Abstract
The development of quiet vehicles, such as hybrid and electric vehicles, has environmental benefits. However, the quietness of these vehicles may increase the risk to pedestrians, particularly those with visual impairment. We hypothesized that a “design-of-awareness” process based on the concept of sound education for hearing and recognizing the sound generated by the Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) installed in quiet vehicles may change peoples’ attitudes toward the sound and improve their ability to detect it. To verify this hypothesis, two experiments using a quiet vehicle were conducted to examine whether participants were able to detect the AVAS sound. The results revealed that few participants were initially able to detect the AVAS sound. After the design-of-awareness process was conducted, 1 and 3 month follow-up surveys were conducted to clarify its effects and longevity. The results revealed that approximately half of the participants became able to detect the sound, and that their attitudes toward the sound were changed. In addition, the number of participants who were able to detect the sound increased over time. These results indicate that a design-of-awareness process could be helpful for training people to detect the sound of quiet vehicles.
Highlights
Quiet vehicles such as electric and hybrid vehicles (EV/HVs) are becoming increasingly widespread internationally because of their low carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental benefits [1,2]
Before participating in the design-of-awareness process, all participants reported that they did not notice the Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) sound, even though five of them were already aware of the existence of the AVAS sound before participating in the experiment
The results suggested that participants may have never heard the AVAS sound before the were able toand detect thenot sound, and all of these participants were aware of the existence of experiment could correctly recognize it, even if they were already aware of the the AVAS
Summary
Quiet vehicles such as electric and hybrid vehicles (EV/HVs) are becoming increasingly widespread internationally because of their low carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental benefits [1,2]. These vehicles emit less noise than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, at low speeds, contributing to a reduction in environmental noise. Sekine et al [4] reported that most of the 40 participants in their study (15 of whom were visually impaired or otherwise disabled) did not detect the approach of quiet vehicles driving below 10 km/h To address this issue, the first guidelines for quiet vehicles were published in Japan in 2011 [5]. These guidelines were translated and modified, and published as international guidelines in 2016
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