Bike Safety -- How can I help?
03-04-21, 07:16 PM
#26
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I already have a Sprintech mirror on my road bikes and big mirrors on the tandem, so your project seems somewhat pointless. The issue is not visibility. It is human perception. Thanks to the DOT failing to understand what John Voevodsky actually was doing, we have the third brake light on cars and light trucks, which the DOT claimed reduced rear impacts by 4.3%, which I suspect (but don't know, for sure) was down in the noise.
The original Voevodsky light worked as follows:
BNBB's idea might help a little, but the real problem is the attitude of car drivers. Yes, pedestrian and cyclist death rates are increasing in the USA. As has been pointed out, the SUV driver owns much of the credit for this. I understand that in 2018 France put in place a license suspension of up to 3 years for any driver who fails to yield to a pedestrian or cyclist. We cycled in Burgundy in 2019 for about a month, and the French drivers were the best about respecting cyclists and pedestrians that I have ever seen.
The original Voevodsky light worked as follows:
The light, activated by the use of the brake pedal, was pulsed in a controlled fashion at a rate, duty cycle, and intensity that varied exponentially with a component of deceleration. A comparison of the experimental group (with the light for 12.3 million miles) with a control group of 160 cabs (without the light for 7.2 million miles) revealed that the light prevented 5.4 collisions, 1.02 cab driver injuries, and $643 of taxicab damage per million miles.
So, the harder you brake, the faster it flashes. The Garmin Varia sounds like it tries to improve driver perception with a variable speed flashing light.BNBB's idea might help a little, but the real problem is the attitude of car drivers. Yes, pedestrian and cyclist death rates are increasing in the USA. As has been pointed out, the SUV driver owns much of the credit for this. I understand that in 2018 France put in place a license suspension of up to 3 years for any driver who fails to yield to a pedestrian or cyclist. We cycled in Burgundy in 2019 for about a month, and the French drivers were the best about respecting cyclists and pedestrians that I have ever seen.
03-05-21, 07:10 AM
#27
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Our project unfortunately does not give us the capacity to provide a legal change to cycling safety and to change driver habits. With the way you all describe your problem, it sounds like an accident is not only inevitable but likely. While my group isn't the most avid cyclists on the planet, nor are we the most well-read on the topics, we do have engineering backgrounds and are capable of providing something for you all, the cyclists, that would help. We want to leverage the skills we do have to help solve the problem of rider safety. You keep saying there is nothing more the cyclist can do to be safe; I simply do not believe that. Every time you turn your head to look behind you, you lose sight of what is ahead. Would you not agree that having some sort of device to allow you to see on-coming rear traffic and how laterally close it is to you is beneficial? We have done research into the products on the market, including the Varia, SmartHalo, and CycleSight, and feel that by combining and adding to these technologies, we can ease the difficulties that are associated with vigilance.
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your biking surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. We know this isn't completely re-regulating the driver safety laws but what we want to know is, of the things we can help with, what would you want to see? I am here to try and help you all as the cycling community, if we can't get information about what you, as a cycling community, need (other than safer drivers...) we cannot help.
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your biking surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. We know this isn't completely re-regulating the driver safety laws but what we want to know is, of the things we can help with, what would you want to see? I am here to try and help you all as the cycling community, if we can't get information about what you, as a cycling community, need (other than safer drivers...) we cannot help.
Not cyclists and not well read on the subject.
But golly gee, we are students with a bit of engineering background and we want to change the world!
And possibly even get some free help with a project we have to complete for the university
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03-05-21, 10:02 AM
#28
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...
You keep saying there is nothing more the cyclist can do to be safe; I simply do not believe that. Every time you turn your head to look behind you, you lose sight of what is ahead. Would you not agree that having some sort of device to allow you to see on-coming rear traffic and how laterally close it is to you is beneficial? ...
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your ... surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. ...
You keep saying there is nothing more the cyclist can do to be safe; I simply do not believe that. Every time you turn your head to look behind you, you lose sight of what is ahead. Would you not agree that having some sort of device to allow you to see on-coming rear traffic and how laterally close it is to you is beneficial? ...
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your ... surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. ...
