More hybrid noise nonsense

[bwilson4web]

Researchers Want Engine Noise Added to Too-Quiet Hybrids

When it comes to hybrid cars, silence is not so blessed. Human factors researchers at North Carolina State University say the vehicles are too quiet for safety – pedestrians and bicyclists can't hear them coming. The researchers want hybrid manufacturers to build in some noise, and recommend automotive engine sounds.

In their paper published in the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 52nd Annual Meeting, Patrick Nyeste and Michael S. Wogalter evaluated the responses of 24 participants (mean age = 19.4 years) to six categories of noise: engine, horn, hum, siren, whistle and white noise. Three variations of each type of sound were tested.
. . .
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, automobile manufacturers and the Society of Automotive Engineers International are exploring solutions to the problem. The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008, which would require the Secretary of Transportation to study and implement regulations for hybrid, electric, and other silent-engine vehicles to emit nonvisual alerts for pedestrians, is under consideration in the United States Congress.

This is wrong on so many levels, I wrote and posted this reply:

Originally Posted by reply

Dear Editor,

It is never pleasant to criticize someone in public but sad to say, Jennifer Anderson's article "Researchers Want Engine Noise Added to Too-Quite Hybrids", January 25, 2009 is based upon an out of date press release, November 14, 2008 "Hybrid Cars Too Quiet for Pedestrian Safety? Add Engine Noise, Say Human Factors Researchers" by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Worse, this press release is based upon a flawed paper "On Adding Sound to Quiet Vehicles" by Patrick Nyeste and Michael S. Wogalter of the Psychology Department, North Carolina State University. But sad to say, that is the case.

With the new Congress in January 2009, all legislation in committee died including "The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008, which would require the Secretary of Transportation to study and implement regulations for hybrid, electric, and other silent-engine vehicles to emit nonvisual alerts for pedestrians, is under consideration in the United States Congress." (Jennifer Anderson.) The specific legislation, H.R. 5734 needed to die in committee because there is no evidence in the National Highway Safety Administration databases of a higher hazard from the over 500,000 Prius that have been on USA streets and highways starting in 2001. More about this later.

The Press release from the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society dated November 14, 2008 was accurate about the legislation that was in committee. But it died with the new Congress. Sad to say, this press release is based upon a terribly flawed paper by Patrick Nyeste and Michael S. Wogalter.

In the second paragraph, Nyeste and Wogalter claim:

". . . One problem is the potential negative influence on pedestrian and bicyclist safety (e.g., Huppert, 2008). . . ."

Their source, Huppert, is a news report by the mother of an 8 year old boy who rode his bicycle into the path of a Prius. At best, this is an anecdotal story from a biased party to a single incident. Sad to say, this is just one element that claims there is a hybrid hazard. But had Nyster and Wogalter done proper research, they would have attended or even looked at the record from June 23, 2008 hearing by the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA):

www.regulations.gov - search NHTSA-2008-0108-0020 opposition research

They would have found "Analysis of Blind Pedestrian Deaths and Injuries from Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2002-2006" by Dr. Christopher Hogan. A professional research analyst in Vienna Virginia and Prius owner, Dr. Hogan looked at the NHTSA Fatality Accident Reporting System data covering all pedestrian fatalities 2002-2006 since the Prius has been on USA roads. From Dr. Hogan's summary:

"Counts and rates of death and injuries.
• From 2002 to 2006, on average, five legally blind pedestrians per year were killed in motor vehicle accidents in the US (Table 1).
. . .

Hybrids and pedestrian deaths.
• Over this period, no deaths of legally blind pedestrians involved a Prius (Table 3) or any other hybrid vehicle (Table 4).
• For all US pedestrian deaths (blind and sighted), 11 deaths involved a Prius (Table 3). (The Prius was singled out here because it is the only model with large production volume that was produced solely as a hybrid.) The Prius was no more likely to be involved in a pedestrian death than the average passenger vehicle (Table 5), accounting for 0.05 percent of registered vehicles and pedestrian deaths over this period.

Causes of blind pedestrian deaths.
• Over this period, pickup trucks were the vehicles most commonly involved in a blind pedestrian death (Table 3).
. . ."

