Electric Cars May Be Made Noisier By Law

msgtomatt writes "The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act would require electric cars and hybrids to make noise, and would fund the Department of Transportation to create a set of rules for automakers, who would be allowed some leeway in how they carry out the guidelines." Downloadable and do-it-yourself car-tones are the future: my own snoring could keep deer and toddlers off the road.

Comments

Re:Why trust your ears? Unless you're blind that i

[Fluffeh]

I would totally have to disagree with you on this sorry. I lived in Newtown sydney right next to a very very busy set of train lines, and while they were noisy, you could rarely hear a train as it was approaching.

Here is Sydney, the trains are quite large, double storey and mainly 8 cars long but even with that they are almost silent as they approach.

Secondly, even if you see a train, the stopping distance is so long that if you trip, fall, whatever while it is approaching, it won't likely stop in time to not hit you.

Finally, you would be surprised about how many accidents involving people and trains are not accidents at all.

The Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics (BTRE) suggests that the main issues for rail safety in Australia are suicides, level crossing accidents and pedestrians struck by trains (BTRE 2002).

This is directly from a report published using data obtained (link to full PDF) from our Bereau of Transportation.