Comments | vi_place: Quiet Cars and Blind People

clearwater55 in vi_place

Quiet Cars and Blind People

Jul 25, 2005 16:05

silly_singer posted this on her LJ and on on blindpeople community. It's lengthy so it's under a cut. The author of the email is asking all blind and visually impaired people (even sighted for that matter) to pass this along.

( Quet Cars Equals Frightening )

Comments 5

thaumata July 25 2005, 20:31:20 UTC

this is a very interesting point (especially as i am about to buy a hybrid car in the next month) but it seems to me that there are better solutions. with gas prices rising, hybrids are going to become more and more popular, and so it seems it'd be better to work WITH the cars and not AGAINST them.

i have lived in towns before where the traffic lights made noise to signal blind people that it was ok to cross. i realize that they aren't everywhere, but neither are hybrid cars, and the lights would make a blind person safer around ALL vehicles.

clearwater55 July 25 2005, 22:29:01 UTC

The point this author is trying to make is, hybrid cars are quiet. IF you go under the blindfold, given a cane and asked to cross a few intersections finding a hybrid car somewhere reading to turn right as you're walking off the curb, you wouldn't hear it. If you have a guide dog, the forward command is given and the dog has two choices: answer the command by moving forward across the street or disobey the owner by not moving, telling him or her that it's unsafe as a hybrid car makes it turn. You wouldn't know it. IF you work with the cars you listen for their motors and their reveing, work against them and a deadly collision can occur. Remember blind people can't see, and those who have tiny bits of sight might be on top of it before realising whats in front of them. Not to be harsh on you or anything.

This is So Freaky caitlin45 July 26 2005, 00:52:59 UTC

They seriously ahve to do somethign about this...It's dangerous. They're basically putting blind peoples lives on the line, cuz if you're using a cane you're gonan get run over by these monsters. It's as simple as that. Gaaa.

amm_in_paris July 26 2005, 08:40:54 UTC

I think it was just a couple of weeks ago I wrote in my LJ that I nearly became a pancake because of a silent car. This was in a parking lot, too.

clearwater55 July 26 2005, 20:04:57 UTC

and with parking lots you'd think there'd be some kind of echo off these kinds of cars. Guess wrong.