A lot of things were going on in 2008 but to neglect an NHTSA hearing on "Quiet Cars" and analysis of directly relevant traffic accident data is a fundamental error. But this was compounded by use a single incident of a mother claiming her son's poor bicycling was cause not by her failure to teach him to look stretches the bounds credibility. A single poor reference does not condemn all of the Nyster, Wogalther paper but it means the rest of the paper and especially these inflated claims of a hazard need a closer look by serious people.

Robert J. Wilson
625k Inc.
Huntsville, AL

The ball is in their court and it is only fair to give them a day or so to review the facts and data. But understand, as far as I'm concerned, the battle is not over until this nonsense stops popping up. However, this is a classic example of how misinformation gains credibility when good people stand by and let it echo on and on and on.

Bob Wilson

[Gakubuchi]

I would say to all those people who want hybrids to make noise that the correct way to know if a car is approaching is to LOOK, not to HEAR. This is what my parents, school teachers and driving-licence teachers had always teached me.
Obiously blind persons can't look for a car, but they have special methods to know when to cross a street: sounding traffic lights, special trained dogs, etc.
And what about heavely congested cities? You can't hear a car coming with a lot of background noise! So they are telling me that cars should have a microphone and speakers to make a louder sound than the surrounding noise? (I hope you understand what I mean)...
It's like saying: "hey, no, I don't want a silent washing-machine because then I can't hear when it's finished!"

[sdtundra]

I wonder if I installed a speaker and ran a wire to my iPod, downloaded the sound of a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda Hemi revving and accelerating with straight pipes and just sat in front "revving" it they would drop all this nonsense.

Or better yet, maybe a Harley with straight pipes.

[4G63]

if hybrids should make loud noise, maybe the government should just ban blind people from going out alone after all.

[Rybold]

Most brand new ICE vehicles are just as quiet as hybrids. Therefore, hybrids should not be treated any differently. The drivers should be responsible enough to look where they are going).

BUT, EVEN WITH 1960'S BIG BLOCKS, countless wildlife ends up victim to roadkill every day. So, obviously engine noise is NOT the solution (from 100 years of data). If ANY vehicle is going to emit noise, then ALL vehicles should emit noise. And to protect the animals, the noise that ALL vehicles should emit should be a LION'S ROAR. (that's going to make busy urban city settings exciting).
When the vehicle detects that the driver is on a winding road, it automatically turns on the roaring sound every fifty seconds. If not on a winding road, then the vehicle is silent. Problem solved ! (maybe a few blind people on winding roads will be saved every year from hearing the Lion's Roar)
And I'm sure teenagers will figure out how to turn the roaring sound on while driving through residential neighborhoods at 3am.

EXAMPLE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUfDxRelPHg Haha! This is going to be great!

.

[joe_g]

I find that the Prius is easier to notice audibly. Newer gas engines are quiet. I can hear the inverter sing on a Prius when power or regen activates farther away that other cars.

[chogan2]

Any word from NHTSA on when they expect to complete their study of hybrid involvement in pedestrian injuries, using all reportable crashes? My study was only for crashes involving deaths (because that's what's on the NHTSA public-use file). If NHTSA gets a clear answer one way or the other, from the full spectrum of reported incidents, that ought to be a pretty strong determinant of how this proceeds.

Also, thanks for keeping up the fight on this. This is one of those stories that just has so much appeal as "news" that it's not going to die on its own.

[bwilson4web]

Nothing but given the change, I figured it might take a little while before NHTSA figured out which way to go. I'm worried that the new head of the Department of Transportation, former Rep. Ray LaHood, was one of the 30 co-sponsors in September 2008.

Yeap, it looks like we've got two years of nonsense to deal with again.

Bob Wilson

[Romeo]

Yeah, that's "great" solution - reduce accidents by increasing car noise. Let's then make sure that the car noise is increased to the level where is could be heard by all :
a) those who are listening ipods while walking or cycling
b) those who are driving other cars (could be very useful if the car is in the blind spot, for example)
c) have I missed anybody?

Or even better, maybe all pedestrians should be equipped with noise devices so that car drivers could hear them coming.

[patsparks]

Kangaroos are killed almost exclusively on long straight roads here, there are a lot of them though.
Truck cause most of those deaths but there are a lot of them too.
Good job Bob.