Not serious, only joking here.  This could possibly be a way of controlling 
the blind World and also assist the government with less blind pensions to 
pay.  Seriously, I'll wait till you stopped exercising by jumping up and 
down.....................  On a serious note, yes it would be extremely 
dangerous for the future blind World and the blind voices should be heard 
now before it is too late and the World is already provided with millions of 
silent cars.  Good that the level of noice in public will be reduced but one 
thing we need to make sure that it does come across blind but still human 
surely much more important than the level of public noice.  If we don't 
succeed in getting that across now, the blind World of the future will be 
regarded and respected less.

Greg



The Blind community believe that electric cars will be a problem for them, 
but deafblind people who are actively mobile today already have a problem 
with with cars. Di Jeff Overmars The Globe and Mail Focus, March 4, 2006,

Jeff Overmars is a freelance writer in Toronto.

The compressed-air auto that Tim Flannery describes is still in the works, 
but the gas-electric hybrid car has already rolled out of the pages of 
science fiction. Its arrival brings the hope that the ozone layer will 
survive and we all might breathe a little easier (without actually having to 
drive less). But if you think that this healthy alternative vehicle can do 
no wrong, well, you would be wrong.

The cute, go-green hybrid car has almost no discernible engine or exhaust 
noise when operating in electric mode.

While this might be a selling point for some concerned citizens, the silence 
can pose big problems for others. The blind community, for example, feels 
that the audibly "invisible" car is a threat to their safety.

Last year, the Alliance for the Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) adopted 
"Resolution 2005-25: Hybrid Cars" calling for research into the problems 
posed by the increasing presence of hybrid and electric cars on roads and 
city streets.

The AEBC is concerned because they have been hearing stories from their 
members -- blind or visually impaired Canadians -- of cars sneaking up or 
surprising them at crosswalks. These stories have been popping up all over 
North America with documented incidents in San Francisco, Little Rock, Ark., 
and elsewhere.

Audible traffic signals -- the ones that beep or chirp -- indicate when it 
is safe to cross in a particular direction from a crosswalk. Their purpose 
is to replace the visual cue of the white, walking GO man or glowing red 
STOP hand.

But what is going to replace the sound of a one-ton vehicle idling or 
approaching from one way or the other when a blind person steps out to cross 
a street? In fact, traffic noise is one of the main ways the blind can 
ensure that they are lined up straight to safely cross a street.

Kim Kilpatrick, the executive assistant at the AEBC, has sent several 
letters to car manufacturers and insurance providers hoping that something 
might be done to compensate for the silence. While she has yet to receive 
any official response, Ms.  Kilpatrick says Ford responded in a follow-up 
telephone call she made, telling her that the matter had been passed along 
to their engineering department.

But since blind people don't drive cars, she wonders how much time and money 
a company such as Ford will be willing to invest in solving this problem.

Perhaps we should reach back into science fiction-land again -- specifically 
to H.G.  Wells's The Country of the Blind, where the population of a village 
is composed of blind people. Here, a sighted visitor finds their perspective 
no longer offers the safety and security it once had. That sort of thinking 
might provide a solution to the hybrid problem and others like it that are 
sure to arise out of further innovation.







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