SCOTT Nixon was crossing Flinders Street from the railway station when a loud honk frightened him. A hybrid car had "nearly cleaned me up".

Mr Nixon, 30, has been blind from birth. He relies on his ears to get around, but silent-technology vehicles are on the rise  and the visually impaired community is lobbying the Federal Government to research how dangerous the roads will become when there are a lot more hybrids.

Scott Nixon says he has had several near-misses with almost-silent vehicles. Credit:Ken Irwin

"It's one more thing we have to contend with," says Mr Nixon, who tells of "other incidents (with hybrids), like walking into one that had stopped halfway across the intersection. In the CBD it's impossible to know there's one there unless you're on top of it."

The issue has been on the boil for some time. In June, the Blind Advocacy Group, in its online newsletter, published a story called "Silent but Deadly?" It was actually a reprint of a Wall Street Journal article from February 2007 that reported on US blind organisations demanding that vehicle makers install safety noise-makers on their otherwise quiet cars. A year later, Fisker Automobiles, with headquarters in green-friendly California, announced the development of the $US80,000 ($A121,160) Karma, a sporty sedan that one magazine described as "the sexiest hybrid ever".