Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Would Electric Cars Increase Property Values on Noisy Streets?

From Freakonomics:

A reader named Tomas asks an interesting question:

If electric cars became the dominant form of urban transport, would houses on main roads jump in value due to a decrease in noise?

Of course Tomas’s scenario may never come to pass, since quiet electric cars pose a danger to blind pedestrians. That’s what the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 aims to address.