We need to talk about what moving from traditional ICE vehicles to EVs will mean for vulnerable road users — and even other drivers. There’s a one-two punch in the offing, and we’re not talking about it enough.
While most drivers are getting acclimated to the global shift to electric vehicles, it’s going to be a less-transparent learning curve for pedestrians and cyclists. Back in 2009, NHTSA released a study warning that pedestrians were involved in crashes with hybrid electric vehicles at a rate of two to one at low speeds compared to traditional vehicles. When a vehicle is nearly silent (as hybrid vehicles are at slower speeds), pedestrians, cyclists and the visually impaired lose a crucial sensory cue that a car is close to them, especially if it’s coming from behind.
By 2018, The Guardian was reporting on the growing issue as safety advocates pressed the U.K. and the European Union to adopt acoustic alerting vehicle systems (AVAS) as standard on all EVs and hybrids, which they now are as of July, 2021. While some manufacturers are already adopting AVAS, the Canadian government has said they will be mandatory by 2023.
“All hybrid and electric passenger cars, multipurpose passenger cars, trucks, buses, and low-speed vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,536 kg or less would be required to comply with the proposed minimum noise regulations,” says Transport Canada. So far, nobody is talking about mandating retrofitting for vehicles that predate any of these targets, even as carmakers are getting creative with the sounds they’re implementing. That means a long overlap of vehicles sporting the detection sounds with those that don’t.
Four-wheel steering and air adaptive suspension ate up the Sonoran desert during the global media drive of the 2022 Hummer EV Edition 1. Photo by GMC
If you’ve ever experienced a large diesel engine idling near you (cough, Ottawa, cough), you know why the quiet of an electric motor is welcome. Less noise pollution is a great thing. But once again, those who speak for all road users — not just the ones ensconced in a car — are sounding the alarm that the carnage on our streets is continuing to get worse. NHTSA recently released a report that pedestrian fatalities for 2021 in the U.S. are up 13 per cent over the year before. The trend is similar in Canada though our statistics are always a few years out of date.
Traffic fatalities are usually the culmination of more than one factor. Speeding, impairment and distraction are the triumvirates of doom, but the coming changes to what we’re driving will soon have a growing impact.
With manufacturers tackling the sound issues, however, there is something more worrisome on the horizon. When Ford rolled out its all-electric Lightning pickup, it was the weight of the thing that stunned many of us — about 3,000 kg (6,500 lb). While trying to digest that, GM announced its electric Hummer would weigh over 4,000 kg (9,000 lb). You may think you know how big these vehicles are at a glance, but those intuitions are based on familiarity with their lighter ICE counterparts. We are going to have to get used to a whole new calculus with electric vehicles, and the alarms are sounding already that it is pedestrians who will be in the most danger.
Initially, it was the size of conventional SUVs and pickups that were pushing fatalities upward, but those early studies weren’t even factoring in the evolution of electric vehicles. Remember that more mass means more energy at the same speeds, and more potential for damage. The sheer weight of those is going to require a change in how we drive, especially in urban cores. For vulnerable road users, it will become crucial for municipalities to get a handle on the death tolls that are already getting worse every day.
A recent Jalopnik post didn’t mince words, even if it was a little hyperbolic: “Heavy-ass EVs are going to kill us all,” it said, and compared some stopping distances at highway speeds. A 2011 study from the University of California, also cited by Bloomberg, was originally looking just at the rise of larger ICE vehicles and the impact they would have on road fatalities. “[B]eing hit by a vehicle that is 1,000 pounds heavier results in a 47% increase in the baseline fatality probability. Estimation results further suggest that the fatality risk is even higher if the striking vehicle is a light truck (SUV, pickup truck, or minivan).”
From Jalopnik: “A lot of the heavier stuff has horrible braking distances. Car and Driver tested the Lucid Air and recorded a 163 foot stop from 70 [mph]; an Audi RS e-tron needed nearly 160 feet. Motor Trend recently tested the Hummer EV and while its 137-foot stopping distance from 60 is better than these cars, it was still three feet worse than a GMC Sierra 3500.”
The Lucid Air Grand Touring is an elegant and luxurious sport sedan with huge performance attributes and an even bigger range. Photo by Andrew McCredie
A decade after the study calling attention to the impact that heavy vehicles will have on fatalities, the author who hadn’t been too concerned about the smaller electric vehicles that were emerging in the marketplace acknowledged how quickly things have changed. “There could be a window where it’s pretty unsafe to be driving (small, gas-powered vehicles) and getting into multi-vehicle accidents.” We already know what a huge SUV can do to a hatchback; now make the SUV thousands of pounds heavier.
A comparative look at stopping distances in Bloomberg via Consumer Reports data shows “Carmakers are fitting many of these vehicles with larger brakes, for one. Secondly, electric vehicles have regenerative braking systems in which the electric motors slow the machine slightly while generating power. Brembo, which supplies many of the brakes to carmakers, says the regenerative systems often entirely compensate for the additional weight, which is typically at least 10% more than that of a similar combustion vehicle.” Great braking is a benefit, but we’ll still be relying on drivers — regardless of what they drive — to not speed, be impaired or distracted.
The emergence of the super-electrics, the behemoths the industry is counting on to lure a major portion of buyers to the electric realm, will be coming with a heavy cost. Literally.
Keyword: Lorraine Complains: Electric vehicles' heavy cost to road safety