9 ms·
Laser-made bike lane could save lives
- pspeter3 15y agoThis could really save lives. I bike to work everyday and cars usually don't recognize bikes as something that belongs on the road.
- Johngibb 15y agoOne of the biggest changes I've noticed since moving from NYC to California (Berkeley, and then Santa Cruz) is recognition on the road.
- Goronmon 15y agoThat's because bikers (even well behaved ones) are annoying to deal with. Even if you are following all the rules, I still can have a hard time getting around you if the street is busy. Pretty frustrating dealing with a bicyclist climbing a hill at 5mph on a busy main road when you don't have quite enough room to safely get around them. That's not even counting the bicyclists who blow through stop lights, stop signs, don't stop for pedestrians at crosswalks, ride on busy sidewalks. In my honest opinion, I don't think bicycles belong on roads (at least in city areas).
- asynchronous13 15y agoI'm a very data driven person. Here's an experiment I did that ended up changing some of my driving habits. The important data to me is my total driving time from A to B. So, I measured my total driving time to and from work. I also noted the number of bicycles I had to pass on that journey. If the cyclists were slowing down my total commute time, then there should be a trend in average driving times with 0, 1, or 2 cyclists encountered. No such correlation exists in my data. On average, red-lights and other traffic have more impact on my commute time than do delays caused by cyclists. My conclusion: my emotional response to a cyclist was not proportional to any measurable delay. Now I wait calmly for a safe place to pass, secure in the knowledge that, on average, it doesn't delay me at all. (obviously your commute time could be affected differently than mine, but I encourage you to look at the actual delay, and see if your frustration is warranted)
- Goronmon 15y agoThe slowdown effect is lower on the list of concerns than the knowledge that a slight mistake on the part of either parties probably results in the death or serious injury of the cyclist. I just find driving around cyclists stressful. The closest comparison I can imagine would be if there were no sidewalks in cities and you had to deal with pedestrians on the side of every road as you were driving.
- skimbrel 15y agoThis is a great idea. If I biked more regularly I'd want one of these.
- pedalpete 15y agoA while ago I saw an image of a guy who had built a similar device which put a laser 'bike lane' behind the bike, kind of a joke giving you a bike lane wherever you go. Putting it in front of the bike would seem like such a minor change, but puts it from being a gimmick to a lifesaver.
- furyg3 15y agoI think it wasn't real (just a mockup): http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/02/lightlanes-lase/ http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/02/lightlanes-lase/
- lloeki 15y agoEven this device is a lifesafer, as it builds a very patterny visual metric of the space occupied by the biker. And the human brain loves patterns. Therefore a driver will have a very easy task at lining up his car with the biker and safely overtaking him. Combining both designs and tweaking the projected images and colors could be an incredible step forward for bike safety.
- ondrae 15y agoThe mockup had the lane extending behind and in front of the cyclist. They were building prototypes last I heard, but nothing ever came of it. I want to make one too.
- nkassis 15y agoWow this is a great idea, I often see drivers trying to make left turns in my city and not see bikers who are coming next to them in the bike lane (they have a 2 way protected bike lane.) It can be tricky sometimes for the driver but this would give them more information.
- arethuza 15y agoThere is a special place in hell awaiting the drivers who overtake cyclists then do a sharp left turn (I'm in the UK so this means they are cutting in front of you). I used to do a fairly reasonable commute every day through the center of Edinburgh and the problem of car drivers overtaking and turning left was probably the single biggest danger I had.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- silvestrov 15y agoI'd be afraid that the laser light could damage children's eyes if they happend to get in the way and look into the light. Experience from Copenhagen shows that the best solution is to have the bike path on the inside of the parked cars so the parked cars function as a buffer against the moving cars. Putting it on the inside makes it possible to make it a different level (like the footpath) so the cars cannot go into the bike lane. 37% of people in Copenhagen bike to work, so they have a significant amount of experience with bike paths: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDs83Ud6Zss&t=1m24s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDs83Ud6Zss&t=1m24s
- tomjen3 15y agoIt nearly never happens that cars get on the bike lane (except when they park there) -- this is to protect bicyclist in the event that a driver does a right turn.
