6 ms·

Bike light that projects the symbol of a bike down onto the road

30 points by dabeeeenster 14y ago

dlib 14y ago
I live in Holland and the dedicated bike paths here make cycling really safe. So safe that I don't see the use for this bike light here in the Netherlands although it will probably have a marginal benefit. However, last summer I rented a bike in London and it was truly terrifying. Never before have I felt so unsafe in traffic before, anything to improve this situation would be great. Nonetheless, proper training of drivers so they are more aware of cyclists and dedicated bike paths would help immensely.
- Nursie 14y ago
  In the UK we are constantly berated by government, medical boards etc etc for not keeping fit and healthy, also for costing the national health service a lot of money in terms of illness due to lack of exercise. No money is ever spent on cycle infrastructure and the roads are treacherous, many motorists are very antagonistic towards cyclists and as a result of this most people are scared away from it. I'm not sure whether this light is a useful thing anyway, I just felt like having a rant :)
  - thisone 14y ago
    unless the light is very bright and focused correctly, it isn't useful. I learned my lesson about getting a good light the first time it got dark early and I found myself hoping for cars to go by so I could see where I was on the road (and I had a front light at the time as well) The sustrans folks seem to do what they are able to. But, for instance, there are four local hybrid/casual routes in my area that the council produced maps for about 15 years ago. I don't think the council has paid any attention to the routes since, and it's a shame as the routes are good lengths (10-15 miles) with pretty scenery and the right amount of hill and off-roading for the average weekend warrior and their family.
    - Nursie 14y ago
      Yeah, I got a front light with my bike that was pretty crappy and very soon realised that it was no use at all for the dark shared pedestrian-cycle paths I was taking on my commute home. Very quickly learned that a decent headlight is essential. I'd vote for a candidate (at local council or parliamentary level) that promised to give more consideration to a poper network of cycle paths in Britain.
  - jawr 14y ago
    It is a lot safer to cycle in London now than it was say 5 years ago; we don't have the same cycle infrastructure as say Holland, but we have made some good steps in that direction.
    - Nursie 14y ago
      I moved out of London about 3 years ago, and never cycled there. Currently based in Southampton and finding the cycle provisions ok but less than awesome. Now Perth (the one in Australia, not Scotland) has a great network, most of the paths are separate to the roads and follow train tracks or even motorways. I guess they do have a lot more space over there though.
- alexkus 14y ago
  In London we simply don't have space to put in dedicated cycle paths everywhere. IMHO, they're treating the symptom anyway, the problem is that a large number of road users in the UK (including quite a few cyclists) are aggressive, discourteous or just plain bad drivers/riders. Cycle facilities (cycle lanes - dedicated or not, off road cycle paths, advanced stop line boxes, etc) all help encourage people to cycle; this is great as the more people on bikes on the road the safer it is for everyone (see TFL's "Safety In Numbers" campaigns). But a 2mm high strip of white paint on the road isn't going to save me from an idiot that is texting whilst driving and not looking where they're going. Ideally we wouldn't need any on-road cycling provisions at all. I've ridden a bike quite a bit in France and have had no problem with the car drivers there, they give plenty of space when overtaking and have no problems being temporarily held up behind a cyclist until it is safe to overtake. No special facilities, just courteous drivers. Segregation works both ways. This is anecdotal, but on one long distance ride in the UK there were sections where the riders were overtaken by the support vehicles of other riders (mainly the european riders). By far the worst (in terms of least distance given when passing) for overtaking were the cars with "NL" markings on their european number plates. My guess is that the years of segregation have put them out of practice with sharing the roads with cycles. Again, that's just my experience. FWIW I cycle commute almost daily in London (I took the train today as I've got a horrible cold) and have grown used to London traffic. The closest times I've come to an accident were all my own fault. I've read "Roadcraft", I've had a full driving license (both car and motorcycle) for 15+ years, I did do cycling proficiency at school, yet I'll still take the opportunity for more training if it comes up (the local London boroughs to me often provide free cycle training every so often). I don't undertake vehicles approaching left turns, or overtake vehicles approaching right turns. I avoid cycling in the 'door zone' and I'm especially careful passing stopped cabs as the doors are invariably opened by passengers without looking. I'll be assertive but not aggressive. I smile at the lemming pedestrians that walk a step or two out into the road before looking. etc.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    Sometimes traffic lights break, and people still manage to get through that junction safely. Some areas in the UK are removing all road markings. This is scary. The scariness is good - everyone slows down and looks around and is more courteous. "Naked Roads" are pretty good. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4213221.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4213221.stm)
