Hybrids Too Quiet?

With gas prices as high as they are right now, those energy-efficient hybrids are looking pretty tempting. Plus, they're nice and quiet when the gas engine kicks-off and the electric motor takes over. But what might be a "silent selling point" for some could be hazardous to others sharing the roadway.

For a blind or vision impaired person, walking through busy traffic is risky business.

"(I wait) for my perpendicular traffic to stop and my parallel traffic to start-up," says Jerry Kindig of the Susquehanna Association for the Blind and Vision Impaired.

Kindig, blind since age thirteen, has had plenty of practice... and a few close calls along the way. "I've had cars run over the tip of my cane and broke the tip on it. They actually have bent the first section of the cane," says Kindig.

As long as Jerry can hear the traffic starting and stopping, he's just fine. But what happens when there's traffic he can't hear?

CBS 21 News did a little experiment, and asked Jerry to approach a hybrid vehicle. "I don't think I'd hear it," says Kindig while standing right next to the Camry Hybrid.

Listening to traffic on a busy street is one thing. Even if there's just one Hybrid that blends in with the other loud "regular" traffic, a vision-impaired person is going to expect the traffic to be there. But ona less busy street, if a quiet hybrid pulls up alongside that person, how will he know it's there?

Now here's another test. We parked a hybrid car and a regular (gas powered engine) SUV side-by-side. Both were turned on. When we cut the SUV engine, you could barely hear anything at all with just the hybrid motor running.

As popularity for these economic vehicles grows what does that mean for people like Jerry? "You're hoping they see you first cause you're not going to know they're there at all. Eventually, in time, there will be many more on the roads," says Jerry. And that's something to reflect on for both hybrid manufacturers, and vision-impaired people.

People in the technology industry are working on devices that would be installed inside the hybrids, and other devices that would be mounted on a cane handle or the harness of a guide dog. The devices would "detect" each other, alerting both the driver and the visually-impaired person that the other was there. No such devices are on the market yet.