Can I ask you some questions?
 

Hi!
I'm working on a safety product to improve flags or innovate to something new, I'm doing a survey working to improve our urban cycling safety for work or pleasure and would appreciate if you would take a few minutes to comment on the questions below. Thank you for your time.

1. What new features should be added to bicycles to improve safety for the cyclist?
2. What would you look for when choosing a safety product or flag?
3. Would you prefer a magnet or clip-on pole for the safety flag or safety product?
4. What distance would you want it to expand to?
5. Would you want an expandable or retractable safety product or flag?
6. Would you want a proximity sensor on your safety flag or product?
7. What would you want the sensor to do to keep you safe?
8. What should a car driver do when they see a rider in the street?
9. What is your greatest concern when riding your bicycle?
10. What safety tips should you be aware when riding at night?
11. How much would you pay for the safety flag/product that is expandable?
12. How much would you pay for a safety sensor flag or product?
13. What is your age, gender and location/urban city?
14. Did I forget to ask anything else?

Thank you for your time and consideration, happy and safe riding!

Cavorite. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cavorite

I assume you are interested in flags. They were popular in the 70s. Never used them. Not interested. At night, blinking lights. In daylight, bright colors.

13. Old, male, Phoenix, AZ.

ME TOO!
Old, Male, Central Illinois.

Agree with previous posts, lights seem far more helpful

1. Bicycles are not dangerous in the grand scheme but they could be safer. I'd go for preventing capsize or armoring against crashes. The former, Shimano has introduced ABS for e-bikes and though I don't think many of us have tried it yet, it's coming hard, finally. Canyon has a spring thing that re-centers the steering and reviews are mixed. I found it laughable at first but then had a good think and now I believe they have only just begun to explore the trade space it gives them to tune the steering feel. As for armor, if half of people aren't even going to wear crash helmets what chance do you have to sell them shoulder pads and hard gloves?

2-6, 11,12: I am not interested in a flag. Bicycles are tall. The biggest menace to cyclist visibility is cell phones. Drunkenness is also cited, but when I dug into the topic on motorcycles I discovered there is an enormous bias to Friday and Saturday night that isn't really relevant to my bicycle commute. If you are imagining some sensor that needs to go on a mast and want a flag for an excuse, put it on the helmet.

8. Be courteous
9. Us-vs-them attitudes promoted by bullies who crave leadership, leading to incidents like the "coal rolling" 16yo a year ago who accidentally crushed four of his six targets and the local cops who initially shrugged it off and let him go. Inattention by comparison is like the weather. I can't control it but it's not actually hunting me.
10. Floodlight on the handlebars, spotlight on the helmet, blinky on the rear, reflective stuff, stay warm and dry

13. Male, 45, 95630
14. Have you identified what's actually dangerous or are you selling to a feeling of danger? And if it makes you money is that ok? Is there a market for this thing? Commuter cyclists who spend extra money on it are a subset of a subset. Can you make enough money to support a business or is this a product for an existing business? The medical industry has a lot more money than cyclists to spend on doodads. If you want to make a lot of money you need to sell a lot of something (soap, shipping) or something expensive (Teslas). If you want to be really rich you have to sell a lot of something expensive (iphones) or create anticipation of it (Teslas again).

Thank you for your time and feedback, locolobo13, lambkin55, s.canos and darth lefty, I so appreciate it.

For urban commuting, I can see the value of an expandable flag to indicate the 3ft rule. I will not feel inclined to ride with one personally due to impacts on weight and aerodynamics.

I do think it could be a valuable educational tool in driver training.

Thank you tFUnk and Daniel4. Noted.

3 ft noodle in your imagination vs 3 ft noodle in practice

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...42160c4c1d.png

Hope this is helpful
 

1. What new features should be added to bicycles to improve safety for the cyclist?

Anything to improve visibility. Reflective paint, glow in the dark paint, ways to mount lights to pedals, crank arms, wheel spokes to combine motion and light to help attract the attention of drives.

Way to make a loud noise. Air horn/motorcycle horn of at least 110 db. Though to be honest, the louder the better.

2. What would you look for when choosing a safety product or a flag?

Safety product: Ease of use. Lack of maintenance. Durability in rain or snow. Should not interfere (or minimal interference) with my ability to carry baskets and bags on my bicycle.

