Call for EVs to generate more noise

All electric vehicles (EVs), including e-scooters, should have a noise-emitting device, the Blind Foundation says.

The call was in response to a new European Union law coming into force on Monday, which requires new electric vehicles to make a noise when running under 12kmh or when reversing.

The Blind Foundation has applauded the change and said it hoped to see similar legislation introduced in New Zealand.

The foundation’s access and awareness adviser, Chris Orr, said electric vehicles and e-scooters were just too quiet, making them ‘‘dangerous’’ to people who couldn’t see and who relied on sounds to warn them of danger. ‘‘Our clients, who are blind or have low vision, are taught to listen for approaching vehicles and predict their path by the sound of deceleration or acceleration,’’ Orr said.

He wanted New Zealand to go a step further than the EU legislation by requiring noise to be emitted at all times when the vehicle was running.

‘‘Everybody should be able to move around safely, confidently and independently,’’ he said.

‘‘The problem is cropping up in countries with growing numbers of electric vehicles.

‘‘Over in Australia, a report by Vision Australia and Monash University Accident Research Centre revealed 35 per cent of people who are blind or have low vision surveyed had either a collision or near collision with an electric or hybrid vehicle.’’

A Blind Foundation survey found many of its members had been hit by e-scooters or had fallen over scooters placed in the middle of footpaths.

E-scooters arrived on New Zealand shores in October 2018 when e-scooter hire company Lime launched large fleets in Auckland and Christchurch.

In June, a woman was injured when she was knocked over by an e-scooter while getting off a bus in Auckland.