Image Description: The road symbol for an electric car charging station.
Waka Kotahi – New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) have a public consultation open right now that we need you to make your voice heard on. This consultation is on new regulations proposed for electric and hybrid vehicles.
1 in 3 of Blind Low Vision NZ clients surveyed have been hit by or had a near miss with an electric or hybrid vehicle. In spite of this, sound emitters, or Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) are not mandatory in these vehicles in New Zealand.
Almost all countries already have laws requiring AVAS, including Japan, the USA, Australia and the EU. Because of this, most cars in New Zealand already have AVAS installed, but since it isn’t a requirement there’s nothing stopping importers or vehicle owners turning off or disconnecting the AVAS. There’s also no requirement to retrofit old models with AVAS.
Quiet vehicles are dangerous on the road, not just to people who are blind, deafblind or low vision, but to everyone – in general, people are less likely to notice a quiet car coming around the corner. But for our community, being able to hear a car coming is what keeps us safe.
The changes NZTA are proposing would make AVAS mandatory in electric and hybrid vehicles being imported into the country. We suggest that NZTA go further and require all cars with AVAS installed to have them turned on, and current cars in the fleet to be retrofitted with AVAS too, so there are no quiet cars in operation on New Zealand roads.
Make your opinions known! To help you submit, we have drafted a handy template. Please use as much or as little of this template as you would like.
Submissions can be made through the NZTA website and filling in the NZTA online form, or by emailing them your submission at rules@nzta.govt.nz
The public consultation closes on Wednesday 17 December.
You can learn more about our work in Policy and Advocacy here.
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