AdamGorman 14y ago
Already launched similiar product.(this one goes backwards, instead of forward though) http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/bike-lane-light http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/bike-lane-light Combine for red/green Christmas holiday theme goodness?
- debacle 14y ago
  The product you linked looks much more functional than the one in this kickstarter. Do you own this?
  - ljf 14y ago
    I have one, and it's NOTHING like the image - if it hadn't have been a gift I would have returned it. I'll give you that it looks cool and other cyclists see it and like it, but as soon as a car with bright headlights comes anywhere near you it disappears... It has no practical use in helping keep cars at bay. I'd also agree with some comments above that drivers are looking a few feet up, not at the road. I find 3 LED lights the best for the rear - one at bottom of seatpost, one on my back and one on my helmet - can easily be seen from all angles - where as a single seat mounted can be hidden for a range of reasons. From the front a Cree T6 from ebay is stupidly bright - keep it aimed at the road. Great for off roading and city riding.
PeterisP 14y ago
I'm not entirely sure how that would help - it projects a bike symbol down to the ground. When I'm driving, if such a cyclist would be in my blind spot (behind me, in a lane to my right), I wouldn't see the projected symbol as well. It would be simply obscured by my car - I have no way of seeing the asphalt so close to me; if a pedestrian would be standing on that illuminated spot, I'd see the person, but not their feet. That's assuming the suggested 4-6m distance. 10-15m would be different, but that makes much higher requirements on the power of that light.
nrcha 14y ago
Well.. It is a requirement in Germany that all bikes 11 kg or over, are fitted with dynamo powered lights.
- chokma 14y ago
  Indeed, battery powered lights can be problematic (due to 70 year old laws...). But a powerful LED light source is great as an additional gadget. (Although, at 4-6m range, this item is not sufficient to illuminate the road ahead).
- ygra 14y ago
  This says nothing about any auxiliary lights you choose to mount, though. Still, I guess this thing would be illegal in Germany simply due to the fact that lighting on a vehicle is very rigorously specified and I guess the green colour won't fit well with the laws here. I guess I'll opt for a very bright (hub) dynamo-powered light instead, but my main concern currently is not visibility but that I can still see the ground when there's a car coming at me with blinding lights. (Side note, anecdotal evidence: No cyclist I know ever had problems with the police for using battery-powered lights instead of dynamo-powered ones. Most of the time they're happy when cyclists have light at all.)
drunken_thor 14y ago
I like this idea better and I should be getting mine in the mail in the next month or so http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1652790707/torch-bicycle-helmet-with-integrated-lights?ref=live http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1652790707/torch-bicycle...
jdietrich 14y ago
This is stupid. The £50 that this light costs will buy you an extremely bright set of conventional lights, giving out several hundred lumens rather than 80. These lights will illuminate a large area of the ground ahead of you, allowing you to see, and provide dazzlingly bright points of light several feet off the ground, allowing you to be seen. These lights focus their beam where it is needed, projecting light directly towards the eyes of motorists, rather than bouncing it off the ground for no clear reason. Spend a bit more and you can buy a Magicshine set, which is on a par with motorcycle lighting. Drivers are not looking at the ground. They're not looking out for weird green symbols. They're looking for red or white points of light, a few feet off the ground. Cars and trucks have large blind spots on the nearside of their vehicle, which a cyclist can best avoid by using their height - a cyclist is as tall as a large SUV, providing good opportunities to mount your lights above the doorline of most cars. If you're worried about drivers turning across your path, your road position is wrong. You can buy some silly gadget that won't really help the situation, or you can get some training to give you the confidence to get out of the gutter.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - hso9791 14y ago
