HR 5734 - "Bell" the Hybrid Act

[bwilson4web]

Hi folks,

Our representative government only works when we let our Congress critters know what we think. Unfortunately, HR 5734, the "Bell the Hybrid" Act, has been proposed and we need to let our voices (and in November our votes) be known too.

There is a real problem with pedestrian and bike accidents since our car can easily cause death and severe injuries. But the right answer is to focus on vehicle-pedestrian accidents. The blind may be at the leading edge but of the 4,784 pedestrians killed in 2006, I suspect the blind were a small percentage. Unfortunately this proposed legislation is fatally flawed but it is correctable. My suggestions show deletes in italics and additions in bold:

GovTrack: H.R. 5734: Text of Legislation

Originally Posted by HR_5734

HR 5734 IH
110th CONGRESS2d Session H. R. 5734To direct the Secretary of Transportation to study and establish a motor vehicle safety standard that provides for a means of alerting blind and other pedestrians of motor vehicle operation.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESApril 9, 2008
Mr. TOWNS (for himself and Mr. STEARNS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILLTo direct the Secretary of Transportation to study and establish a motor vehicle safety standard that provides for a means of alerting blind and other pedestrians of motor vehicle operation.

• Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

• This Act may be cited as the `Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008'.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

• As used in this Act--
  • (1) the term `Secretary' means the Secretary of Transportation; and
    (2) the term `motor vehicle' has the meaning given such term in section 30102(a)(6) of title 49, United States Code.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

• Congress finds that--
  • (1) motor vehicles designed to provide the desirable benefits of reducing harmful pollutants and operating with greater fuel efficiency include gasoline-electric hybrid and electric-only vehicles, and in the foreseeable future may include vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cell and other engine designs that rely on fuels and technologies other than the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine;
    (2) these vehicle engine designs operate or are likely to operate with virtually no sound being produced by the vehicle;
    (3) the total number of hybrid motor vehicles sold per year in the United States is growing dramatically, and may someday equal or exceed the number of internal combustion engine motor vehicles on the Nation's roads;
    (4) blind pedestrians cannot locate and evaluate traffic by sight and instead must listen to traffic to discern its speed, direction, and other attributes in order to travel safely and independently;
    (5) other people, including pedestrians who are not blind, bicyclists, runners, and small children, benefit from multi-sensory information available from vehicle traffic, including the sound of vehicle engines, in 2006 there were 4,784 pedestrians and 773 pedalcyclists killed in accidents;
    (6) when operating on their electric engines, hybrid vehicles cannot be heard by blind people and others, rendering such vehicles extremely dangerous when driving on the street, emerging from driveways, moving through parking lots, and in other situations where pedestrians and vehicles come into proximity with each other;
    (7) failure to take immediate action assuring that blind pedestrians can hear hybrid and other silent vehicles in all phases of their operation will inevitably lead to pedestrian injuries and fatalities and some part of the 4,784 pedestrians killed in 2006 were blind and struck but some percentage of hybrid vehicles with their engines off; and
    (8) such accidents are preventable through vehicle designs which take into account the multi-sensory nature of traffic detection and avoidance, operator information and require that vehicle [delete: emit a minimum level of sound] designed to [delete: alert] protect all pedestrians, especially blind pedestrians, [delete: to the presence of such vehicles] from injury and death.

SEC. 4. STUDY OF METHOD TO PROTECT BLIND AND OTHER PEDESTRIANS.

• (a) Required Study- Not later than 90 days following enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall conduct a study to--
  • (1) determine the most practical means of assuring that blind and other pedestrians [delete: receive substantially similar information to information such pedestrians receive from sound emitted by vehicles that use internal combustion engines] are protected from vehicle accidents;
    (2) including determine the minimum level of sound emitted from a motor vehicle that is necessary to provide blind pedestrians with the information needed to make safe travel judgments; and
    (3) consider including whether the minimum level of sound requirement or another method that conveys information essential for pedestrian safety provides the most reliable information to support safe travel of blind and other pedestrians, including--
    • (A) which method provides blind and other pedestrians the greatest amount of information regarding location, motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle and other vehicle and operator based systems;
      ( the cost and feasibility of each method, including the cost and feasibility of equipping each individual [delete: pedestrian] and vehicle owner with any technology tailored to their need [delete: necessary] to receive safety information; and
      (C) which method assures the best safety outcome for cost [delete: least reliance] by blind and other pedestrians and operators upon technology they must possess when traveling and thereby provides the greatest amount of independence and opportunity for spontaneous travel for these pedestrians.
  (b) Required Consultation- When conducting the study, the Secretary shall--
  • (1) review all available research regarding pedestrian and pedalcyclists accidents and not limited to just the effect of traffic sounds on pedestrian safety, and commission such research as may be necessary;
    (2) consult consumer groups representing individuals who are blind, other pedestrians, cyclists, and advocates for children; and
    (3) consult with automobile manufacturers and professional organizations representing them; and
  • (4) insurance industry, other governmental agencies including states to quantify the risk.
  (c) Report- The Secretary shall complete the study within 2 years of its commencement and shall transmit a report of the findings to Congress.

SEC. 5. MINIMUM SOUND REQUIREMENT FOR MOTOR VEHICLES.

