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Hybrids Safer In Crashes — Except For Pedestrians

Posted by timothy on from the downloadable-cartones-soon-enough dept.

Hugh Pickens writes writes "Hybrid vehicles are safer than their conventional counterparts when it comes to shielding their occupants from injuries in crashes with the odds of being injured in a crash 25 percent lower for people in hybrids than people traveling in comparable non-hybrid vehicles. "Weight is a big factor," says Matt Moore, of the Highway Loss Data Institute. 'Hybrids on average are 10 percent heavier than their standard counterparts. This extra mass gives them an advantage in crashes that their conventional twins don't have.' The study's findings are good news for green-minded drivers who are also looking for safety in their cars, but it's worth noting that hybrid vehicles are much quieter than gas-powered cars, posing a risk to pedestrians. "When hybrids operate in electric-only mode, pedestrians can't hear them approaching," says Moore. Earlier this year, Congress gave the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration three years to come up with a requirement for equipping hybrids and electric models with sounds to alert unsuspecting pedestrians."

21 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. This annoys the hell out of me ... by Snard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... The fact that hybrids are being labeled "dangerous to pedestrians" because they don't make noise to warn people to jump out of the way when they are jaywalking or texting/surfing on their phone while they are crossing the street.

    I'm surprised that someone hasn't required noisemakers on bicycles for the same reason.

    --
    - Mike
    1. Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... by mikael_j · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Every time I hear or read about people demanding that electric cars somehow make unnecessary noises I get a little annoyed. One of the great things about electric cars (beyond not running on fossil fuel) is that they don't contribute to noise pollution.

      This wouldn't be a problem if people just paid a little attention before crossing the street, I've never been hit by a car even though I frequently listen to music while walking or riding my bicycle (not counting the time I was drunk and not paying attention, but that was all my own fault and luckily I wasn't injured beyond a few bruises).

      I just don't get what is so hard about not randomly walking out into the middle of the street without first checking that there aren't any vehicles headed your way

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
    2. Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... by smellotron · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This wouldn't be a problem if people just paid a little attention before crossing the street

      You are making the assumption that pedestrian collisions are caused by the inattention of pedestrians. Assholes in hybrids will continue to roll through right-turns-on-red, ignore (or race) pedestrians already crossing, dart around between lanes for a single-car "advantage", zip through small neighborhood streets at 50mph, etc. In all of those situations, there is a defensive advantage because of sound. If that advantage goes away, the assholes just get more dangerous.

      Hmm.. Come to think of it, the police can solve most this by enforcing existing traffic laws. Once they start doing that, then I'll be in favor of reducing the noise pollution that cars make. In the meantime, they appear to split their time between catching speeders and only the grossest of safety violators, and I'll take the noise pollution over death.

    3. Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I take it you aren't blind and don't know anybody that's blind. The reason for this mandate is because pedestrians need all the help they can get to locate potential hazards. Seeing and hearing a car is vastly superior to just hearing it or just seeing it.

      And yes, I do look both ways, but that doesn't mean that I have eyes on the back of my head, so if I'm nearly half way into the lane as I cross the street, I can't necessarily see the car behind me that thinks it's OK to take a sudden right turn.

    4. Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... by mikael_j · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can hear electric cars just fine if you actually pay attention to your surroundings (doubly so if we get rid of the majority of loud combustion engine-powered cars). I definitely hear when an electric car approaches if I'm not listening to music, at it sounds nothing like a bicycle btw (just in case someone feels the need to claim otherwise).

      Just because everyone is used to cars being loud as hell doesn't mean it's a good thing.

      --
      Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
    5. Re:This annoys the hell out of me ... by ilo.v · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep. We need pedestrians to adapt to the cars, not the other way around. It's a ROAD. Try opening your fucking eyes...

      I completely agree. In return, your car should stay off the pedestrian paths. Good luck getting anywhere more a few hundred feet in my city without being blocked by a crosswalk. Even with lights and pedestrian signals, you are still going to cross my pedestrian cross walk when I have the green walk light (your right and left turns) You need to go back to preschool and learn how to share.

  2. weight and safety by alphatel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IIHS also found SUVs to be safer due to weight advantage. This study only looks at crashes and neglects the fact that lighter vehicles tend to stop faster and have better turn radius, which helps to prevent them from getting into accidents in the first place.

    --
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    1. Re:weight and safety by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I confronted an SUV driver online about this once. He explained that he was well aware that in an accident, the SUV was the most dangerous car for occupents of the other vehicle, and that in choosing to drive one for safety he was willingly endangering others for his own protection. He went on to brand me a socialist and claim that it was his duty to protect his own family, even if that meant endangering others to whome he owed no loyalty.

      I hope that if he does have a car accident, the *other* driver thought exactly the same way.