    A cyclist's speed is hard to predict for a driver. I believe that mandatory bicycle headlights - day and night - would help alleviate this problem. The reason being that the cyclist then gets picked up by a driver's peripheral vision, which would help the brain process the change of position (a.k.a. velocity) continuously.
- jgrahamc 14y ago
  I found the part in the video about cyclists being in the blind spot of a turning bus very worrying. That's not the way to cycle! I cycle around London all the time and the one thing you have to do is be aware of the situation as a driver sees it. I've seen too many accidents or close shaves where I think to myself "You could have anticipated that situation". e.g. cyclist racing up the inside of a stationary line of traffic slams into the side of a car turning right through the line of traffic. Easy to anticipate that as you approach the junction there might be danger. Equally, I drive through London as well and am very aware that cyclists are hard to see. But I have noticed that cyclists wearing fluorescent jackets are way more visible (day and night) than others. I can't see this particular invention being a big help to me. If I'm turning left I'm looking in the mirror and then doing the last check over the shoulder for anything. A cyclist in a fluorescent jacket is going to be visible to me in the mirror or through the window on the final check because of their height. And if I'm pulling out a fluorescent jacket also helps because I am looking at around body height (at cars and pedestrians).
RobAley 14y ago
Its a shame, for a UK product, they didn't consider that it will be illegal to use in the UK[1] as your main bike light. It has a steady mode, and such needs to conform to BS 6102/3, which it won't, so it means it can't be used as the main light. As an additional light it doesn't need to be BS 6102/3 stamped, but does need to be white (not green) and the flashing mode needs to be between 60 and 240 flashes per minute (which it may do, but doesn't say). When I'm driving, a green picture of a bike going down a road might distract me from the actual bike, especially when its projected 4-6m ahead of it as they plan. In inner-city cycling as a cyclist, you rarely need the light to see where you're going, more to allow other traffic to see you. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_lighting#Legal_requirements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_lighting#Legal_requirem...
- TeMPOraL 14y ago
  > and the flashing mode needs to be between 60 and 240 flashes per minute (which it may do, but doesn't say). There's a thing I never understood about bike lights - why people use flashing lights? They are distracting like hell, and could probably cause some serious discomfort for people with photosensitive epilepsy. EDIT: http://speakingupanyway.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/flashing-lights-trigger-seizures-so-dont-use-them/ http://speakingupanyway.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/flashing-li...
  - thisone 14y ago
    at night, the flashing gives me even longer warning that I'm coming up on a cyclist, since it's easier to notice a flashing red or white light. A solid light, can be dismissed for a second or two as a reflection. also, it tells me it's a cyclist and not a small moped. As a cyclist I like to have a blinking rear light, and two front lights, a blinking one and a steady one. (as a driver, cyclists with a blinker and a steady are the easiest for me to pick out)
  - alexkus 14y ago
    > There's a thing I never understood about bike lights - why people use flashing lights? They are distracting like hell, and could probably cause some serious discomfort for people with photosensitive epilepsy. They're more visible than a steady light, but it's very hard to gauge closing distance of just a flashing light. For these reasons I use a combination of flashing and steady lights (both front and rear). As for triggering PSE. They won't. 240 flashes per minute = 4Hz. Perfectly safe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strobe_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strobe_light " Strobe lights and epilepsy ... There have been no known seizures at or below the 8Hz (or 8 flashes per second) level. Most fire alarms in schools, hospitals, stadiums, etc strobe at a 2Hz rate, which is obviously completely safe. "
chopsueyar 14y ago
This is not original. This is old... http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/01/2255234/bike-projector-makes-lane-for-rider http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/01/2255234/bike-project... From 2009: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Hyperlinks/GantTee http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Hyperlinks/...
mcpie 14y ago
Imagine this in a country with a lot of bike traffic... 10 ~ 20 flashy green bikes on the road would decrease safety, not increase it.

