Fri 11 Apr 2008
I have to vent about something I found out the other day: A bill might be passed making it illegal to produce quiet hybrid cars. Over the years there has been a debate growing about the pros and cons of hybrid cars. On one side of the coin, they are environmentally friendly and fuel effective; on the other hand, they are typically smaller, weaker than other cars, and too quiet. Thats right folks. Due to the quiet running of the engine, blind people have brought a bill to Congress asking them to make hybrid cars LOUDER.
ABVI (Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired) has introduced a bill to Congress that “would require hybrids to make more noise”. All I can say is: Why? While I do empathize with blind people crossing a road and not being able to hear if a car is accelerating or braking, why should hybrids be forced to perform an overhaul of their production of their “green” car? Why is this minority group lobbying to change a good thing? Call me ‘cold hearted’ or cruel, but there is no viable reason to make the hybrids make more noise. It’s ridiculous. If they can make a hybrid car make more noise without affecting the effectiveness of the car, in it’s original design, then I say great! If not, then learn to deal with it or stay off the road. But to take two steps backwards in our quest towards a better vehicle, well once again I ask why? Why is this bill even being introduced?
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April 11th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Weaker,eh? My car can bench press more than your hybrid can.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
*GRRRRRT* Look at my new hybrid! better than your stupid, QUIET Hummer! *GRRRRRRT*
April 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Did a bunch of blind people get hit by hybrids this year or are they just scared its going to happen?
April 11th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Andrew,
A woman had her foot run over by a car backing up and another where a blind guy barely avoided getting hit by a Prius and was only saved by his guide dog.
“Preliminary results of an ongoing study at the University of California-Riverside have indicated the cars pose some risk. The study found that hybrids operating at slow speeds must be 40 percent closer to pedestrians than combustion-engine vehicles before they make enough noise for their location to be detected.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am
This bill is being introduced because Americans are a bunch of slack-jawed mouth breathing pussies.
I do not have sympathy. Blindness is an evolutionary weakness which would correct itself through natural selection if we didn’t artificially sustain those who cannot sustain themselves. This is unnatural.
April 12th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I’ve seen someone almost get hit by an electric car. I lived in Georgia when the Summer Olympics came around to the US, and we had free passes to some kind of hospitality tent. Outside, they had GM’s EV1 on display, and they were letting people go for short test-drives.
They had a few signs up indicating that you wouldn’t hear what hit you, but someone still walked out into the road while looking both ways, and caught themselves at the last second.
This *actually* is a problem. Is legislation the best recourse? Probably not, but these problems have been known for at least 12 years.
April 12th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Aren’t blind people supposed to have their other 4 senses heightened? Their spidey sense should go off sooner than ours.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Jake, nice job on the anecdotal evidence.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Jake Voytko: Adding dubious credibility to unimportant arguments since 1985.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Jake, that should be the new slogan to your blog.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I grew up around a blind woman, and she could hear a paper airplane slicing through the air. Plus many walk signs now have sound associated with them to accommodate blind pedestrians.
I think the ABVI is in the big oil companies’ pockets.