Assessment of Risk Associated with the Quiet Nature of Electric Vehicle: A Perception of EV Drivers and Pedestrians at Mumbai Metropolitan Region-India

Abstract

The key features of the electric vehicle (EV) from urban area emphasizes on clean air as well as quiet running nature to preserve atmospheric pollution conditions in the city, however, the new public health risk is arising due to calm running environment of electric vehicles. Since the electric vehicles run at low noise levels, pedestrians being troubled in road traffic accidents which tend to focus on the safety of the pedestrian. The aim of the present study is to analyze the perception of pedestrian’s and driver’s with the quiet nature of electric vehicles by evaluating the data obtained through a questionnaire survey and interviews conducted at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), India. A total of 398 drivers of various driving experiences and 401 pedestrians from various locations of MMR had been responded to acquire technical data. A hypothesis is evaluated for public health risk associated with the quiet nature of electric vehicles from the driver’s gender and age perspective. In addition, the ANOVA study was carried out to test the statistical significance of risk with respect to age, gender, vehicle usage, driving experience. The results illustrate that moderate risk is associated with the quiet nature of EV and more attention is required by road users as well as drivers, nevertheless gender (P=0.3321), profession (P=0.6537), driving experience (P=0.8888), vehicle use (P=0.3819) are not significant based on driver’s perception (P value greater than 0.05), whereas driver age group (P=0.0000) is accountable for perceived risk. Similarly, considering pedestrian’s perception, gender (P=0.7954), profession (P=0.8188), distance walk (P=0.2313), location (P=0.3896) are not significant. The outcome of this study recommends the foremost need for the advanced control system in electric vehicles.