30 points by dabeeeenster 14y ago

dlib 14y ago

I live in Holland and the dedicated bike paths here make cycling really safe. So safe that I don't see the use for this bike light here in the Netherlands although it will probably have a marginal benefit. However, last summer I rented a bike in London and it was truly terrifying. Never before have I felt so unsafe in traffic before, anything to improve this situation would be great. Nonetheless, proper training of drivers so they are more aware of cyclists and dedicated bike paths would help immensely.

Nursie 14y ago
In the UK we are constantly berated by government, medical boards etc etc for not keeping fit and healthy, also for costing the national health service a lot of money in terms of illness due to lack of exercise. No money is ever spent on cycle infrastructure and the roads are treacherous, many motorists are very antagonistic towards cyclists and as a result of this most people are scared away from it. I'm not sure whether this light is a useful thing anyway, I just felt like having a rant :)
- thisone 14y ago
  unless the light is very bright and focused correctly, it isn't useful. I learned my lesson about getting a good light the first time it got dark early and I found myself hoping for cars to go by so I could see where I was on the road (and I had a front light at the time as well) The sustrans folks seem to do what they are able to. But, for instance, there are four local hybrid/casual routes in my area that the council produced maps for about 15 years ago. I don't think the council has paid any attention to the routes since, and it's a shame as the routes are good lengths (10-15 miles) with pretty scenery and the right amount of hill and off-roading for the average weekend warrior and their family.
  - Nursie 14y ago
    Yeah, I got a front light with my bike that was pretty crappy and very soon realised that it was no use at all for the dark shared pedestrian-cycle paths I was taking on my commute home. Very quickly learned that a decent headlight is essential. I'd vote for a candidate (at local council or parliamentary level) that promised to give more consideration to a poper network of cycle paths in Britain.
- jawr 14y ago
  It is a lot safer to cycle in London now than it was say 5 years ago; we don't have the same cycle infrastructure as say Holland, but we have made some good steps in that direction.
  - Nursie 14y ago
    I moved out of London about 3 years ago, and never cycled there. Currently based in Southampton and finding the cycle provisions ok but less than awesome. Now Perth (the one in Australia, not Scotland) has a great network, most of the paths are separate to the roads and follow train tracks or even motorways. I guess they do have a lot more space over there though.
alexkus 14y ago
In London we simply don't have space to put in dedicated cycle paths everywhere. IMHO, they're treating the symptom anyway, the problem is that a large number of road users in the UK (including quite a few cyclists) are aggressive, discourteous or just plain bad drivers/riders. Cycle facilities (cycle lanes - dedicated or not, off road cycle paths, advanced stop line boxes, etc) all help encourage people to cycle; this is great as the more people on bikes on the road the safer it is for everyone (see TFL's "Safety In Numbers" campaigns). But a 2mm high strip of white paint on the road isn't going to save me from an idiot that is texting whilst driving and not looking where they're going. Ideally we wouldn't need any on-road cycling provisions at all. I've ridden a bike quite a bit in France and have had no problem with the car drivers there, they give plenty of space when overtaking and have no problems being temporarily held up behind a cyclist until it is safe to overtake. No special facilities, just courteous drivers. Segregation works both ways. This is anecdotal, but on one long distance ride in the UK there were sections where the riders were overtaken by the support vehicles of other riders (mainly the european riders). By far the worst (in terms of least distance given when passing) for overtaking were the cars with "NL" markings on their european number plates. My guess is that the years of segregation have put them out of practice with sharing the roads with cycles. Again, that's just my experience. FWIW I cycle commute almost daily in London (I took the train today as I've got a horrible cold) and have grown used to London traffic. The closest times I've come to an accident were all my own fault. I've read "Roadcraft", I've had a full driving license (both car and motorcycle) for 15+ years, I did do cycling proficiency at school, yet I'll still take the opportunity for more training if it comes up (the local London boroughs to me often provide free cycle training every so often). I don't undertake vehicles approaching left turns, or overtake vehicles approaching right turns. I avoid cycling in the 'door zone' and I'm especially careful passing stopped cabs as the doors are invariably opened by passengers without looking. I'll be assertive but not aggressive. I smile at the lemming pedestrians that walk a step or two out into the road before looking. etc.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Sometimes traffic lights break, and people still manage to get through that junction safely. Some areas in the UK are removing all road markings. This is scary. The scariness is good - everyone slows down and looks around and is more courteous. "Naked Roads" are pretty good. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4213221.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4213221.stm)

