Loud Pipes Save Lives

So claim motorcyclists, anyway, who have for generations argued that loud exhausts make other motorists more aware of their presence, thus increasing their safety.  Nobody every really took this claim seriously -- not even riders like me who owned bikes with loud pipes. About the only anecdotal evidence I have that suggests a small safety advantage to being noisy is the conspicuous absence of deer in the road.  This advantage is, in my mind, offset by the increased number of people running in the road shaking their fists in the air.  I guess it comes down to your choice of targets.

Anyway, it turns out, a study from UC Riverside has evidence that shows the loud pipes crowd may be on to something. Their study shows that really quiet cars (i.e. hybrids), can get 40% closer to pedestrians than an ordinary car before being heard.  Now, we have a bill before Congress that proposes to make electric cars less quiet.  Talk about unintended consequences.

"The beneficial trend toward more environmentally friendly vehicles has had the unintended effect of placing the blind and other pedestrians in danger," said Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns, who's sponsoring the bill with Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns.

The National Federation of the Blind has been pushing for this legislation even though they admit they're not aware of people being struck by cars they couldn't hear. NFB President Marc Maurer has said "he fears it's only a matter of time." Indeed, and it's only a matter of time before before the  moon comes crashing down to earth, but I wouldn't run around lobbying for a law to prevent it just yet.

Really, the entire debate is about personal freedom. Some drivers have chosen to remain silent while others have chosen to make their presence known. The difference is that one group has incessantly lobbied against the other to force them to stop doing as they choose. Now, we're finding the anti-noise activists have become the target of a third party lobbying to force them to make more noise.

Poetic. 

Comments

[Lazarus Long]

The Law of Unintended Consequences and the Cautionary Principle have a head-on collision.

[GreggB]

I thought we all had to sacrifice to save the earth from global warming. If that means blind folks getting run down by hybrids well so be it, let them take one for the team. We can't have any weakness the fight against global warming is far too important.