• Not later than 90 days after conclusion of the study required under section 4, the Secretary shall [delete: promulgate] propose a motor vehicle safety standard under section 30111 of title 49, United States Code, to establish a method for [delete: alerting] improved safety for blind and other pedestrians of the presence and operation of nearby motor vehicles to enable such pedestrians to travel safely and independently in urban, rural, and residential environments. Such standard shall provide that every motor vehicle be equipped with a method--
  • (1) to provide blind and other pedestrians with improved safety around any motor vehicle [delete: a non-visual alert regarding the location, motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle that provides substantially the same protection of such pedestrians as that provided by a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine]; and
    (2) that [delete: will] of the different solutions, may permit a blind or other pedestrian to determine the location, motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle with substantially the same degree of certainty as such pedestrians are able to determine the location, motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine.

• Any system of rules and regulations implemented will be performance monitored and if the predicted results are not met, sunset after 10 years.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

• There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Transportation such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.

SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

• The standard promulgated under section 5 shall apply to all new motor vehicles manufactured or sold in the United States beginning on that date that is 2 years after the issuance of such standard.

My proposed edits have the goal of solving the bigger problem, the 5,000 deaths per year from vehicle and people and biker accidents. We need to quantify the problem; look at all possible solutions; pick the one that has the highest probability of success; and verify the results by monitoring what happens,. If the system fails to perform, make sure that it goes away, which will also let us evaluate if it was working.

Bob Wilson

[bestmapman]

Good job Bob. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I am going to send an e-mail to my congressman, and senators. Jeff Davis, Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning in Kentucky with your suggestions.

[Devil's Advocate]

I think we need to pay more in taxes tp allow idiots like this to keep working so hard to solve the big problems!

[lakedog]

Someone just needs to make a bracket that runs across the front wheel opening where we can attach baseball cards with a wooden clothes pin.

[jammin012]

maybe there should be a point system like in Deathrace 2000

[Sheepdog]

Originally Posted by lakedog

Someone just needs to make a bracket that runs across the front wheel opening where we can attach baseball cards with a wooden clothes pin.

Holy Carp! Here is was minding my own business drinking a bit of water and read this! It's ok. I needed to clean the monitor face of the iMac anyway! Brilliant solution!

[ronhowell]

Hi Bob

"and some part of the 4,784 pedestrians killed in 2006 were blind and struck but some percentage of hybrid vehicles with their engines off"

Don't you mean "by" rather than "but"?

No criticism intended, I think this is an excellent beginning to let our voice be heard. We need hard data on just what that percentage is and the level of injury incurred. I still believe however that this is blatant political opportunism on the part of Towns and Stearns.

ron.

[efusco]

Congressman (and Senators for good measure) written...


RE: H.R. 5734 ( GovTrack: H.R. 5734: Text of Legislation )
I am a Toyota Prius owner and driver and have owned my Prius for 4 1/2 years now. I purchased it to reduce the amount of gasoline I burned and to support what I viewed as the first real technological step forward in automobile technology and one that could, eventually, lead to a future where we would no longer be dependent upon foreign petroleum imports.

One of the great benefits of having a Prius is that when at low speeds the internal combustion engine completely shuts off and the car rides almost silently down the road. Recently the press has picked up on a few isolated reports of concern expressed from a tiny segment of the blind community about potential risks of a blind person being struck and injured by a hybrid while running in the all electric mode.

I'll try to be fairly brief, but the recent HR5734 bill bothers me greatly. First of all there have, in over 10 years of the Prius being sold in the USA, been no reports of injuries or deaths due to blind individuals being injured. Next, it's highly unlikely that a blind individual would be walking in an area where the hybrids would be in silent mode...parking lots, heavy traffic, etc. Most blind people use cross walks on roadways when ambulatory and having a need to enter a roadway. Once upon a time we used to hear about the problems of "Noise Pollution"...hybrids offer a partial solution to that problem. And now there's a proposal actually legislate more noise! That alone is really unbelievable to me.

Significantly, this resolution calls for large expenditures to research this issue, implementation would cost more, enforcement hasn't been addressed (ie. many of us would find a way to disable the "sound maker"--would that make me a criminal?).

Finally, for 100 years now cars have been burning gas and producing pollution known to be responsible, at least in part, for the deaths of thousands and thousands of individuals annually. If we need more legislation it should be to produce more hybrids and more clean alternative vehicles such as bettery electric vehicles and to reduce the emissions of cars already on the road without exclusions of the worst emitters such as the large SUVs like the Tahoe, Hummer and Excursions.

I appreciate your time and hope that you will move to reject this resolution and encourage your fellow representatives to do likewise. I'm happy to discuss the situation further or even to take you for a ride in my Prius the next time you're in Springfield so you can see, first hand, just how ludicrous this idea is.
Sincerely,
Evan Fusco, MD

[hobbit]

Save money and headache, just play this on the stereo.
.
_H*

[blamy]

4784 killed in 2006? How many of those were blind and how many of those blind persons were killed by a Hybrid vehicle? My guess on that would be zero killed by Hybrids. Hope someone here has the ability to verify and pull that kind of information from the raw data. Not to toot our horns too much but Hybrid drivers are much better drivers overall than our ICE only counterparts; and that is a very large understatement. Even has the right idea to send letters to our congressmen and women and try to convince these opportunists that this type of legislation is silly at best. Sorry to say this but they might need to be reminded that they may buy a few votes with this type of legislation but there are more Hybrid owners that will not like their representative if something as foolish as this were to become law. Perhaps if the blind were to wear beanies with rotating red lights (similar to aircraft anti-collision lights) there would be less blind people being struck and killed by motor vehicles. This approach would be 100% safer for the blind as it may prevent the ICE only drivers from running down the blind. We are trying to prevent blind people from being run down; right! In the mean time we should all take Evan's lead and do it ASAP to prevent this from gaining any momentum in Congress. IMHO.