AdamGorman 14y ago

Already launched similiar product.(this one goes backwards, instead of forward though) http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/bike-lane-light http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/bike-lane-light Combine for red/green Christmas holiday theme goodness?

debacle 14y ago
The product you linked looks much more functional than the one in this kickstarter. Do you own this?
- ljf 14y ago
  I have one, and it's NOTHING like the image - if it hadn't have been a gift I would have returned it. I'll give you that it looks cool and other cyclists see it and like it, but as soon as a car with bright headlights comes anywhere near you it disappears... It has no practical use in helping keep cars at bay. I'd also agree with some comments above that drivers are looking a few feet up, not at the road. I find 3 LED lights the best for the rear - one at bottom of seatpost, one on my back and one on my helmet - can easily be seen from all angles - where as a single seat mounted can be hidden for a range of reasons. From the front a Cree T6 from ebay is stupidly bright - keep it aimed at the road. Great for off roading and city riding.

PeterisP 14y ago

I'm not entirely sure how that would help - it projects a bike symbol down to the ground. When I'm driving, if such a cyclist would be in my blind spot (behind me, in a lane to my right), I wouldn't see the projected symbol as well. It would be simply obscured by my car - I have no way of seeing the asphalt so close to me; if a pedestrian would be standing on that illuminated spot, I'd see the person, but not their feet. That's assuming the suggested 4-6m distance. 10-15m would be different, but that makes much higher requirements on the power of that light.

nrcha 14y ago

Well.. It is a requirement in Germany that all bikes 11 kg or over, are fitted with dynamo powered lights.

chokma 14y ago
Indeed, battery powered lights can be problematic (due to 70 year old laws...). But a powerful LED light source is great as an additional gadget. (Although, at 4-6m range, this item is not sufficient to illuminate the road ahead).
ygra 14y ago
This says nothing about any auxiliary lights you choose to mount, though. Still, I guess this thing would be illegal in Germany simply due to the fact that lighting on a vehicle is very rigorously specified and I guess the green colour won't fit well with the laws here. I guess I'll opt for a very bright (hub) dynamo-powered light instead, but my main concern currently is not visibility but that I can still see the ground when there's a car coming at me with blinding lights. (Side note, anecdotal evidence: No cyclist I know ever had problems with the police for using battery-powered lights instead of dynamo-powered ones. Most of the time they're happy when cyclists have light at all.)

drunken_thor 14y ago

I like this idea better and I should be getting mine in the mail in the next month or so http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1652790707/torch-bicycle-helmet-with-integrated-lights?ref=live http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1652790707/torch-bicycle...