You keep saying there is nothing more women can do to be safe; I simply do not believe that. Every time you turn your head to look behind you, you lose sight of what is ahead. Would you not agree that having some sort of device to allow you to see on-coming attackers and how laterally close it is to you is beneficial? ...
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your ... surroundings, what we want to do is give women a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. ...
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your ... surroundings, what we want to do is give women a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. ...
See how incorrect is your entire approach? CYCLISTS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM.
03-05-21, 10:05 AM
#29
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Here's a novel idea: create a ride-tracker in my phone that scores my rides for risk. thought is a derivative of "I keep telling my wife..." (which I never do, of course). if the app tracked me versus known road controls and then gave me positive, constructive feedback, that might be interesting. "BNBB, you can improve your stopping rate at stop signs." "BBNB, you could have a safer commute on these alternate roads with only 3 extra minutes travel time"; "The roads you took last week are 30% high traffic, 20% residential and 50% rural."; "This week you reduced your time on busy roads by 5%"; "Here are the roads near you with the highest number of BMV accidents". "BNBB, you passed thru 17 stop signs on this trip, and you stopped at 3, slowed at 11 and completely blew through 3 of them." Just an idea. If we can't tweak the bad drivers, maybe we can still help cyclists consider different habits.
which is a crowdsourced tool for bicycle safely.
What would fit blacknbluebikes idea is a web site where you submit a gxp route file and it would use the aggregated data from bikemaps to return a route that has warnings for high risk intersections or ‘scored’ the route as suggested based on reported incidents. You can then load the modified file to your bike computer and warnings would pop up or give you an audible as you approached higher risk spots.
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03-05-21, 11:26 AM
#30
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Here's a novel idea: create a ride-tracker in my phone that scores my rides for risk. thought is a derivative of "I keep telling my wife..." (which I never do, of course). if the app tracked me versus known road controls and then gave me positive, constructive feedback, that might be interesting. "BNBB, you can improve your stopping rate at stop signs." "BBNB, you could have a safer commute on these alternate roads with only 3 extra minutes travel time"; "The roads you took last week are 30% high traffic, 20% residential and 50% rural."; "This week you reduced your time on busy roads by 5%"; "Here are the roads near you with the highest number of BMV accidents". "BNBB, you passed thru 17 stop signs on this trip, and you stopped at 3, slowed at 11 and completely blew through 3 of them." Just an idea. If we can't tweak the bad drivers, maybe we can still help cyclists consider different habits.
Any idea what data base the stats would be drawn from? Serious question, not intended as snark.
03-05-21, 11:30 AM
#31
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Hello,
I am a university student trying to help with rider safety by developing a product. Current needs my team is trying to solve are rear object detection and warning, health tracking, GPS, on-bike messaging, and rider visibility through lighting. We would love to learn about more issues riders are having so that we can meet the existing needs.
With that said, what do you fear when riding? What makes you feel unsafe while on your bike? How can I help?
-Nate
I am a university student trying to help with rider safety by developing a product. Current needs my team is trying to solve are rear object detection and warning, health tracking, GPS, on-bike messaging, and rider visibility through lighting. We would love to learn about more issues riders are having so that we can meet the existing needs.
With that said, what do you fear when riding? What makes you feel unsafe while on your bike? How can I help?
-Nate
I want a device that makes drive thru cashiers think my bike is a car so they won't refuse me service when I ride up to the window.
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03-05-21, 11:42 AM
#32
Senior Member
Instead of the deathly for cell phones, how about a low power transmitter like the weather warnings that would send to active cell phones a "bicyclist ahead' warning?
03-05-21, 01:58 PM
#33
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I'm guessing (underline) that these folks have that somewhere, somehow... https://www.openstreetmap.org/
03-10-21, 02:54 PM
#34
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Our project unfortunately does not give us the capacity to provide a legal change to cycling safety and to change driver habits. With the way you all describe your problem, it sounds like an accident is not only inevitable but likely. While my group isn't the most avid cyclists on the planet, nor are we the most well-read on the topics, we do have engineering backgrounds and are capable of providing something for you all, the cyclists, that would help. We want to leverage the skills we do have to help solve the problem of rider safety. You keep saying there is nothing more the cyclist can do to be safe; I simply do not believe that. Every time you turn your head to look behind you, you lose sight of what is ahead. Would you not agree that having some sort of device to allow you to see on-coming rear traffic and how laterally close it is to you is beneficial? We have done research into the products on the market, including the Varia, SmartHalo, and CycleSight, and feel that by combining and adding to these technologies, we can ease the difficulties that are associated with vigilance.
