But what about people who are sensitive to noise?

The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act was passed into law and signed by Obama in 2011. Written largely to protect blind pedestrians, the act requires the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set a minimum noise level that hybrid and electric cars have to meet.


Never mind that we have no record of any auto-pedestrian accidents caused by blind people not hearing the cars. They've just "heard stories" of blind people having their feet run over or their canes broken says Chris Danielson of the National Federation of the Blind. “Our position was, let’s get out in front of this before it’s [a] situation where people are being injured,” says Danielsen.


The law mandates the sound be constant when the car is at low speeds. Don't we have enough noise pollution already? Noise pollution is certainly annoying, but does it actually cause any real harm? Several studies have shown that urban noise can have adverse effects on bird populations, causing them to change their songs and otherwise alter their behavior. Now researchers have learned that man-made noise can also have a ripple effect on plants as well. The EPA says that noise pollution adversely affects the lives of millions of people. Studies have shown that there are direct links between noise and health. Problems related to noise include stress related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity.


So now we'll have one government agency mandating what another government agency deems a health hazard. Are we catering to the blind at the expense of those who have sensitivity to noise pollution? I think I'll sue on behalf of those people. Won't that be a dilemma for Obama and all those other PC politicians in Washington?


Our downtown traffic lights have a noisy signal for the blind. I can't imagine having a shop on the corner and having to listen to that din all day long. And I'm told that those signals are there because one person complained. So every person who shops or has a business downtown is inconvenienced for one person. I don't know who it was that complained, but perhaps he should heed the philosophy of a very wise Vulcan: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." SPOCK, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-on-foot/2011/01/new-law-mandates-more-noise-from-hybrid-and-electric-cars-6890.html

http://www.epa.gov/air/noise.html