Sonic e-mobility: traffic noise, sound-producing electric vehicles, and blind pedestrians

Abstract

This article is situated at the intersection of mobility studies, sound studies, and critical disability studies. It centers on the sonic qualities of electric mobility which have changed the urban sound environment. The analysis highlights how associations of the blind have advocated against silent cars. The debate around sound-producing cars is described with regard to three different but related areas. First, I consider how traffic noise is framed as a health hazard, whereas electric vehicles (EVs) incorporate a possible solution to the current noise levels in urban environments despite posing a threat to pedestrian safety. While questioning the positive characteristics ascribed to EVs, I then turn to traffic noise as a productive factor for blind as well as sighted pedestrians’ mobility. This leads me to consider the recently established regulation for Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) in EVs and scrutinize the sonic dimension of EVs. Thirdly, synthetic car noise will be analyzed as an innovative component of contemporary sound design and marketing strategies. Consequently, unraveling the co-constitution of blind walking, sonic productions, and electric mobility allows me to emphasize how a just future politics of (auto)mobility necessarily has to consider the senses of pedestrians in their heterogeneous variability.