Speaking at a Westminster Hall debate on electric vehicles and vulnerable road users (such as the visually impaired) last week, transport minister Robert Goodwill presented evidence that attempted to counter claims from several backbench MPs that EVs represent a significant risk to such pedestrians because the latter cannot hear the former coming. “Quiet vehicles are not new,” he pointed out. “And there are hundreds more bicycles than electric or hybrid cars on the streets of London. Anyone who ventures to cross the road because they can hear nothing coming will quickly find that they might be hit by one of the bicycles ridden around London at breakneck speed.”
Mr Goodwill then added that: “Our research has suggested that there is no increased pedestrian risk associated with electric or hybrid vehicles in the UK. The published report [from TRL] has shown that, although quieter vehicles are harder to hear approaching, as would be expected, the accident rates for electric and hybrid vehicles are broadly similar to those for conventional vehicles.”
This might seem like a rather counter-intuitive finding but there might be an obvious explanation, which is that conventional, petrol-powered vehicles are nowadays much quieter than they used to be, and are still getting quieter (due to smoother running engines, stop-start systems, low rolling resistance tyres, better aerodynamics, etc.). Indeed, the TRL research found that some visually-impaired people actually thought petrol vehicles were quieter than hybrids/electrics when being played recordings from the real world.
This would tend to suggest that our lawmakers are quite right to be looking at how vulnerable pedestrian road users interact with increasingly quiet vehicles, but possibly wrong to focus so strongly on the noise levels (or lack of them) from electric or hybrid vehicles. This argument found little favour amongst the backbench contributors to the Westminster Hall debate, however, with there being a strong consensus amongst MPs that the Government should legislate to require the mandatory installation of acoustic vehicle alerting systems (AVAS) to electric vehicles. Countering this, Mr Goodwill pointed out that this would be premature at the present time, as there is as yet no consensus, either national or internationally, on what evidence is needed to establish standards for such systems.
Road safety must be taken seriously from every aspect. I believe that above 19mph the predominant noise made by cars is tyre noise and therefore EVs are just as audibnle as fossil fuel cars. Below that EVs might be queiter than the average foossil fuel car. However in general traffic where there are other, particularly heavier vehicles, present the noise made by any private car is lost in the background. In addition if noise generators are to be fitted to EVs to make them more audible then the same legislation must outlaw the use of mobile phones and headphones and ear warmers by pedestrians and cyclists. Manufacturers of famously quiet cars such as Rolls Royce would also have to fit audible noise generators.
As an EV driver I can also report that I hear ambulances and police car sirens long before other road users because they are not masked by internal engine noise.
Seems like this report contains some common sense on EVs for once!
I personally find it hard to believe that there is no safety issue regarding electric vehicles and the lack of sound they make. Pedestrians will often hear a vehicle approaching before they see it which gives an advanced warning of the vehicle’s approach. Fuel driven engines are quieter but they still make enough sound to be heard, electric vehicles are practically silent. There should definitely be some sort of acoustic device fitted to electric vehicles in my opinion.
Have you ever heard a stretch limo coming? Give me a break!
Put a sound on them then… a beeper… or something less irritating… how about your favourite ring tone that you can blue tooth to the car… or give it a sound like one of those electric whooshing cars on the space films… come on guys and gals… valid point but maybe we should not only make cars that are eco friendly but also pedestrian friendly… limiters on cars for different road speeds… so cars on a 30 road simply cannot to more than 30… 50 / 50 , 60 /60 etc… like the limiters on Formula one cars going in and out of the pits… of course this wont bring as much revenue in to the government coffers but it is possible… and anyway why are silent cars so much more dangerous to people with good hearing… deaf people manage to look both ways… it has never been a problem for them… as a species we will never be satisfied until absolutely everything is done for us… STOP and LOOK… and as a last resort LISTEN…