SACRAMENTO (AP) Electric and hybrid vehicles may be good for the environment, but a California lawmaker says they're bad news for the blind.

State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, is pushing a bill aimed at ensuring that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by the blind and visually impaired when they're about to cross a street.

The state Senate approved the bill Tuesday on a 23-12 vote and sent it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not taken a position.

It would establish a committee to study the issue and recommend ways the vehicles could make more noise. The recommendations would be due by 2010.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles says there are 248,000 gas-electric hybrid vehicles and 89,000 all-electric vehicles on the road in California. State traffic officials say they don't keep statistics on pedestrian accidents involving hybrid or electric vehicles.
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So I better not get pulled over for loud exhaust, I'm helping to save the blind!

 

i dont think Hybrids are quiet at all, they have a very distinct noise. gas cars in general are as quiet as hybrids, unless youre standing behind them...and once youre behind them you have no worries unless they are backing out of a parking spot.

Blind people have excellent hearing...unless they are deaf, then making a hybrid just a tad more audible isnt going to help.

Just something for people to complain about. We know how much people like to complain.

 

Awesome, more stupid laws.

 

blind wanting hybrids more audible is based on the fact that the driver doesnt see the blind person, the blind person wants to be able to jump out of the way...if the car is moving fast, it will be just as loud as a gas car and the blind is going to be hit either way unless they have nija hearing, and if its moving slow then the blind person will run into it with his/her stick.

either way the blind person is going to get hit and encounter the same amount of bodily damage.

 

 

all you gotta do is throw some flowmasters on the prius

 

I've been next to a hybrid before when it left a parking spot and all I heard was crunching leafs. I don't think it'd be a bad idea. How it would be implemented though I have no clue.

That being said, I saw a prius the other day with a reese's colored paint job (orange, yellow, and brown) and rims. Don't know about exhaust though because it was parked.

 

Baseball cards in the spokes for everyone. And make them green in color.

So we can spend more money without a budget,

And force the green parties to run non catted cars and protect the blind runnning over the blind.

Anything else?

I need a state job


I just thought we should bring back curb feelers.. That green friendly and gives the blind that extra second to jump what ever way they dont hear a electric car coming...

 

I'm trying to get my neighbor to put some old Hooker headers on his Prius. But he's a little worried they might not fit. I told him all he has to do is use a little elbow grease and he'll be golden.

 

they are too quiet, go to sf and listen or them on the busy streets.

 

What are blind and hearing impaired people doing in the street to begin with? If you're that impaired then you are the hazard to others.

 

so you're saying blind/deaf people shouldnt be allowed to walk in the streets?

 

Our kids are getting dumber by the day and they want to spend money on studying ways to make electric cars noisy? Tie a tin can to the bumper and call it day.

 

throw on a blitz nur spec on them.

 

It is kind of a funky idea... one of the loudest things I have heard on the prius is the stereo... that carr has zero insulation and you can clearly hear the stereo when it is at low volume and the windows/doors closed...

As for the exhaust... I don't think that full electric cars have exhaust... just a heat sink...