Hear to Stop the Fear

We have a number of goals: - To speak to legislation makers and have the law around sound emissions from electric and hybrid vehicles reviewed - roll out our ‘Be Aware, Park with Care’ programme which encourages clubs and associations to promote reverse parking thus improving visibility as the driver will drive out of the space - raise awareness of how dangerous these vehicles are to vulnerable members of society - the hearing impaired, visually impaired and older people. - Work with Irish Guide Dogs to raise awareness and funds - work with the RSA to update their educational resources to include these vehicles - update the safe cross code

Our Social Issue

Our project is called ‘Hear to Stop the Fear’ and focuses on the dangers posed to pedestrians and animals from the low sound emitted from hybrid and electric vehicles.

Why We Chose It

Our research showed that almost everyone has a close call story with a modern, silent vehicle. It seems to be something that is not spoken about and we want to force people to have this conversation. We are a predominantly rural country and people rely on their cars. Drivers need to make small changes to ensure the safety of pedestrians and animals. The Government need to support and force/ encourage these changes especially among organisations who have busy car parks. We all have younger brothers and sisters and grannies and grandads and we want to protect them.

Our Goal

Small changes in behaviours can lead to big improvements in life and well-being. Our big idea is to make people aware of how silent hybrid and electric cars are and how much more careful they have to be in busy areas e.g. car parks. We want the GAA to roll out our parking initiative ‘Be Aware, Reverse with care’ which requires drivers to reverse into spaces to improve visibility. We want our project to impact all levels from Government to individuals. Our world is changing but the emphasis on safety needs to keep pace with these changes.

Our Innovative Action

Our research has taken up a massive amount of time as it has been field based and involved multiple parties e.g, the local primary school, teachers, parents. We have spent a lot of time planning our sponsored walk. We presented our ‘Be Aware, Reverse with Care’ initiative to our local GAA club and they loved it. We have designed posters and stickers to support and push this initiative. We have rewritten a song with new lyrics to the tune of the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’. We have conducted numerous surveys and focus groups. We have been crazy busy.

Our Impact

Yes we have and as a class we have grown too. Our GAA club are now actively encouraging people to reverse park. We are confident this initiative will go national. We realised early on that pretty much everyone has a 'close call' story but it’s only when conversations among people start, that they realise this. There is great excitement about our sponsored dog walk and we have had so much positive feedback. The drivers of the cars from our experiments were so shocked about how close they could drive undetected to children. They described it as a serious wake up.