jdietrich 14y ago

This is stupid. The £50 that this light costs will buy you an extremely bright set of conventional lights, giving out several hundred lumens rather than 80. These lights will illuminate a large area of the ground ahead of you, allowing you to see, and provide dazzlingly bright points of light several feet off the ground, allowing you to be seen. These lights focus their beam where it is needed, projecting light directly towards the eyes of motorists, rather than bouncing it off the ground for no clear reason. Spend a bit more and you can buy a Magicshine set, which is on a par with motorcycle lighting. Drivers are not looking at the ground. They're not looking out for weird green symbols. They're looking for red or white points of light, a few feet off the ground. Cars and trucks have large blind spots on the nearside of their vehicle, which a cyclist can best avoid by using their height - a cyclist is as tall as a large SUV, providing good opportunities to mount your lights above the doorline of most cars. If you're worried about drivers turning across your path, your road position is wrong. You can buy some silly gadget that won't really help the situation, or you can get some training to give you the confidence to get out of the gutter.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
- hso9791 14y ago
  A cyclist's speed is hard to predict for a driver. I believe that mandatory bicycle headlights - day and night - would help alleviate this problem. The reason being that the cyclist then gets picked up by a driver's peripheral vision, which would help the brain process the change of position (a.k.a. velocity) continuously.
jgrahamc 14y ago
I found the part in the video about cyclists being in the blind spot of a turning bus very worrying. That's not the way to cycle! I cycle around London all the time and the one thing you have to do is be aware of the situation as a driver sees it. I've seen too many accidents or close shaves where I think to myself "You could have anticipated that situation". e.g. cyclist racing up the inside of a stationary line of traffic slams into the side of a car turning right through the line of traffic. Easy to anticipate that as you approach the junction there might be danger. Equally, I drive through London as well and am very aware that cyclists are hard to see. But I have noticed that cyclists wearing fluorescent jackets are way more visible (day and night) than others. I can't see this particular invention being a big help to me. If I'm turning left I'm looking in the mirror and then doing the last check over the shoulder for anything. A cyclist in a fluorescent jacket is going to be visible to me in the mirror or through the window on the final check because of their height. And if I'm pulling out a fluorescent jacket also helps because I am looking at around body height (at cars and pedestrians).

RobAley 14y ago

Its a shame, for a UK product, they didn't consider that it will be illegal to use in the UK[1] as your main bike light. It has a steady mode, and such needs to conform to BS 6102/3, which it won't, so it means it can't be used as the main light. As an additional light it doesn't need to be BS 6102/3 stamped, but does need to be white (not green) and the flashing mode needs to be between 60 and 240 flashes per minute (which it may do, but doesn't say). When I'm driving, a green picture of a bike going down a road might distract me from the actual bike, especially when its projected 4-6m ahead of it as they plan. In inner-city cycling as a cyclist, you rarely need the light to see where you're going, more to allow other traffic to see you. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_lighting#Legal_requirements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_lighting#Legal_requirem...

TeMPOraL 14y ago
> and the flashing mode needs to be between 60 and 240 flashes per minute (which it may do, but doesn't say). There's a thing I never understood about bike lights - why people use flashing lights? They are distracting like hell, and could probably cause some serious discomfort for people with photosensitive epilepsy. EDIT: http://speakingupanyway.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/flashing-lights-trigger-seizures-so-dont-use-them/ http://speakingupanyway.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/flashing-li...
- thisone 14y ago
  at night, the flashing gives me even longer warning that I'm coming up on a cyclist, since it's easier to notice a flashing red or white light. A solid light, can be dismissed for a second or two as a reflection. also, it tells me it's a cyclist and not a small moped. As a cyclist I like to have a blinking rear light, and two front lights, a blinking one and a steady one. (as a driver, cyclists with a blinker and a steady are the easiest for me to pick out)
- alexkus 14y ago
  > There's a thing I never understood about bike lights - why people use flashing lights? They are distracting like hell, and could probably cause some serious discomfort for people with photosensitive epilepsy. They're more visible than a steady light, but it's very hard to gauge closing distance of just a flashing light. For these reasons I use a combination of flashing and steady lights (both front and rear). As for triggering PSE. They won't. 240 flashes per minute = 4Hz. Perfectly safe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strobe_light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strobe_light " Strobe lights and epilepsy ... There have been no known seizures at or below the 8Hz (or 8 flashes per second) level. Most fire alarms in schools, hospitals, stadiums, etc strobe at a 2Hz rate, which is obviously completely safe. "

chopsueyar 14y ago

This is not original. This is old... http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/01/2255234/bike-projector-makes-lane-for-rider http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/01/2255234/bike-project... From 2009: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Hyperlinks/GantTee http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Hyperlinks/...

mcpie 14y ago

Imagine this in a country with a lot of bike traffic... 10 ~ 20 flashy green bikes on the road would decrease safety, not increase it.