Unlike the US and Europe, Canada does not currently require electric vehicles and their quieter engines to produce sound when traveling at low speeds. In April 2021, Transport Canada proposed a requirement that all hybrid and electric cars have sound emitters when traveling at low speeds. This regulation is scheduled to take effect in 2023, but allows manufacturers to choose their own sounds. While minimum standards must be met, “manufacturers will be free to choose the type of sound they will apply to their vehicle,” Transport Canada wrote in an email. Vehicles without internal combustion engines make little noise other than the sounds of air resistance and rubber tires on the road. On a city street with ambient noise, it may be impossible to detect them acoustically. The director of regulatory affairs at the National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) of Canada, Louis Greco, said that blind and visually impaired people depend on the distinct sounds of vehicles for safe navigation. With internal combustion engines, “you can hear the car leaving, or it has stopped moving, it is accelerating slowly,” Greco said. Without these recognizable signs, he said, many blind or visually impaired people would be afraid to go out. The pedestrian warning sounds required for EVs need to be standardized, he said. “City streets are busy, noisy, noisy environments; therefore it is important that any sound an electric vehicle makes as it slows down or accelerates is recognizable.” Greco said the regulations could also benefit cyclists and people who may be distracted while walking.
“They really can’t hear me”
Many of the EVs currently on the streets of Canada produce some kind of sound at low speeds or when backing up – but many older models do not have these features. Mark Cayer said his EV is so quiet that it worries him. The 2018 Volkswagen e-Golf does not have any sound safety measures for pedestrians, so it started lowering the windows and turning on the radio to compensate. “For visually impaired people, people who are blind and walking… it is probably very dangerous to not be able to hear the car at all,” said Cayer, a member of the Ottawa Electric Vehicle Council. Mark Cayer says he is worried pedestrians will not hear his electric vehicle because it runs so quietly. (Michelle Allan / CBC) Cayer said the transition to an EV pushed him to become a more conscientious driver. “I always watch out for pedestrians and watch out for people coming in by bike from behind. I know they really can’t hear me.” He said it should be mandatory for electric vehicles to emit some kind of sound at low speeds to warn pedestrians.
Mandatory versus optional warnings
Paul Camire drives for Uber in his 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. He said his car has a low-speed pedestrian warning speaker. “Less than 20 kilometers per hour, it sounds like a silent sound.” Kamire, who spends most of his day driving at low speeds while transporting his passengers to Ottawa, said he turned off the sound because it was bothering him. He added that part of the reason he bought an EV was to avoid contributing to “noise pollution”. Consistent, excessive noise, such as that caused by gas vehicles, can have a detrimental effect on humans and wildlife over time. Camire said he did not agree with the proposed regulations, but would support voluntary warning features such as pedestrian horns, which emit more of a short chirp and are intended to be less striking than traditional horns. “I really like this idea and I wish more cars would have adopted it instead of the mandatory noise factor.” Greco said security measures should not be optional. “We had the same discussion when seat belts became mandatory,” Greco said. “The lives of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users could be endangered simply because they choose to deactivate [pedestrian warning] System.” As Ottawa is well on its way to becoming what is believed to be the first place to require pedestrian warnings on electronic scooters, Greco said he hopes regulators will seek feedback from people who are blind to the initial introduction of regulations.
