For pedestrians who are blind or partially sighted, sound is an essential component of safe and independent navigation. Environmental cues and audible signals, like the noise generated by a combustion engine, can help people with sight loss to orient themselves, identify potential hazards, understand the flow of traffic, and determine when it’s safe to cross a street.
Hybrid and electric vehicles (HEVs) are virtually silent when operating at speeds below 20 kilometres per hour. And for pedestrians who are blind or partially sighted, as well as other vulnerable road users, this poses a significant safety risk.
An Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) is a device that emits an audible sound when a hybrid or electric vehicle moves slower than 20 kilometres per hour. These devices enable people to hear a hybrid or electric vehicle. Without an AVAS device, hybrid and electric vehicles are dangerously silent. With Canadian municipalities set to procure thousands of hybrid and electric buses for local transit operators in the coming years, all HEVs in Canada must be equipped with AVAS.
“Sound is a vital element to road safety for all pedestrians, not just people who are blind or partially sighted,” said John Rafferty, President and CEO of CNIB. “It’s essential that EVs on Canadian roads be equipped with effective AVAS devices, including vehicles procured by all levels of government.”
Recognizing the dangers posed by quiet HEVs, the federal government created the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (CMVSS) 141, published in the Canada Gazette Part II on December 2, 2022. These regulations amending the Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (minimum sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles), were first published in 2021 when the Government of Canada solicited comments from interested stakeholders.
Under subsection 11(1) of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the new regulations establish obligations for HEVs to be equipped with an AVAS. The standard applies to HEV within the following vehicle classes:
- Buses
- Multi-purpose passenger vehicles
- Passenger cars
- Trucks
- Low-speed vehicles
CMVSS 141 incorporates two existing international standards from the United States and the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations, respectively, which HEVs in Canada previously adhered to on a voluntary basis.
The new regulations for HEVs align with the United States and United Nations – whose standards include specific requirements for the vehicle’s sound emissions when stationary, accelerating, and at speeds below 20 KPH. But under the new regulations, hybrid and electric vehicle manufacturers can choose which standard to follow.
While similar, the U.S. and UN standards vary in the specific details of these requirements. For example, the U.S. standard mandates that an AVAS must make a sound while the vehicle is stationary, whereas the UN includes this as optional. Likewise, the U.S. standard requires testing in outdoor environments, whereas the UN standard permits indoor or outdoor testing. Amendments were recently made to the UN regulation, which prohibits the use of a pause function on a vehicle’s AVAS. This means that drivers will not be able to disable the alerting system, a positive development in CNIB’s view.
CNIB continues to recommend that expectations be established for additional testing by manufacturers demonstrating the effectiveness of the AVAS installed on new HEVs, to validate that vulnerable road users are protected by audio signalling. The new Canadian regulations also do not standardize the sound emitted from an AVAS, making it more difficult for blind and partially sighted road users to recognize identifiable audible cues.
“Today, an estimated 1.5 million Canadians identify as having a sight loss, and an estimated 5.59 million more have an eye disease that could cause sight loss,” said Rafferty. “With an aging population, that number will continue to grow – leading to more people needing to rely on vehicle sound emissions to alert them of hazards.”
The continued shift towards HEVs will also mean more appearing on the roads, especially as public transit systems begin to procure hybrid and electric buses in municipalities across the country. In the coming years, it’s estimated that thousands of new electric buses, not to mention a growing number of privately owned electric vehicles, will be operating on Canadian streets.
The adoption of CMVSS 141 is an essential step to ensure that the green economic transition and uptake of HEVs can occur without jeopardizing the safety of pedestrians who are blind or partially sighted. Now that they’re in place, the effectiveness of the standard will come down to implementation. It is critical that when new electric vehicles are purchased that fleet operators ensure that their HEVs are equipped with AVAS.