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Hybrid Vehicles Hybrids - News, Reviews and Views in the Press
567 messages, Last post on Oct 30, 2009 at 9:21 PM
You are in the Hybrid Vehicles Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer
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BALTIMORE — Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn't drive: the blind. Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it's safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot. "I'm used to being able to get sound cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn't imagined there was anything I really wouldn't be able to hear," said Deborah Kent Stein, chairwoman of the National Federation of the Blind's Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. "We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn't hear it." Hybrids a Hazard
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 03, 2007 5:41 am) |
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There ARE sounds you expect to hear when a vehicle is approaching. When they aren't there it can be a problem. This isn't about saying hybrids are bad, just that thre's something that might need to be addressed as I mention in Dangerous Crossing
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Replying to: pf_flyer (Oct 03, 2007 8:35 am) |
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Replying to: pf_flyer (Oct 03, 2007 8:35 am) 
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A bicycle isn't exactly gonna make a pancake out of you 
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Toyota's 16 mpg Tundra is outselling its Prius Hybrid The Union of Concerned Scientists is blasting Toyota for opposing a U.S. Senate proposal to raise the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard to 35 miles per gallon over the next 13 years. We chided Toyota for painting itself green by announcing its support of an increase in the federal CAFE standard while failing to let people know that the measure it backs is the weakest of three competing fuel economy increases being considered by lawmakers. In a letter to its supporters, Concerned Scientists says Toyota seems to be trying to have it both ways and urges them to write the company to tell it that it must choose to be either "an environmentally responsible company willing to support sensible fuel economy standards," or "merely another corporation willing to compromise our fiscal, environmental, and energy security for its own interests." http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/? 
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Replying to: gagrice (Oct 04, 2007 1:58 pm) But let me temper your excitement..... There is NO WAY that the automakers can make the 35 MPG by 2020. That is what is being opposed. It's a TECHNOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY when you combine 1. America's car buyers who do not want to pay more for fuel-efficient cars, who, despite the end of the "SUV Era", still want big powerful cars and trucks, and 2. The current technological restraints on making your fleet 35 MPG. Toyota is joining Detroit in opposing that ridiculous "mandate" because IT CANNOT BE DONE. In the last 15 years Toyota has been the ONLY automaker to decrease automobile emissions. Ultimately, Toyota is barely trailing Honda in overall fleet fuel economy, and the automaker is on pace to pass Honda. So, why attack the company actually doing MORE than any other automaker on the issue UOCS cares about most? Even with high mileage vehicles like the Prius available, consumers still continue to demand big powerful cars and trucks. Just increasing the CAFE standards won't do anything to influence demand for larger vehicles. They also responded to Friedman's comments about higher mileage cars being available overseas by reminding him that there is demand driven by high fuel taxes in other countries. Without similar tax changes here to influence demand, CAFE standards will only frustrate buyers by ensuring the vehicles they want are not available. Toyota DOES want it both ways, and those two ways are this: 1. Keep making and selling more clean cars than anyone else. 2. Meet the HIGH DEMAND in and make money in the truck market in the USA. The 35 MPG by 2020 is NOT POSSIBLE, so of course it should be opposed. That doesn't "cancel out" everything else Toyota is doing to be the green company it is CONSISTENTLY RATED AS BY INDUSTRY EXPERTS. Toyota WANTS a new CAFE standard. Just not a impossible one. Read on: Read the October 3rd entry to become enlightened
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 04, 2007 2:32 pm) Remove the Prius from the Toyota corporate MPG and the HCH from the Honda corporate MPG and check the numbers again. In my opinion, Honda is the only major manufacturer who is serious about keeping all their vehicles as fuel efficient as possible. |
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Replying to: larsb (Oct 04, 2007 2:32 pm) |
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