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Objective: These experiments address concerns that motor vehicles in electric engine mode are so quiet that they pose a risk to pedestrians, especially those with visual impairments. Background: The "quiet car" issue has focused on hybrid and electric vehicles, although it also applies to internal combustion engine vehicles. Previous research has focused on detectability of vehicles, mostly in quiet settings. Instead, we focused on the functional ability to perceive vehicle motion paths. Method: Participants judged whether simulated vehicles were traveling straight or turning, with emphasis on the impact of background traffic sound. Results: In quiet, listeners made the straight-or-turn judgment soon enough in the vehicle's path to be useful for deciding whether to start crossing the street. This judgment is based largely on sound level cues rather than the spatial direction of the vehicle. With even moderate background traffic sound, the ability to tell straight from turn paths is severely compromised. The signal-to-noise ratio needed for the straight-or-turn judgment is much higher than that needed to detect a vehicle. Conclusion: Although a requirement for a minimum vehicle sound level might enhance detection of vehicles in quiet settings, it is unlikely that this requirement would contribute to pedestrian awareness of vehicle movements in typical traffic settings with many vehicles present. Application: The findings are relevant to deliberations by government agencies and automobile manufacturers about standards for minimum automobile sounds and, more generally, for solutions to pedestrians' needs for information about traffic, especially for pedestrians with sensory impairments.

THE RESEARCH CONTAINS AN ACCOUNT ABOUT THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO USE MOTOR VEHICLES FOR MILITARY NEEDS ON THE EVE OF WORLD WAR I. THE PRIMARY SOURCE FOR THIS INVESTIGATION IS UNPUBLISHED INFORMATION DRAWN FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE RUSSIAN STATE MILITARY-HISTORICAL ARCHIVES. THE FIRST EXPERIENCE OBTAINED BY RUSSIAN MOTOR VEHICLE SPECIALISTS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY WAS A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE INDUSTRY IN THE USSR IN THE 1920S.

After being randomly assigned to receive policy effectiveness information expressed as attributable benefit, attributable risk, or relative risk, 318 graduate students were asked to indicate their preferences for the current voluntary seat belt use policy, a mandatory seat belt policy, or mandatory passive restraints. A control group received no data. Exposure to effectiveness information (any type) was significantly associated with favoring either mandatory seat belts or passive restraints over the current policy. Those exposed to attributable benefit or risk data were more apt to make proregulatory choices than subjects exposed to relative risk data. Attitudes toward government regulation and specific views about personal freedom and policy effectiveness were also found to be significant predictors of policy preference.

Transportation Department, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Systems Development and Technology, Washington, D.C. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; Author corporate affiliation: Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, Mass. ; Report covers the period Feb 1974 to June 1974 ; Subject code: FGE ; Subject code: RCCG ; Subject code: RCCI ; Subject code: RCCK ; Subject code: RCGE*DE ; Subject code: WOB*DEC ; Subject code: WOD

This study analyzed six large newspapers' economic coverage of federal regulations intended to reduce motor vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act. Examination of this topic involved evaluating costs and benefits of government controls. All but one paper explicitly referred to formal cost-benefit analysis as a method to evaluate the standards. They all included specific economic costs and benefits associated with regulating motor vehicle emissions. However, the reporting on costs was far more extensive than on benefits in five of the papers.

Prepared under the policy guidance of the Administrative Adjudication Advisory Committee. ; Report of the Task Force on Administrative Adjudication of Traffic Offenses in California, pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution 40 (Alquist), Resolution chapter 86, 1975 session, California State Legislature. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Abstract. In many motorized countries, inhalation of carbon monoxide from motor vehicle exhaust gas (MVEG) has been one of the leading methods of suicide. In some countries it remains so (e.g., Australia 16.0% of suicides in 2005). Relative to other methods it is a planned method and one often used by middle-aged males. The study provides a review of countermeasures aimed at restricting this method of suicide. The prevention measures identified were catalytic converters (introduced to reduce carbon monoxide for environmental reasons); in-cabin sensors; exhaust pipe modification; automatic idling stops; and helpline signage at suicide "hotspots." Catalytic converters are now in 90% of new vehicles worldwide and literature supports them being associated with a reduction in exhaust-gassing suicides. There remain, however, accounts of exhaust-gas fatalities in modern vehicles, whether accidentally or by suicide. These deaths and also crashes from fatigue could potentially be prevented by in-cabin multi-gas sensors, these having been developed to the prototype stage. Helpline signage at an exhaust-gassing suicide "hotspot" had some success in reducing suicides. The evidence on method substitution and whether a reduction in MVEG suicides causes a reduction in total suicides is inconsistent.