A Thoughtful Trucker Tries to Design a Safer Bike Light - Core77
A Thoughtful Trucker Tries to Design a Safer Bike Light - Core77
Cyclists can be hard for motorists to see, particularly motorists in larger vehicles. British trucker Jay Singh observed this firsthand, having spent decades driving a hauling truck around the UK. Singh himself eventually took up cycling, and "after one too many close shaves while cycling in London ...
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Interesting idea but I'm not sure the benefit is worth the cost and the bulky gadget. Regular bike lights don't have such a narrow beam of light, unless by "regular" they mean the most laser-focused bike lights of the market. My two lights are pretty diffuse.
In what situations are said cyclists hard for motorists to see that a combination of normal bike light and high viz material won't work? Foggy day, cyclist and driver are perpendicular on an intersection? If it's foggy, the fog works as light diffuser. If it's not foggy, any piece of reflective material would do the trick... unless truckers are not turning on their headlights in total darkness, at which point normal bike lights are enough again.
Having spent that much time in a truck, he understands what makes cyclists difficult to see.
lol no, that's not how it works, there are professionals that dedicate their lives to studying vehicle lighting
I think the truck driver is thinking about riders in blind spots and so trying to solve proximity visibility with ambient light.
Blind spots are blind because there's no direct path from any part of the bike to the driver's eyes. If the design is specifically worried about being in a blind spot, ironically the better design is to concentrate the LED power with narrow beam of light so the bike can cast light further away outside the blindspot.
Anyway, being in a blindspot is dangerous even for cars that have those ridiculously overpowered bright headlamps. When a driver says the "cyclist came out of nowhere" it just means the driver was driving carelessly. More lamps won't solve that.
Interesting idea but I’m not sure the benefit is worth the cost and the bulky gadget.
Unfortunately the Video also misses examples of the bike at night from the side. There are a few shots in the dark, but mostly form near the front or back and in the city with surrounding light. I would like to see a comparison in a dark area with other regular lights, so the real difference can be seen.
Also battery life, according to kickstarter ist only over two hours.
As much as I like the idea, I miss some details to see how big the difference to other lights really is. Because to be fair, the diagram is just plain commercial.