Posted on 12/16/2010 1:12:01 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 841, The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, legislation that will provide blind, visually impaired, and other pedestrians greater security when traveling in close proximity to hybrid or electric vehicles.
"The passage of this legislation is momentous and marks over two years of vigorous advocacy by ACB membership that has resulted in consensus by the blind community, auto industry, and Congress," stated Mitch Pomerantz, President of the American Council of the Blind.
"The silent nature of hybrid and electric vehicles, coupled with their growing popularity, presents a dilemma. How do we protect individuals dependent on sound for their safety, such as unsuspecting pedestrians and the blind?" said Representative Edolphus Towns, the sponsor of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, who spent many years teaching travel with a white cane to the blind. "The solution lies in the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act. I am proud to have supported this important piece of legislation."
"The visually impaired rely on audio cues to detect nearby traffic and these quiet vehicles pose a special risk to them and to other pedestrians," stated Rep. Cliff Stearns, who joined in offering the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act. "This measure enjoys the support of all of the interested parties and it is budget neutral, and I look forward to the President quickly signing this bill."
The legislation will require the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin writing standards that would set requirements for an alert sound that allows blind and other pedestrians to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle. It also requires that those rules be finalized within three years.
ACB wishes to express its sincere appreciation to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) along with Reps. Ed Towns (D-N.Y.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.)
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
banning silent cars..... yet we can’t ban naked kids on the internet or at pedo nudist camp....
Oh good God.
"Real solutions for real problems"
Clothes-pinning playing cards in the spokes oughta do it.
LUNATICS!
I’m imagining downtown rush hour traffic at a near standstill, hundreds of cars backed up at traffic lights, moving at a snail’s pace...all of them emitting frequent periodic electronic “chirps”, like the sound of a smoke detector’s low battery signal. Aaaah...it’ll be grand!
Other than that, I guess this is the most important thing for the House to have been working on today. Will they rush the bill to the golf course for Ozero to sign?
See, this is great, the moment I heard of this brain dead legislation, I started figuring out how to install custom sounds into vehicles. Crazy Frog Prius, anyone? :)
Marco...Polo
“Drivers of current electic cars will be required to keep the windows down and yell ‘polo’ whenever they hear the word ‘marco’.”
Heck, they would never have known what hit them... ;-)
How many billions will this cost?
Considering the naming of previous bills,
I’m surprised this “pedestrian safety” bill
didn’t outlaw private walking.
A father took his young son with him to the bank to take care of some transactions. Since it was lunchtime, and the bank branch was downtown, there were a number of business people in line ahead of them. The father dutifully got into the rope chutes to wait for the next available teller.
Standing in front of them was a female executive type, wearing the latest in corporate fashion and carrying a leather briefcase with a matching leather purse slung over her shoulder. There was a pager clipped to the purse, and the woman was quite large.
After standing in line for a few minutes, the son, pointing to the woman ahead, remarked “Dad, that woman has the biggest butt I have ever seen.”
His father, surprised and embarrassed, chastised his son for saying things that might hurt someone else’s feelings. “Ssshh, don’t say things like that, it isn’t nice.”
A few minutes later, almost to the front of the line, the son again remarked “Dad, that woman has the biggest thighs I have ever seen.”
The father, this time more sternly, replied, “Be quiet, we are almost done here. We’ll talk about this when we get home.”
Just at that moment, the woman’s pager went off. beep..beep..beep..beep
With that the son yells, “LOOK OUT DAD, SHE’S BACKING UP!!!”
Luckily, the hippies driving these cars smell horrendous, so the visually impaired just need to rely on olfactory rather than aural cues.
How many billions will this cost?””
IMO, much more than anyone has calculated.
It will keep people from buying cars that drive them nuts chirping down the road every minute that it is in operation.
Imagine trying to drive across Montana or Wyoming with this pice of crap chirping to warn pedestrians that are not there!!!!!
Should be very interesting in ‘Open Range” country.
A Jackhammer 24 subwoofer should take care that problem
trust Barry- it’s “deficit neutral”.
how about some 300 watt stereo speakers which play Low Rider by War at full volume any time the car is moving?
I must be getting a bit paranoid! My first thought was that we would all need a license to walk on a public right of way.
Let’s hope they don’t install an irritating sound.
So much for the much-touted feature of quiet operation.
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