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Anti-Noise Activists Oppose Sounds for Electric Cars - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

Originally Posted by NYT Wheels Blog

“[W]ould sounds emitted from E.V.’s, or electric vehicles, actually help? For Les Blomberg, founder of the nonprofit Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, part of the problem in detecting a vehicle’s approach is what he calls “masking” — too much traffic din makes it hard to hear any individual car, including hybrids and electrics. “Adding sounds does not increase detectability,” he said. “Instead, the solution is to decrease the noise from the worst offenders, which are trucks, buses and motorcycles.”

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Arline Bronzaft, the chairwoman of the noise committee for New York City’s GrowNYC, said in a statement that adding noise to E.V.’s “will increase the din in our environment for everyone. This at a time when we have increasing evidence that noise is hazardous to our mental and physical well-being.” She cited the Noise Control Act of 1972 as recognizing citizens’ rights to a quieter environment and also recommends a technological solution involving “special receivers” for the visually impaired.