Research finds electric cars are silent but violent for pedestrians
- Reference: 1716390006
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/05/22/electric_car_pedestrian_risk/
- Source link:
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have highlighted a worrying side effect of the electric vehicle revolution.
As a pedestrian, you are twice as likely to be injured by an electric or hybrid (E-HE) car than by one with an internal combustion engine (ICE), according to a [1]paper published in the BMJ Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, and three times more likely in cities and towns.
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The paper says this is "consistent with the theory that E-HE vehicles are less audible to pedestrians in urban areas where background ambient noise levels are higher."
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The conclusion that "E-HE cars pose greater risk to pedestrians than ICE cars in urban environments" was reached based on analysis of 32 billion miles of battery-powered car travel and 3 trillion miles of petrol and diesel car journeys in Britain between 2013 and 2017.
During that period, there were 916,713 reported casualties from road traffic collisions. 120,197 of those were pedestrians, of which 96,285 had been hit by a car or taxi. 71,666 (74 percent) were hit by an ICE car and 1,652 (2 percent) by an E-HE car.
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The difference is understandable seeing how ICE vehicles still make up the vast majority of cars on the roads, but after taking into account number of miles driven, the researchers found that electric and hybrid cars posed a much greater risk to pedestrians than ICE vehicles.
Pedestrian casualty rates per 100 million miles were 5.16 for E-HE vehicles and 2.40 for ICE vehicles. The results did not find that they were more dangerous in rural settings, but unearthed "strong evidence that E-HE vehicles were three times more dangerous than ICE vehicles in urban environments."
As noted, the reason generally seems to be that electric vehicles are too stealthy. Pedestrians, accustomed to the growl of a traditional engine, are often blissfully unaware of the near-silent approach of an electric car. Imagine leisurely strolling across the street, headphones in, Taylor Swift blasting, only to be abruptly acquainted with the hood of a Prius.
[6]Global EV sales continue to increase, but Plug-in Hybrid momentum is growing
[7]US EV drivers won't be able to choose vehicle safety alert sounds
[8]'Boombox' function sparks Tesla recall
[9]Crack team of boffins hash out how e-scooters should sound – but they need your help*
"The risk must be mitigated as governments phase out petrol and diesel cars," the paper states, and efforts have been made to address the issue. In 2019, the UK and EU implemented laws requiring electric cars to have a sound system operating below speeds of 20 km/h. Japan, China, and the United States also have similar regulations.
However, noise or lack thereof may not be the only contributing factor. Musing on areas of further research and unanswered questions, the researchers wrote: "If the braking distance of electric cars is longer, and electric cars are heavier than their petrol and diesel counterparts, these factors may increase the risks and the severity of injuries sustained by pedestrians and require investigation."
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They also suggested that drivers of electric vehicles may be younger than those of ICE vehicles, and wondered whether this might have any bearing on the alarming results.
"As car manufacturers continue to develop and equip new electric cars with Collision Avoidance Systems and Autonomous Emergency Braking to ensure automatic braking in cases where pedestrians or cyclists move into the path of an oncoming car, future research can repeat the analyses presented in this study to evaluate whether the risks of E-HE cars to pedestrians in urban areas have been sufficiently mitigated," they added.
As we slap ourselves on the back for reducing emissions, let's also remember to look both ways, listen carefully, and maybe, just maybe, we'll avoid the pain and embarrassment of being run over by a car we never heard coming. ®
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[1] https://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2024/05/01/jech-2024-221902
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zk4WoeXUke1LxC6MDK6YuwAAANY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/15/global_ev_sales_continue_to/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/ev_sounds/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/11/tesla/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/28/escooter_sound/
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[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: GOOD
Nah, you don't need to stare at your phone or listen to music to be hit by a Tesla. I got hit in a mall parking: I just had left my car and was going towards the mall entry, when a Tesla crept behind me and hit me (not very hard fortunately).
Of course at that speed he was inaudible, and of course as a standard garden-variety human, I'm not equipped with rear view mirrors. Still, he didn't really need to hit me, and rear-ending somebody is AFAIK always your fault, no matter what the person/vehicle in front of you was doing or not doing.
My point? Could it be jerks tend to buy EVs? I agree there still is insufficient evidence, but a strong correlation emerges.
