Transport
Our transport campaigns aim to make sure that people with a vision impairment can travel independently and with confidence.
Our transport campaigns aim to make sure that people with a vision impairment can travel independently and with confidence.
Quiet electric and hybrid vehicles are hard to hear as they make less sound than conventional cars. As the number of quiet vehicles on our roads continues to increase, the risk to pedestrians living with sight loss is growing because many rely on being able to hear a car to cross the road safely.
Guide Dogs has been working with the Royal Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the World Blind Union (WBU) to ensure that our concerns about the dangers that electric and hybrid cars pose to pedestrians with sight loss are exposed.
We believe that all quiet cars should be fitted with a sound generator, and this should be switched on.
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For many people with sight loss, bus travel is difficult or near impossible due to a lack of audio next stop announcements. We were delighted when, in March 2023, the Department for Transport introduced measures that will see almost all buses in Great Britain fitted with audio-visual announcements by the end of 2026.
Guide Dogs led the campaign for AV announcements through our long-running Talking Buses campaign. The campaign harnessed the support of tens of thousands of campaigners to help enlist MPs and Peers to change government policy.
Having audio announcements on all buses would be amazing and would improve things no end – I would feel independent. I would know exactly where I was and when my next stop would be. I could go to different places without thinking or worrying, because I know the audio announcements would help me get there, my world could open up.
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