Safety aid? Blaze light on BBC feature

[AlaninWales]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25018543
Looking at the photo of it out on the road, I can just imagine a driver watching the odd green cycle image in the road and not realising there is a cyclist 'attached', driving straight over the cyclist while avoiding that odd floating green bike!

[gaz]

"Holy Cyclists Batman! It's the bike signal!"

I imagine it could be treated as a personal "green light" by rljers .

[iviehoff]

I can just imagine a driver watching the odd green cycle image in the road and not realising there is a cyclist 'attached', driving straight over the cyclist while avoiding that odd floating green bike!

If they become common, drivers will know what they are. But at £125 they aren't going to become common soon.

[ScotchEgg]

I like the idea of it...

[kwackers]

If they become common, drivers will know what they are. But at £125 they aren't going to become common soon.

As safety devices they only work whilst drivers aren't used to them.

[fluffybunnyuk]

make your own... get a stencil, cut a bike shape out stick a green filter over your light and attach stencil....
Give it a try. What interests me is how far ahead would the little green light need to project for a cyclist at say 15mph. Also would the driver even notice what it meant( I mean if drivers dont signal or look in the left mirror why would they look for funny green lights on the ground?). I'll stick with the football stadium lights line of thought attached to the front of a bike to make sure i'm noticed at night(pointing down correctly of course). Like the bike lane rear light ...nice idea but *fail*.

How about this for an invention...a retest of all motor vehicle users every 5 years? Would do wonders for the job employment of car instructors, and all that segment of industry, and make cyclists a bit safer too....

[RickH]

I was slightly confused when I started reading as Exposure Lights already do as bike light called Blaze - a rechargeable rear light. Maybe someone should tell Ms Brooke?

Rick.

[Edit - found the company website & sent off an email]

[gentlegreen]

I believe the inventor claims to be some sort of cyclist ....

Thankfully at that price no normal cyclist will fall for such a load of expensive garbage.

[661-Pete]

For £125 you can get a pretty serious set of lights. Indeed, if you need good lights (e.g. for out-of-town, dark country lanes etc) I'd recommend spending around that amount. Motorists are conditioned to understand what a light is (leastways, I think and hope so) - rather than a hologram or whatever this thingy is.....

[kwackers]

Motorists are conditioned to understand what a light is (leastways, I think and hope so)

I reckon motorists are conditioned to know what a bicycle light is, so the sooner they can identify you the sooner they can forget about you...

[661-Pete]

Motorists are conditioned to understand what a light is (leastways, I think and hope so)

I reckon motorists are conditioned to know what a bicycle light is, so the sooner they can identify you the sooner they can forget about you...

This may be so for you, but I still hold faith in the majority of British motorists as being civilised human beings. In other words, I believe that once a motorist has seen me and identified me as a cyclist, 99% of the time, he or she will take steps so as not to collide with me. Where I have been hit by a motorist, it has invariably been a case of the SMIDSY type.

Accordingly I always set my rear light to flashing mode. Whether or not this is technically legal, I don't care, I'd rather be alive than legal. I want the motorist coming up behind me to think 'that's a cyclist ahead', not 'that's a roadside cats-eye' or whatever....

And I was once complimented by a motorist whom I knew, who'd recognised me as he overtook me on a dark country lane. He said the flashing rear was a great help to him. Enough said.

[Adam S]

Accordingly I always set my rear light to flashing mode. Whether or not this is technically legal, I don't care, I'd rather be alive than legal. I want the motorist coming up behind me to think 'that's a cyclist ahead', not 'that's a roadside cats-eye' or whatever....

Perfectly legal to have a flashing light

[661-Pete]

Accordingly I always set my rear light to flashing mode. Whether or not this is technically legal, I don't care, I'd rather be alive than legal. I want the motorist coming up behind me to think 'that's a cyclist ahead', not 'that's a roadside cats-eye' or whatever....

Perfectly legal to have a flashing light

I believe that strictly speaking you have to have a steady light, complying with BS <whatever>, in addition. But I don't bother, on short rides. I haven't been stopped - yet.

[Adam S]

Used to be the case (til 2005?) and you did occasionally hear of people being stopped before then for having flashing lights but it's now possible to be legal with just a flashing light. Most likely your light has a steady mode and isn't compliant to a standard anyway, so yes it's probably technically illegal - but not because it flashes.

[Pete Owens]

How about something that produces a hologram of a 40 ton truck next your left elbow?