Auditory detectability of hybrid electric vehicles by pedestrians who are blind

Details

• Creators:
  Garay-Vega, Lisandra ; Pollard, John K. ; Guthy, Catherine ; Hastings, Aaron
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Pedestrian safety
  • Blind persons
  • Hybrid vehicles
  • Auditory perception
  • Human factors
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Abstract:
  Quieter cars such as electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) may reduce auditory cues used by pedestrians to assess the state of nearby traffic and, as a result, their use may have an adverse impact on pedestrian safety. In order to document differences in the sound levels of HEVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, the authors measured the sound pressure level in one-third octave bands of three HEV and three corresponding ICE vehicles for the following operating conditions: idle, backing up at 5 mph; approaching at a constant speed (6, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mph); accelerating from stop, and slowing from 20 to 10 mph at 3.28 ft/s2. Sound level results comparing the HEVs and ICEs are presented. In general, HEVs have lower sound levels than ICEs for operating conditions below 20 mph, but above 20 mph, the sound from road-tire interactions dominates and the sound levels of the two vehicle types converge.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9039/dot_9039_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 317.11 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a50234a62230ac0ecba30a7bbaf52f28e4998bd5942c23884b309cfcfeede432042f11edd9537915bdf708ab9b62c52167a2edd7924d1e425a82c4e0568315aa