Deafness and electric cars.

I can't count the number of people we have nearly run over because they just didn't look properly. People with headphones on can't hear either.

A few weeks ago we nearly ran over a woman and her dog - she was so busy chatting away with other dog owners on the other side of the road she didn't even look as she stepped right in front of us and her dog nearly went under the wheels.

henetha
Glad you’re safe.
You’re doing the right thing getting a hearing test, but that car did you a big favour. You’ll be so much more aware that you won’t hear them that you’ll check even more often now.

I am partially sighted as well as fairly deaf, so there is little hope for me.

To be fair, petrol cars can be quiet too. My little Honda Jazz makes very little sound at low speed. I have to be extra careful in car parks where people are wandering around.

I’m partially sighted and quite deaf so crossing the road has become something of a challenge. Then there are the cyclists on the pavement who come up behind me and seem to think that I should get out of their way rather than the other way round. And don’t get me started on electric scooters!!

Pedestrians are on the top of the priority pyramid in the current edition of the highway code. A person wanting to cross a side road at the junction with a thoroughfare has priority over vehicular traffic. Viz:

Key rules from the new hierarchy

Give way to pedestrians: Drivers must give way to pedestrians who are crossing or waiting to cross the road at a junction, even if the pedestrian is just waiting.

A friend of mine is deaf and couldn't fathom out why her guide dog was reluctant to cross the road. A lady waiting on the kerb next to her said a car was coming which was electric. Good for Rosie, her dog.

Yes we have to be more aware of electric cars, because they glide up almost silently. Of course it has to be said that an awful lot of people walk about with head/earphones now, so they wouldn't even hear a car with a noisy broken exhaust. let alone the quiet electric vehicles. My bete noire are cyclists who hurtle along in what should be pedestrian areas, like a couple going at such a speed through my town's pedestrian thoroughfare, should someone step out unexpectedly not realising they're right behind, I dread to think of the damage they could inflict. I have a downer on THESE type of cyclists, motorists have to make a lot of allowances for people on bikes and the inconsiderate ones don't give pedestrians any such consideration, and as mentioned above don't get me started on electric scooters.

Many petrol engined cars are quieter than electric because all EVs have sounders at low speed in a busy street you cannot rely on sound, noise is all around you, you have to look as you were trained as a child.
Dont blame EVs for your own negligence.

You’re right David49, my current petrol car is so quiet that several times I’ve got out of it and wondered why the doors won’t lock, only to find I haven’t switched off the ignition.

I wonder if we need to bring back Tufty.

You do not need to be deaf to worry about electric cars. My hearing is fine, but they worry me.

However people are right about all cars being very quiet. We have been living at DDs for four months. Our bedroom faced the road, the houses had small front gardens and it was a long close with about 50 houses beyond hers.

As I lay in bed in the morning, I would hear a bit of road noise to tell me a car had gone by and all the cars were so quiet, I began to think everyone had an elctric car, but I knew that wasn't possible, and a walk down the road told me that most people still had petrol cars, but they were so quiet.

I don’t think we realise how much we do actually rely on our hearing as well as our sight because it’s so subconscious. It’s reminded me of something I’d completely forgotten about which is a friend of mine in my late teens explaining to me how difficult it was for him because he was deaf in one ear.

That's right, I sometimes take a small step backwards into someone behind me, & people think that's clumsy but I think it's because I can't hear breathing / rustling to alert me that someone's there.
If it's crowded I'll look behind me, but when I've no reason to expect someone's there, that's when it happens.
But people don't realise that they have an awareness of someone's proximity that I lack, because they subconciously hear.

Thanks for your comments everyone. You are right, Mollygo, this has done me a favour in that I will be extra careful from now on. Thanks for your comment, David 49. Most helpful.
Having thought a lot about this I now realise that it was indeed my own fault. I had walked up a side road to this narrow road, and I had indeed looked both ways very carefully, but I now realise that the EV must also have come up that side road, so I should have turned right round and checked there was nothing coming up the side road behind me.
No earphones or mobile phones were being used at the time.
Not by me anyway.
I now have an appointment for a hearing test on 4th December. It's about time I had this done, at 88 I doubt my hearing is perfect.
Thanks everyone.

I hate electric cars they should make a noise . I have lost some of my hearing in my left ear can't have an hearing as as I hear my heart beat in my left ear and a hearing aid will make it louder. I already can't tell the speeds of cars never have .

They keep saying electric cars are better for the environment except you can recycle more parts on petrol and diesel cars than electric. So more for landfill if an electric car is a right off.

I’ve never forgotten this little verse from the 1950’s. I can’t remember if it was a Tufty tv advert or where it came from but I’ve passed it down the generations to my grandchildren. We recited it at the roadside when they were toddlers. Anyone remember it?
Stop, look and listen before you cross the street.
Use your eyes and your ears before you use your feet 😊

Most cars now have day time running lights, all electric cars have, so even if you can't hear it you should be able to see it plainly enough.

Electric cars also have a reversing warning sound, but that doesn't stop people from walking right behind us when we are reversing.

AmberGran

Most cars now have day time running lights, all electric cars have, so even if you can't hear it you should be able to see it plainly enough.

Electric cars also have a reversing warning sound, but that doesn't stop people from walking right behind us when we are reversing.

Unfortunately I do not have eyes in the back of my head, so do not see cars coming up from behind, especially in car parks.

I have yet to hear an electric car making a reversing noise.

M0nica - it's difficult to hear a lot of petrol cars too. Especially in a noisy car park. I wouldn't expect anyone to see a car coming up behind them, but I would expect people to look around them before walking into a road, or any area where there may be cars.

It's been the law since about 2019 that electric/hybrid vehicles should have some sort of reversing alarm - the three electric cars in our street certainly do, I hear them reversing in and out of their drives. They are also supposed to have some sort of generated noise when they are doing less than 20 mph - ours makes a sort of wheezy noise but I'm not sure that it would really be audible to pedestrians, especially if they didn't know what makes the noise.

I would not walk outw ithout looking, but, especially in car parks,m it is cars that come out of spaces after you have walked by or start manouvring into the path you are clearly taking..

i confess I know very few people with electric cars, so have little experience of them, but with modern petrol cars being so quiet, it is often not clear unless you look very closely whether the car that came from behind and nearly ran you down was electric or petrol.

I think I recognised it as being a Tesla, as I went in one twice while on holiday in Portugal earlier this year.
There are certainly very few around here where I live.