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your biking surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. We know this isn't completely re-regulating the driver safety laws but what we want to know is, of the things we can help with, what would you want to see? I am here to try and help you all as the cycling community, if we can't get information about what you, as a cycling community, need (other than safer drivers...) we cannot help.
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your biking surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. We know this isn't completely re-regulating the driver safety laws but what we want to know is, of the things we can help with, what would you want to see? I am here to try and help you all as the cycling community, if we can't get information about what you, as a cycling community, need (other than safer drivers...) we cannot help.
Also, I have just such a device; I call it a "mirror". One quick glance and I can see what's coming and where they are. I'm thinking of patenting it. (<--- sarcasm alert)
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03-12-21, 08:31 PM
#35
Newbie
Hello,
I am a university student trying to help with rider safety by developing a product. Current needs my team is trying to solve are rear object detection and warning, health tracking, GPS, on-bike messaging, and rider visibility through lighting. We would love to learn about more issues riders are having so that we can meet the existing needs.
With that said, what do you fear when riding? What makes you feel unsafe while on your bike? How can I help?
-Nate
I am a university student trying to help with rider safety by developing a product. Current needs my team is trying to solve are rear object detection and warning, health tracking, GPS, on-bike messaging, and rider visibility through lighting. We would love to learn about more issues riders are having so that we can meet the existing needs.
With that said, what do you fear when riding? What makes you feel unsafe while on your bike? How can I help?
-Nate
For number 1, I do most of my riding, 99%, on paved and clear cycling trails. Where I live, There are miles and miles, however, I do have bright flashing lights when I have to cross the road. For number 2, I have a Specialized helmet with ANGI which will notify my contacts incase of a crash.
03-18-21, 10:43 AM
#36
Senior Member
Our project unfortunately does not give us the capacity to provide a legal change to cycling safety and to change driver habits. With the way you all describe your problem, it sounds like an accident is not only inevitable but likely. While my group isn't the most avid cyclists on the planet, nor are we the most well-read on the topics, we do have engineering backgrounds and are capable of providing something for you all, the cyclists, that would help. We want to leverage the skills we do have to help solve the problem of rider safety. You keep saying there is nothing more the cyclist can do to be safe; I simply do not believe that. Every time you turn your head to look behind you, you lose sight of what is ahead. Would you not agree that having some sort of device to allow you to see on-coming rear traffic and how laterally close it is to you is beneficial? We have done research into the products on the market, including the Varia, SmartHalo, and CycleSight, and feel that by combining and adding to these technologies, we can ease the difficulties that are associated with vigilance.
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your biking surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. We know this isn't completely re-regulating the driver safety laws but what we want to know is, of the things we can help with, what would you want to see? I am here to try and help you all as the cycling community, if we can't get information about what you, as a cycling community, need (other than safer drivers...) we cannot help.
It obviously takes a lot of effort to be constantly vigilant of your biking surroundings, what we want to do is give the cyclist a system that gives them the most complete set of information about their surroundings in a compact way to optimize the amount of time they have to react. We know this isn't completely re-regulating the driver safety laws but what we want to know is, of the things we can help with, what would you want to see? I am here to try and help you all as the cycling community, if we can't get information about what you, as a cycling community, need (other than safer drivers...) we cannot help.
I'm afraid you're just trying to shoehorn a technocratic solution to a problem that is not caused by a lack of technology but by infrastructure, culture, politics, and human error.
The problem here is that what you want to do is put another device in front of cyclists, increasing the number of distracted road-users looking at screens when we cyclists should be **constantly** vigilant of the reality around us.
To put this more constructively, please for the love of god and all that is holy, please please please don't make it a device that is distracting to cyclists!! This will kill more people than it will save.
I cannot emphasize this enough. An auditory alarm of some kind, maybe. Do not take peoples eyes off the road.
Last edited by acm; 03-18-21 at 10:46 AM.
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