UKC

I recently saw an advert for a new product - it projects a sign of a bicycle on the road some distance ahead of the rider using a green laser.

https://www.blaze.cc

What are people's opinions? A gimmick or a useful safety device? Will motorists and pedestrians intuitively understand it or will it distract them? Will it lead to more risk taking, e.g. cycling up the inside of temporarily stationary traffic? Will it have a gravity sensor cutout so that it can't be physically projected into the eyes of other motorists and how will this work on hills?

My take - I can't decide - I'd love one when I'm being overtaken by busses on either a road with 1 or 2 lanes in each direction. I wouldn't want one when approaching a junction as I don't want to distract people and I'm anyway always assuming that the motorist is going to drive off without seeing me until I make eye contact.

In reply to wintertree:

Shining lasers in traffic just has to be a bad idea.

In reply to wintertree:

They are trialling them on some boris bikes.
I am not sure about them either. Be interesting to see one in action

In reply to wintertree:

I bought a very cheap rear version from ebay that has a light and projects a line either side. I haven't seen it in action, it's possible it might not be very visible in some environments. I wonder how many drivers will be able to see the ground in front of you before you're visible. Unless it's more for junctions, perhaps it might give some extra warning then.

Hope that helps?

In reply to wintertree:

The smartest bike safety 'device' I have seen is a light attached to the crossbar that shines at the rider's waist. Front and rear lights are really good these days, but visibility from the side is sometimes a problem.

In reply to wintertree:

From a car I probably wouldn't even notice it, the viewpoint is all wrong, what's clearly visible from basically above (cyclist's perspective) isn't from 10+m back where it matters. There's enough distracting glittery crap reflected off the road and street furniture to hide cyclists in the clutter without them adding more of their own.

As a pedestrian I don't spend much time looking at the floor when crossing a road.

Spend the money on a good strobe and some retroflective ankle straps, those at least are highly visible and won't conk out in the rain when you need them most.

jk

In reply to jkarran:


From their video it does seem to be pretty noticeable as a standard light so gets some marks there.
However since it doesnt light the road well loses even more against a decent front light.

In reply to jkarran:

Agree completely about the distracting glittery crap, let alone distracting glittery crap in the form of spurious green lights. It also seems to me that shining a laser at a fairly low incident angle onto the road ahead, when that road surface is highly reflective as it can sometimes be in the wet, is likely to mean bouncing it into the eyes of the drivers of oncoming vehicles. Doesn't seem like a great idea.

For a hundred odd quid you can get an *excellent* set of lights and chuck in a good few retro-reflective bits and bobs.

In reply to deepsoup:

Just imagine how much glittery distraction you could create in a place like Cambridge ?

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/fix-the-dire-cycle-parking-shortage...

In reply to KevinD:


I happened to see one of these pass at a junction on the weekend - the projected bike symbol seemed pretty bright. I'm not sure if it'd be particularly effective in regular traffic, but it certainly made it obvious that a bike was approaching from the side, and anything that discourages cars from 'junction creep' would be worth considering

In reply to wintertree:

I hope this won't be used by the devious lawyers as another excuse to "blame the victim" as in "he wasn't wearing a helmet", "he wasn't wearing hi-vis", "he didn't have a laser projecting".

In reply to silhouette:


If a car driver hits a cyclist are these valid mitigating arguments? Or are they just urban myth to keep the chasm between cyclists and drivers nice and raw?

In reply to ByEek:


As a car driver AND a cyclist, any chasm is certainly going to be raw !

In reply to wintertree:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XUdPP90eliM/UIxBUxOh1mI/AAAAAAAABf8/395c9rVX-q4/s...

Maybe it can be used as such during any altercation with other road users?

In reply to ByEek:

Been tried - my mrs has represented at least one cyclist where the lack of a helmet was used to try and lower the damages - roundly rejected!