    2. Re:weight and safety by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That confrontation is an awesome account of pretty much everything that's wrong with the US right now--the "I've got mine, so screw you!" attitude. Of course, it must be peppered in with incorrect usages of the word "socialism" because it just helps the concerted campaign to demonize the term while simultaneously never using it correctly. I'm sure the person you were debating with had his on-board entertainment system permanently fixed to Fox News too.

    3. Re:weight and safety by Alomex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it was his duty to protect his own family,

      then why is he driving a car whose chances of rolling over are orders of magnitude higher than a regular sedan?

    4. Re:weight and safety by frdmfghtr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it was his duty to protect his own family,

      then why is he driving a car whose chances of rolling over are orders of magnitude higher than a regular sedan?

      To play Devil's Advocate, there is a rational reason for doing so.

      There is an elevated risk of rollover with an SUV, which I can mitigate as a driver by changing my driving style, and driving more defensively. A SUV helps me drive defensively by increasing visibility around me. Those are factors that I, as a driver, can control. However, I can't control what other drivers will do or the type of vehicle that will hit mine in an accident. Therefore, to mitigate that risk, I'll drive a larger vehicle that will provide more protection in an accident. Two problems are solved here.

      To go the opposite, way, driving a smaller car to manage the rollover risk decreases my ability to drive defensively (lower visibility) and decreases my chances of survival in a collision. One problem is solved, and another made potentially worse.

      --
      Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
    5. Re:weight and safety by Alomex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To play Devil's Advocate, there is a rational reason for doing so.

      I think you give the "bigger-is-safer" brainwashed drivers out there too much credit. I drive a sedan and a SUV and I can tell that the visibility thing is mostly a myth: you can't see past a minivan on either. This might have been true at some point,when big cars were few and far between but in this day and age SUVs give very little actual increased visibility. What people think is increased visibility really only means being able to stare down the normal size sedan right next to you.

      As well, there are common traffic situations where visibility doesn't really help yet size hurts. Say a car suddenly cuts into your lane. You either swerve and rollover, or step on the breaks, and guess what, because of your increased mass you cannot stop in time and run into the car in front of you. This is yet another way in which driving a larger car increases the chances of injury.

      The safest car is neither the biggest nor the smallest. It's one in which the engineers right-sized the brakes to the mass of the car, given it a responsive car suspension (hint: most large SUV were built on pickup-truck platforms), has good factory installed tires (ford explorer any one?), put a proper cage around the passenger compartment and don't burst into flames upon impact.

      Where is size in all of that?

  3. The heavier car wins by Hentes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Heavy cars are safer for the ones sitting in them. But most crashes involve two vehicles, and the lighter one will get the majority of the damage. A 'weight arms race' is not safety.

  4. Some Pedestrians Aren't Heling Themselves... by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A lot of pedestrians are walking around listening to their music at full-blast and have no chance of hearing the car coming anyways. The fault does not belong to the car in that situation.

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  5. Re:mahna-mahna by realityimpaired · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What makes you think they'd pay you for the privilege? They'll just follow the current trend in the fashion industry, and treat you like a billboard, and charge you extra for the privilege of advertising for them....

  6. Misleading by slasho81 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If hybrid cars are safer because they're heavier, it's misleading saying that hybrid is safer. It should be said that heavier is safer.

  7. Re:mahna-mahna by Bengie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Badger badger badger ...

    "pedestrians can't hear them approaching"

    Blind and deaf, that's impressive. Should one be walking around with that kind of disability combo?

  8. Re:mahna-mahna by RoFLKOPTr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's why you LOOK where you're going before you stupidly step into the street.

  9. Re:mahna-mahna by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can only be young once.

    But you can be immature forever.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  10. Re:mahna-mahna by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't seem to know a lot about reducing the risk of injury to a normal human being. Unfortunately our senses are not perfect, sometimes we miss things or are distracted and forget to look. Audio cues help prevent mistakes turning into accidents and have been shown to be very effective. Emergency vehicle sirens, for example, have been improved so that they give drivers some idea of the direction the vehicle is approaching from.

    The problem with EVs isn't as bad as some people make out though since much of the noise is from the tyres on the road and air being forced aside; the engine contributes relatively little. We have an opportunity here to develop sounds that make people take notice rather than the default noise a petrol engine makes, and the person inside the car need not hear it.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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  11. Re:mahna-mahna by robot256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because when I think "manly", "make my penis bigger", and "attract women" I think of a little rinky dink eco-friendly compact car....

    It just depends on what kind of women you want to attract. If you want to attract shallow, vain women who flock after rich men with fancy cars, then no, you don't want a hybrid. If, on the other hand, you want to attract shallow, vain women who flock after trendy urbanites up on the latest fads, then yes, you do want a hybrid. If you want to attract women who aren't shallow or vain, try finding ones that don't care what kind of car you drive.