Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Hybrids A Mortal Danger To Blind People


In a twist that I'm sure no one saw coming ...

(Oh, that's a groaner even for me ...)

Turns out that these new hybrid cars that often run only under battery power at low speeds are a potential danger to the blind.

Seems that many blind people, when trying to negotiate city streets, use their sense of hearing to try to pick up the sound of nearby cars running in order to avoid being turned into a potato pancake by one of them.

Problem is that, when operating under battery power, hybrids make almost no sound.

Looks like one possible solution they are looking at is some sort of electronic noise generating device.

Actually I'm thinking there might already be a good candidate - namely those kilowatt linear stereo amplifiers and rap CD's ... that combination could not only alert the blind but WAKE THE DEAD ...

1 Comments:

At October 4, 2007 at 10:15 AM, Blogger Ryan said...

Nothing like bass rumbling through your neighborhood at 2 in the morning.

I was surprised to hear this story. I always thought that cars made a great deal of noise, even without the gas engine running. Tires, namely, make noise.

Another difficult coming about is creating safe ways for the blind to cross roundabout traffic intersections.

Roundabouts are much safer for motorists causing much less serious crashes but the configuration can make them difficult for the blind to navigate.

 

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