During 2013–2017, casualty rates per 100 million miles were 5.16 (95% CI 4.92 to 5.42) for E- HE vehicles and 2.40 (95%CI 2.38 to 2.41) for ICE vehicles, indicating that collisions were twice as likely (RR 2.15; 95% CI 2.05 to 2.26) with E-HE vehicles. Poisson regression found no evidence that E-HE vehicles were more dangerous in rural environments (RR 0.91; 95% CI 0.74 to 1.11); but strong evidence that E-HE vehicles were three times more dangerous than ICE vehicles in urban environments (RR 2.97; 95% CI 2.41 to 3.7). Sensitivity analyses of missing data support main findings.
Not surprised they suspect it’s noise related. However, I’m all for reducing noise pollution. Not for having cars overcome background noise to become noticeable.
One thing to note is that no matter how quiet the motor on a car is, the tire/road noise is still the main contributor unless you have an obnoxious exhaust system.
That is probably true most of the time but there are a few factors that come into play just for tire noise: type of tire, type of driving surface, and speed of the vehicle at least. In the city you shouldn’t be going fast enough to guarantee tire noise is the biggest factor.
Though, for EVs I’m assuming that has to be true since they make practically no noise otherwise.