Killer EVs

[greentangerine]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... tudy-finds

[Adokforme]

So, when I was young we were taught to look left, then right then left again before crossing the road but haven't heard this simple safety message repeated for a long, time except when showing our grandchildren. Quite why people put their own lives at risk when wearing headphones/earpieces when walking or cycling is beyond me. From my experience most of the noise emitted by vehicles comes from that of the tyres rolling over a road surface which generally drowns out engine noise which has been reduced considerably over many years.
If most of the accidents involving EV's are at low speed then it's less likely to involve a fatality so headlining the article Killer EV''s is not what I would expect from any self respecting journalist or newspaper. Unless of course there is an underlying ulterior motive!

[AE-NMidlands]

So, when I was young we were taught to look left, then right then left again before crossing the road but haven't heard this simple safety message repeated for a long, time except when showing our grandchildren. Quite why people put their own lives at risk when wearing headphones/earpieces when walking or cycling is beyond me. From my experience most of the noise emitted by vehicles comes from that of the tyres rolling over a road surface which generally drowns out engine noise which has been reduced considerably over many years.
If most of the accidents involving EV's are at low speed then it's less likely to involve a fatality so headlining the article Killer EV''s is not what I would expect from any self respecting journalist or newspaper. Unless of course there is an underlying ulterior motive!

er, actually in the UK it is look Right, left then right again as the closest vehicle coming at you is from your right!

[dan_b]

I certainly noticed when I first got my Tesla back in 2019 just how unobservant pedestrians were and how much they are reliant on sound to tell if there's a vehicle in the road. I quickly became much more alert and aware to the fact that you have to assume pedestrians (and cyclists) just don't know you're there. Actually I find it's less of an issue now - maybe after 5 years of me driving EVs I've got more used to it, but perhaps also people are more used to EVS on the roads - I believe the data in that report is from a sample period of at least a couple of years ago when EVs were significantly lower proportion of road vehicles.

[Mart]

So, when I was young we were taught to look left, then right then left again before crossing the road but haven't heard this simple safety message repeated for a long, time except when showing our grandchildren. Quite why people put their own lives at risk when wearing headphones/earpieces when walking or cycling is beyond me. From my experience most of the noise emitted by vehicles comes from that of the tyres rolling over a road surface which generally drowns out engine noise which has been reduced considerably over many years.
If most of the accidents involving EV's are at low speed then it's less likely to involve a fatality so headlining the article Killer EV''s is not what I would expect from any self respecting journalist or newspaper. Unless of course there is an underlying ulterior motive!

er, actually in the UK it is look Right, left then right again as the closest vehicle coming at you is from your right!

That's not the way I walk, with or without a dog. I look to the left more, for a space that gets me across the road, with checks to the right that it's safe to start crossing. Clearing the further lane (traffic from the left) requires more time, than clearing the near lane (traffic from right).

Of course, if there's an island, then you mainly just check your right, but I assume that's not what Adokforme was suggesting here.

[Mart]

I certainly noticed when I first got my Tesla back in 2019 just how unobservant pedestrians were and how much they are reliant on sound to tell if there's a vehicle in the road. I quickly became much more alert and aware to the fact that you have to assume pedestrians (and cyclists) just don't know you're there. Actually I find it's less of an issue now - maybe after 5 years of me driving EVs I've got more used to it, but perhaps also people are more used to EVS on the roads - I believe the data in that report is from a sample period of at least a couple of years ago when EVs were significantly lower proportion of road vehicles.

As a cyclist, do you see that a lot from pedestrians too? Don't cycle now, after my losing battle with an Artic, but pedestrians were often like lemmings, throwing themselves in front of bikes without looking.

I used to walk home from work many days, about 50 mins, and wore headphones, so my head was fully on the swivel at the many road crossings, but I suspect mobile phones are more distracting than music, so folk may completely forget to check. Seen pedestrian crossing somewhere in the world (on the news) with falshing green or red on the floor as you approach, to 'help' people looking at their phones.

[dan_b]

Yep see that when cycling too - so many pedestrians also have headphones in, and/or are staring at their phones whilst walking, they just don't notice anything. And sometimes they do see you and step out anyway - it's like they don't care!

I certainly noticed when I first got my Tesla back in 2019 just how unobservant pedestrians were and how much they are reliant on sound to tell if there's a vehicle in the road. I quickly became much more alert and aware to the fact that you have to assume pedestrians (and cyclists) just don't know you're there. Actually I find it's less of an issue now - maybe after 5 years of me driving EVs I've got more used to it, but perhaps also people are more used to EVS on the roads - I believe the data in that report is from a sample period of at least a couple of years ago when EVs were significantly lower proportion of road vehicles.

As a cyclist, do you see that a lot from pedestrians too? Don't cycle now, after my losing battle with an Artic, but pedestrians were often like lemmings, throwing themselves in front of bikes without looking.

I used to walk home from work many days, about 50 mins, and wore headphones, so my head was fully on the swivel at the many road crossings, but I suspect mobile phones are more distracting than music, so folk may completely forget to check. Seen pedestrian crossing somewhere in the world (on the news) with falshing green or red on the floor as you approach, to 'help' people looking at their phones.

[AE-NMidlands]

I thought it was in the Highway Code, but no. Then the Green Cross Code came back to me... and nowadays it's in section 3 here: https://www.roadwise.co.uk/schools/usin ... ross-code/

3. Look

Look all around you for traffic. Make sure that you listen carefully for traffic that you can’t see.
Check to your right hand side first, then check to your left and then to your right again before you cross.
Beware that some roads, called one way streets, have all of the traffic moving in the same direction.
Watch out for bicycles or people on rollerblades. You often don’t hear them but they travel very fast.

[Kommando]

I have an alarm siren wired into the indicator circuit on my Norton Commando as it has no auto turn off after making a turn on the indicators, leaving them on and going straight on at a junction where you have right of way could be fatal if a car or lorry rightly assumed you were turning. Its under the seat so the vibration reminds me to turn the indicators off, away from the bike it sounds like a lorry reversing alarm. Works wonders in urban traffic, as you approach a corner the pedestrian's reading their phone look up and try to see the reversing lorry before finally realising its a motorcycle. Without it they would blindly cross the road without looking, it would work on EV's too.

[richbee]

I was reading quite a long article yesterday comparing Waymo robotaxi performance vs Tesla FSD technology.
Among other stats, I was quite surprised that the Waymo results over time only claimed 1/4 of the accident rate compared to human controlled 'normal' cars. I assumed that full auto driving would have the capability to achieve accident rates much lower than that,especially as the Waymo system seems to be programmed with high levels of cauution - if it isn't sure what to do, it pulls over and waits for external input from the remote control centre. Maybe it is related to the relative newness of the technology, or the fact that some of the accidents are caused by other road users - as in the article here, where pedestrians don't always hear low speed EVs