- ollysb 15y agoIn the UK there are very few cycle lanes, generally you're sharing the road with other traffic. The city roads are small here so there isn't space for parking let alone dedicated cycle paths. I can think of numerous "squeezes" that I've been in where this device would have been great.
- nodata 15y agoI don't really see how a dim green picture of a bike will help. If a driver can't see the cyclist, would he see the flat picture on the tarmac?
- hcho 15y agoI wonder how much of bicycle accidents are caused by frustration of drivers rather than not being able to notice the rider. This product might be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
- Tichy 15y agoHow does frustration of drivers cause accidents? They run over a cyclist to let off steam?
- lloeki 15y agoThey're frustrated by a (relatively to them) slow cyclist that they can't overtake right now, so as soon as an opportunity comes in, they take their chance in a dangerous way.
- mkr-hn 15y agoJust yesterday I was behind a slow-moving cyclist on a winding road with no passing spots. Three cars behind me flew out into one of the many blind corners to pass with no way to be sure it was safe.
- Tichy 15y agoThat sums up nicely why I hate cars and driving. I just don't trust normal people with heavy killing machines under their asses.
- hcho 15y agoThere are a huge number of cycle helmet videos over Youtube, in most of them you can see that the driver is out to get the cyclist, probably because of clogging up a fast flowing road. It's not right but it's happening all the time.
- gst 15y agoI've had it more than once that a driver tries to deliberately drive me of the road. In one case where I stopped and wanted to wait until the driver is gone, he stopped, got out of the car, and wanted to start a fight. The reason in that case was that he was angry, as I overtook the waiting cars at a red light. That's one of the reasons why I typically have a heavy u-lock and a pepper spray with me when cycling.
- Luyt 15y agoThis maybe works well when there's only one bicyclist, but what if there's a whole group, with half of them using these laser projectors? There would be a huge green mess on the road, not very practical. Besides that, governments will never allow random citizens to make their own street marks. It interferes with traffic regulations and laws.
- minikomi 15y agoA very noticeable green mess
- delinka 15y agoExactly. It's not intended to be a "street mark" but an attention-getter. Bright green mess on the road? Where's that coming from? Yikes! A flock of bikes! (I did not intend to rhyme ... :-/ )
- peteretep 15y agoI feel like you've misunderstood the aim here. It's not /really/ to create a new cycle lane, it's to provide a visual indicator of the presence of a bike in a place where a motorist who has a cyclist in their blind spot will see... Lots of them will provide a very noticeable indicator, and that's good.
- sien 15y agoSure, sure, it's a great idea to shine a laser on the ground for safety. Until all the cats in the neighbourhood start chasing you....
- webmonkeyuk 15y agoLooks great, until you ride up a hill and project the pattern into the sky! This device will be particularly cool in foggy conditions or in smoke.
- juiceandjuice 15y agoWhat grade did you get in geometry?
- jrockway 15y ago"Eighty per cent of cycle accidents occur when bicycles travel straight ahead and a vehicle manoeuvres into them. The most common contributory factor is 'failed to look properly' on the part of a vehicle driver. The evidence shows the bike simply is not seen on city streets," she said. This can't be true. The statistics in the US say that this is 7% of accidents: http://www.johnforester.com/LAW/Bikeway%20Controversy.htm http://www.johnforester.com/LAW/Bikeway%20Controversy.htm The reality is that riding on the sidewalk and turning from the wrong lanes are the big cause of bicycle accidents. Being hit from behind is exceedingly rare. Being doored is probably the main worry that a cyclist riding correctly should have. (Using the correct lane should be the secondary concern. Don't go straight through an intersection from the right side of the right turn lane. You're going to get hit by cars turning right.)
- mhashim 15y agoIn downtown where cars are bumper to bumper, the location of the green laser would require a sharp downward angle to see it; which begs the question, does this just add another spot that drivers need to check now? I can see it working in more open roads where this would be easy to see up ahead, but when space gets narrow, the visibility angle becomes tough. Valiant effort though.