Imagine leisurely strolling across the street, headphones in, Taylor Swift blasting, only to be abruptly acquainted with the hood of a Prius.
I doubt such a pedestrian would even hear a tractor rumbling up behind them. Perhaps they could learn to open their eyes instead?
It's great! I LOVE being able to sneak up on pedestrians, I can just sneak up right beside them and then hit the horn, I've seen them go a foot in the air when they realize there's suddenly a car there!
My car is old enough that it doesn't have one of those stupid noisemakers, but even if it did I'd disconnect it.
(Yes, it does mean I have to be more careful looking out for them, since they can't hear me coming at low speeds. But above about 20, there's really no difference. At normal speed the tire noise on ANY car is louder than the engine unless it's one of those asshats who removed the muffler. That's one downside to not having any kind of inspections here, people drive all kinds of crap around.)
..drive all kinds of crap around..
Like an EV with the sound generator disabled, as you said you would do!
I'm all for regular tests on the road-worthiness of a vehicle, even if it does mean a bill for maintenance as my cars get older. Make the test of a sound generator in a vehicle so equipped a fail if it's not working.
On the subject of brake checks, when doing a test on the efficiency of the brakes on a rolling-road, does the rolling road take any heed of the weight of a vehicle, as a heavier vehicle requires stronger brakes for the same stopping power?
Just a thought
Perhaps all Electric Cars should make a noise like the various Tesla coils etc in all the classic Horror Films.
Nice and loud with real sparks if possible !!!
:)
Look up Strickfaden for more info.
Re: Just a thought
Nah, electric vehicles should sound like electric vehicles; they should sound like a milk float on a bumpy road....
It's not clear from the article whether the numbers are corrected for number of miles driven *in that environment* - I'd expect that EVs are relatively over-represented in urban miles, and that urban miles would be riskier, so just doing pedestrian casualties per 100 million miles driven would be likely to find an EV:risk correlation even without any causal connection.
(TFA says that EV was not found to be more dangerous than ICE in rural settings, which would hint at looking at this, but it may just be considering absolute counts in each environment/powertrain vs total mileage/powertrain).
> TFA says that EV was not found to be more dangerous than ICE in rural settings
The issue is likely to be the limited range of EVs: In a rural setting you would need to drive around for a while before you can find a pedestrian to run over. In urban areas you'll find several pedestrians at every intersection, so obviously your total number of hits can be much higher.
background noise the issue?
maybe a reason to reduce the background noise of ICE vehicles?
Pedestrian here
I've never owned a vehicle in my (now rather long) life. Always walked, taken public transit, or mooched rides from friends. Yes, it constrains where I live, but for the last few years walking through wooded-with-creek areas involves a one block walk, then down a path.
I *DON'T* want noisemakers on EVs. I want all of the remaining ICE vehicles to go away. I like quiet. In this urban setting, speeds are not highway speeds (although I'm surrounded by multilane roads).
Experimental bias
I'm not sure normalising by miles driven is fair here. Users with long distance requirements are more likely to buy ICE. Electric cars are therefore more common in the urban environment were pedestrian collisions are also more likely. Add in low emission zones (even zones announced but not yet in force) and city environments are even more EV heavy than average. To do a fair comparison you need to do a city/country only studies weighting by the proportion of different vehicle types seen in those environments. Its possible this is just another way of saying cities are more dangerous for pedestrians
Re: Experimental bias
> I'm not sure normalising by miles driven is fair here.
You missed part of the article here: It does say "unearthed "strong evidence that E-HE vehicles were three times more dangerous than ICE vehicles in urban environments ."
Age? Surely not
> They also suggested that drivers of electric vehicles may be younger than those of ICE vehicles, and wondered whether this might have any bearing on the alarming results.
I don't believe the age thing. Teenagers usually lack the money to buy an EV. EVs are mostly driven (from what I saw) by young professionals or retired people, who both would have their driving license for several years already.
GOOD
Modern humanity has been increasingly spared the evolutionary pressures faced by our forebears, allowing the slow and inattentive to continue to breed instead of being picked off by natural predators, thus diluting the gene pool. With the rise of EVs, perhaps people will learn to once again pay attention to their surrounds or pay the price for staring mindlessly at their phones as they wander out into traffic.