied it.
Both sides agree that it would not be prohibitively expensive to outfit cars with an adequate noisemaking device.
"It's cheaper than an airbag or other safety devices," Kwong said.
"Any kind of audio device is going to be relatively inexpensive," he said.
The blind, however, will have to win over some hybrid owners, as well as advocates for reduced noise pollution.
"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 the problem of noise pollution.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique