[rant]
Unfortunately, redistricting gave me this congresscritter, whose seat is such a safe Democratic seat that he doesn't even campaign, doesn't send out any newsletters, and has no town hall events. I am more likely to meet him in a Third World photo op than in his own district. The only reason the Republicans even file in this district is to prevent the Libertarians and Greens from gaining a second-place finish.
[/rant]

Would be cheaper to 'bell the blind.' They wear a device that senses approaching vehicle. Maybe it warns not only the wearer but the approaching driver somehow. I respect the disabled, but we should not rush to the worst, most expensive possible answer to a problem that does not seem to really exist.

Actually that is very practical since over 90% of all North American cars have a remote keyless entry receiver tuned to the same band. Normally these are 'off' when the car is running but a well defined protocol could be defined that would be the equivalent of the "panic" button and would solve the problem not only for hybrids but the other vehicles that continue to kill blind pedestrians. It doesn't have to be so loud as much as a brief set of 'horn bleeps'.

Bob Wilson

Hi,

Ordinarily I would edit my last posting to include more recent data. However, these don't really fit but provide additional background material:

AFP: Japan may add noise to quiet hybrid cars for safety

There have been a number of repostings that all but claim this is a done deal. But read the last paragraph, this is not even close to a done deal.

Then there is bit from our friends down-under:
Pedestrian safety motion gets nod - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The last bit is on July 1, an 81 year old driving a Prius struck and killed a 97 year old pedestrian:

Man struck and killed in Tonawanda | WIVB.com

The specific location can be found using Google Earth at:

43 00' 04.57" N 78 50' 10.71" W

What is interesting is the police officer cited the light-and-dark shadows under the overpass and made reference to "electronic devices." This is also a description of a cell phone BUT we don't know for sure. Regardless, the photo shows the Prius had just left the four-way, stop sign intersection.

The problem is older pedestrians often suffer the infirmaties of age including poor eye sight and hearing. We do not know if the pedestrian had such problems. Regardless, rest assured the 'honorable competition' will blame the Prius. So have the facts and data ready.

http://www.speakupwny.com/forums/showthread.php?p=511480

So in addition to jay-walking instead of crossing at the intersection, jay-walking through shadows and direct sun-light, he apparently had trouble hearing. A lot of good a noise maker would do for the deaf.

One last news article that our 'honorable competition' will never address but should be challenged:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090627/NEWS01/906280334/Nearly blind pedestrian killed by car

Where is their concern for Gerald C. Burton ... killed by a Nissan Maxima?

Bob Wilson

Finally finished my first cut on Prius fatal accidents per 100 million miles. The reason this is important is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports the annual fatality rate per 100 million miles:

Now I need to refine the numbers but these are close enough to share. One problem I have to rework is fatal accidents are different from fatalities. A preliminary look shows there were 111 fatal accidents and 126 fatalities. Still, these rough numbers reveal:

• statistically significant number of Prius accidents - over the total vehicle history, there have been enough accidents and miles travelled to see that the Prius is safer than the average USA vehicle fleet.
• the transition from NHW11 to NHW20 suggests an apparent reduction in fatal accident rate ... but it is a weak association and requires more detailed analysis based upon VIN numbers.
• to calculate the Prius fleet miles, I used the annual Prius sales; 15,000 miles per vehicle after the first year; 7,500 miles for the sale year; and 5% fleet loss (other data suggest the fleet loss is closer to 2%.)

Fatal pedestrian accident rates are harder to calculate since I've only found 11, Prius-only, single car, pedestrian fatal accidents. There are more, multi-car accidents with pedestrians but it isn't just the accident but the fatalities that are important and these are small numbers. Understand this is my crude approach to Dr. Hogan's more sophisticated analysis (his tools are better!)

Bob Wilson

Well the desire to "bell" the hybrid is really a desire to dislike the Prius which is a Japanese car from a "Japanese" company that is doing well considering considering the economy.

That's why we get stories like how great the Ford Fusion hybrid is the best things since sliced bread. The Ford is American. Given all the buy American fury, a hybrid made in the USA (with technology licensed from Toyota) that doesn't completely suck like the Malibooboo hybrid should be all the protectionist rage... right?

No one is saying we should bell the Fusion....

It's protectionism combined with good old American exploitation of ignorance. The truth is blind people are very careful. They generally don't play in traffic. But what's next, bell the bicycle? What about those awful segways? What about other blind people? They're usually very quiet...

Seriously, it's all about resentment... which North America has much too much of, of late... Resentment that is taking advantage of ignorance.

Just today in a CBC report in Canada about Ontario's promise to subsidize electric cars and plug in hybrids, the reporter asked matter of factly: Would people choose to pay more for a car with less range that travels slower?... This is in a report that mentions the Tesla sports car... That's either stupidity, extreme ignorance, or more likely unwanted social commentary. Sad, when you think about it...

Ford's hybrid technology is it's own. It just happened to be very similar to Toyota and developed at the same time so they cross-licensed patents to avoid litigation. Ford doesn't (and didn't) pay anything to Toyota to build their hybrids.

The advocates are a diverse group and the second group fall in that set. For now, these hybrid-skeptics concentrate on the Prius because that is the most common hybrid on the road, nearly 2/3ds of all hybrids in one model. Had Ford been making and selling 100-200,000 per year, not the typical 20,000 per year, Ford would be 'the target.'

From what I can tell of our honorable competition:

• blind access advocates - already have an "access problem," which they believe is solved by 'belling the hybrids.' The problem is they don't understand the big picture. One of my neighbors, a retired research engineer, works with a blind advisory group and told me the blind at-birth have no sense of space or volume like we have. This makes introducing new technology difficult to someone who doesn't share the mental model of the three-dimensional world we know. They really don't understand that adding a noise maker perpetuates the access problem they already have with traffic. Those who lost their sight later in life often have a better understanding than those blind at birth but this is just a trend, not a hard and fast rule. The blind are a diverse group and not a monolithic block.
• hybrid-skeptics - primarily lead by Lotus engineering but also voiced through the "Automotive Alliance," and opportunistic Euro car makers. We find that Tesla, Fisker, and the Volt team, any group that has used Lotus engineering in their design work, implements a "noise maker." But although the GM Volt team announced they will have a noise maker, the GM hybrids, two-modes and 'mild' hybrids, do not have them ... nor Lotus engineering 'help.' Lotus wants two things: (1) someway to sell fake engine sounds, an audio illusion of power, and (2) a government mandate that forces use of one of their patents, a business opportunity.
• Political opportunist - one of the business opportunities of the blind is phone banks ... supporting political campaigns. It is work they are good at but it also puts them in close contact with political operatives. They are leveraging their contacts but running into a hard problem, better than a 2-to-1 opposition from the public. So they are trying to sell it on the QT.

The automotive hybrid-skeptics, like Lotus, are in competition with Toyota and trying to use this as another wedge or club. But every time I've found a pro-noise maker article, often spawned by a "Press release," the follow-up comments have been overwhelming against it. Folks don't like noise makers and see this as an incredibly stupid idea.

I like this NY Times article because the reporter didn't work from a press release but called up and interviewed people. He visited PriusChat and picked up comments from here and others. Although I didn't see his email requesting an interview until too late, his report pretty well matches my view of what is going on.

The Prius gets the attention because the other Toyota hybrids, Ford, Honda, GM mild and two-mode hybrids have too few sales to be targets. With over 2/3ds of the sales and the most visible presence, Toyota is the target and there are automotive opportunist. Lotus engineering seems to lead the pack but the Euro makers are not above seeing an opportunity to whack a successful competitor.

I have to admit a certain amount of amusement at the Euro diesel advocates who have via "Top Gear" joined the 'hybrids are dangerous' chorus. On one hand, they want us to forget the "diesel knock" but on the other, they tout diesel "vroom vroom" in ads. Irony is lost on them. But we have one powerful asset, the accident data.

Thanks to Christopher Hogan's analysis and the continued trends in accident data, our Prius turns out to be no more dangerous than any other vehicle. There is no smoking gun in the accident data and the trend seems to be getting even better as the number of fleet miles continues to grow. The old NHTSA claim of 'we don't have enough data' is being solved as the clock continues to tick. Time and the facts and data are not on the side of the "bell the hybrid" advocates.

Bob Wilson

Well I have to agree with you that time and facts and data are not on their side. But ignorance is. Yesterday when Ontario announced that they will be subsidizing electric and PHEVs, many comments on the news sites were along the lines of electric cars pollute because of the batteries or electricity use causes greenhouse gases... etc. One person even posted that how after you take into account battery efficiencies electric cars cause more green house gases, but no numbers to back up his claim... LOL... A CBC reporter stated why people would pay more for a slow car, after he showed the tesla and interviewed someone from that company.

Much of the ignorance regarding electric cars, hybrids and PHEV's are based on old stereotypes or old wives tales...

I don't think the blind play in traffic and they certainly don't wander in parking lots. And I don't know of any Prius drivers that like going into stealth mode and drive along the sidewalks... But cyclist on sidewalk... hmmm. Maybe we should have mandatory clackers on bicycles... Personally I would feel a lot safer if shopping carts have dead man brakes...

But I am not convinced that some of this bell the hybrid isn't the same buy American sentiment...

Noise and air pollution are well-established health risks. So now we're going to make the world noisier and dirtier. I guess it makes more sense to cause more noise pollution than to understand the problem. If there is a problem, how about having all cars emit a signal that could be "heard" only by white canes and by bicycle and motorcycle helmets (or maybe require all pedestrians to wear helmets too!).

Hybrids and EVs aren't going away any more than horseless carriages did. We will ignore this law just like those pioneers did. I may not have disabled my backup beeps but I sure as heck am not going to listen to my car making Lotus race car sounds. Then I will really be dangerous, sadly, because of the expectations of the foot-bound.

But I do see it coming. More reason to buy the second Prius asap.

Why not? You are aware that the reverse beep is pretty much inaudible outside the car, especially if the windows are up and the 'listener' is behind the car? It only tells the driver they have put the car in reverse.

Bob, how about a counter bill to decrease the noise made by ALL ICE based vehicles. The ICE in ALL vehicles should be nearly silent. Loud pipes do NOT save lives, the only time you hear those Harley's is when they are travelling away from you. And that loud exhaust overcomes all other noises, like the ones made by any car about to run over a blind person. If I can see well enough to drive, I sure as heck can see a Harley in front of me.

Any blind person can hear a Prius on the road unless it is sneaking up on them at extremely slow speed in a 'test'. Tires on the road make noise, and that noise will be MORE accessible to the blind person if there are not other noises around to mask it. And what happens to the poor blind person innundated with electronic 'approaching vehicle' noises all around them if the sensor and 'belll' is on them? It can't just be a single volume tone, the person would have NO idea how far away the car is, nor what direction it is travelling. It needs a doppler effect for the person to judge the location, speed and direction of travel of the potential danger.

What I'd like to see is collision avoidance systems with pedestrian detection as a standard piece of equipment in all hybrid cars. This will drive down the per-unit price and make them affordable. Then vendors can tailor them for advanced features like adaptive cruise control, lane following and even "automatic speed sign reading."

Taken to their logical conclusion, a collision avoidance system slowly morphs into the 'smart horse' of a century and a half ago who takes the owner home even if they fall asleep. ... I want my "Johnny Cab."


Or my hybrid automatic pilot:

<GRINS>

Bob Wilson

Just lazy on my part. I know it doesn't help anyone much... maybe it's intended to make sure I know the car is running! Maybe one day.

Finding out how to turn off that annoying reverse beeping was one of my major motivating factors for joining priuschat....

I found an example of the audio modifications they want to put on new Prius's .

See it here:

[ame="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v709/Kablooie/?action=view&current=Priussound2.flv"]Priussound2.flv video by Kablooie - Photobucket[/ame]

LOL!

I was expecting "O Fortuna" or "pocketa-pocketa-pocketa . . . " from James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." <grins>

It looks like the "House Energy and Commerce" committee has been tied up with other legislation including "American Clean Energy and Security Act" but H.R. 734 already has 134 co-sponsors (see below.) The Senate bill, S. 841, has ten co-sponsors. During the August break let your representative know your opinion about this legislation.

I expect we'll see a sudden burst of press releases and derivative 'news articles' when they plan to bring it up for committee review.

Bob Wilson

ps. House Cosponsors [as of 2009-08-01]
Del. Madeleine Bordallo [D-GU]
Del. Eleanor Norton [D-DC]
Rep. Neil Abercrombie [D-HI1]
Rep. Rodney Alexander [R-LA5]
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-NV1]
Rep. Howard Berman [D-CA28]
Rep. Robert Berry [D-AR1]
Rep. Judy Biggert [R-IL13]
Rep. Gus Bilirakis [R-FL9]
Rep. Rob Bishop [R-UT1]
Rep. Sanford Bishop [D-GA2]
Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D-OR3]
Rep. Roy Blunt [R-MO7]
Rep. John Boozman [R-AR3]
Rep. Leonard Boswell [D-IA3]
Rep. Robert Brady [D-PA1]
Rep. Bruce Braley [D-IA1]
Rep. Corrine Brown [D-FL3]
Rep. Anh Cao [R-LA2]
Rep. Lois Capps [D-CA23]
Rep. Michael Capuano [D-MA8]
Rep. Russ Carnahan [D-MO3]
Rep. Christopher Carney [D-PA10]
Rep. André Carson [D-IN7]
Rep. Yvette Clarke [D-NY11]
Rep. Steve Cohen [D-TN9]
Rep. Gerald Connolly [D-VA11]
Rep. John Conyers [D-MI14]
Rep. Jerry Costello [D-IL12]
Rep. Joe Courtney [D-CT2]
Rep. Ander Crenshaw [R-FL4]
Rep. Elijah Cummings [D-MD7]
Rep. Kathleen Dahlkemper [D-PA3]
Rep. Danny Davis [D-IL7]
Rep. Peter DeFazio [D-OR4]
Rep. William Delahunt [D-MA10]
Rep. Michael Doyle [D-PA14]
Rep. Steve Driehaus [D-OH1]
Rep. Donna Edwards [D-MD4]
Rep. Keith Ellison [D-MN5]
Rep. Brad Ellsworth [D-IN8]
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson [R-MO8]
Rep. Chaka Fattah [D-PA2]
Rep. Bob Filner [D-CA51]
Rep. Bill Foster [D-IL14]
Rep. Al Green [D-TX9]
Rep. Raymond Green [D-TX29]
Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ7]
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez [D-IL4]
Rep. Phil Hare [D-IL17]
Rep. Jane Harman [D-CA36]
Rep. Alcee Hastings [D-FL23]
Rep. Martin Heinrich [D-NM1]
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin [D-SD]
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY22]
Rep. Mazie Hirono [D-HI2]
Rep. Tim Holden [D-PA17]
Rep. Jesse Jackson [D-IL2]
Rep. Henry Johnson [D-GA4]
Rep. Walter Jones [R-NC3]
Rep. Paul Kanjorski [D-PA11]
Rep. Marcy Kaptur [D-OH9]
Rep. Patrick Kennedy [D-RI1]
Rep. Steve King [R-IA5]
Rep. Larry Kissell [D-NC8]
Rep. Thomas Latham [R-IA4]
Rep. Steven LaTourette [R-OH14]
Rep. Barbara Lee [D-CA9]
Rep. John Lewis [D-GA5]
Rep. Daniel Lipinski [D-IL3]
Rep. David Loebsack [D-IA2]
Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY18]
Rep. Carolyn Maloney [D-NY14]
Rep. Donald Manzullo [R-IL16]
Rep. Edward Markey [D-MA7]
Rep. Doris Matsui [D-CA5]
Rep. Betty McCollum [D-MN4]
Rep. James McDermott [D-WA7]
Rep. James McGovern [D-MA3]
Rep. Mike McIntyre [D-NC7]
Rep. Charles Melancon [D-LA3]
Rep. Michael Michaud [D-ME2]
Rep. Walter Minnick [D-ID1]
Rep. Alan Mollohan [D-WV1]
Rep. Gwen Moore [D-WI4]
Rep. James Moran [D-VA8]
Rep. Jerrold Nadler [D-NY8]
Rep. Richard Neal [D-MA2]
Rep. Randy Neugebauer [R-TX19]
Rep. James Oberstar [D-MN8]
Rep. Edward Pastor [D-AZ4]
Rep. Donald Payne [D-NJ10]
Rep. Collin Peterson [D-MN7]
Rep. Thomas Petri [R-WI6]
Rep. Chellie Pingree [D-ME1]
Rep. Todd Platts [R-PA19]
Rep. Earl Pomeroy [D-ND]
Rep. David Price [D-NC4]
Rep. Nick Rahall [D-WV3]
Rep. Charles Rangel [D-NY15]
Rep. Phil Roe [R-TN1]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA46]
Rep. Peter Roskam [R-IL6]
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL18]
Rep. Steven Rothman [D-NJ9]
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger [D-MD2]
Rep. Timothy Ryan [D-OH17]
Rep. Linda Sánchez [D-CA39]
Rep. John Sarbanes [D-MD3]
Rep. Janice Schakowsky [D-IL9]
Rep. Adam Schiff [D-CA29]
Rep. José Serrano [D-NY16]
Rep. Peter Sessions [R-TX32]
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter [D-NH1]
Rep. Albio Sires [D-NJ13]
Rep. Fortney Stark [D-CA13]
Rep. Clifford Stearns [R-FL6]
Rep. Ellen Tauscher [D-CA10]
Rep. Gene Taylor [D-MS4]
Rep. Lee Terry [R-NE2]
Rep. Glenn Thompson [R-PA5]
Rep. John Tierney [D-MA6]
Rep. Dina Titus [D-NV3]
Rep. Christopher Van Hollen [D-MD8]
Rep. Timothy Walz [D-MN1]
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL20]
Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA35]
Rep. Peter Welch [D-VT]
Rep. Robert Wexler [D-FL19]
Rep. Charles Wilson [D-OH6]
Rep. Rob Wittman [R-VA1]
Rep. David Wu [D-OR1]
Rep. Donald Young [R-AK]
Res.Com. Pedro Pierluisi [D-PR]