Flag: Ability to easily attach and remove from the bicycle. A blinky light of at least 350 lumens at the top would be ideal.

3. Would you prefer a magnet or clip-on pole for the safety flag or safety product?

Not sure. Ease of use is more important than any particular system.

4. What distance would you want it to expand to?

Perhaps height of eye for a Ford F-150 or other large SUV.

5. Would you want an expandable or retractable safety product or flag?

This wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me. But might be helpful for storage when not in use. I can’t imagine wanting to bring a large flag into an office work environment when commuting.

6. Would you want a proximity sensor on your flag or product?

Maybe, but probably not. A radar system compatible with Garmen’s system might be of interest to others. If Bosch is successful in networking their automobile systems so cars can sense and avoid each other, one can foresee a future when bicycles could also participate in the network.

7. What would you want a sensor to do to keep you safe?

Other than make a loud noise to alert the driver – and that might cause the cyclist his own issues if unaware of the motor vehicle – the only useful function I can see is to integrate with existing cycling radar systems.

8. What should a car driver do when they see a cyclist in the street?

The most important thing is to maintain at least three feet of clearance from the cyclist at all times. A pothole or bit of road debris that even a small car would never notice with modern suspension can send a cyclist head over heels.

The second most important thing to honor crosswalks and signals at intersections checking for pedestrians that cyclists that may be attempting to exercise their right of way.

9. What is your greatest concern when riding your bicycle?

Automobiles in general. Intersections in particular. Right turn on red only works safely if drivers check not only for other cars that might hit them from the left but also for pedestrians (including me if I’m walking my bike across a busy intersection) that might delusionally believe that the legal right of way will keep them safe. Ironically, this would also protect the driver from rear ending another car immediately after going through the intersection.

10. What safety tips should you be aware when riding at night?

When I ride at night, I feel pretty safe. I have a rear facing blinky light and headlight mounted on my helmet which makes me pretty hard to miss. Whenever possible, I do try to avoid 10 P.M. to 2 A.M. because of drunk drivers.

11. How much would you pay for a safety flag/product that is expandable?

That depends. For just a flag, not much probably $50 tops and if the mounting system isn’t super clever or convenient probably only $25. For a flag with a 350 lumen (or more blinky light), I would pay more, depending on mounting system up to $100. With a sensor and integration into the Garmin radar system, I would pay a price in alignment with gamins rear facing radar lights/cameras.

12. (note: see above)

13. What is your age, gender, riding location?

55 year old. Male. Central Maryland – suburban but within commuting distance of Baltimore and trains that can take me and my bicycle to DC. I use my bicycle as a car replacement for short trips – less than 10 miles to grocery store, post office, library, restaurants, etc.

14. Did I forget anything else?

First, I think that riding with a flag is viewed as something that only children do so you may have a steep cultural bias that prevents your product from getting wide acceptance. But I – for one – am open to the idea if it is convenient, not terribly expensive, and provides even some marginal safety gains.

Second, I really wish someone would look at body armor options. There is a lot of seemingly good body armor for motorcycle and car racers, but the expense is crazy and the fitment requirements seem difficult to meet unless on is very knowledgeable or is buying local with some very good customer service. To be honest, an inch of padding on the sides of the knees and sides of the hips could be the thing that saves the cyclist a couple of years of physical therapy after even a low speed interaction with a car driver.

From post #11 ...

Anything to improve visibility. Reflective paint, glow in the dark paint, ways to mount lights to pedals, crank arms, wheel spokes to combine motion and light to help attract the attention of drives.

I don't know of the modern bicycle that does not have a reflective logo, reflective stripes, pedal reflectors, spoke reflectors, etc. Look at a bicycle ... where else would you put reflective or even active lighting? The rider is the most prominent part of a bicycle/rider configuration and the savvy rider has a helmet with passive and active lighting, a hi-viz upper vestment, leg stripes and most cycling footwear will have passive reflection. It's enough.

Way to make a loud noise. Air horn/motorcycle horn of at least 110 db. Though to be honest, the louder the better.

If you needed a loud noise to keep from being smished and it worked then you weren't in any danger of being smished. Loud sounds are a reaction. In most deadly scenarios it's already too late by then. That's why in my state an overtaking vehicle is supposed to sound their horn to announce their presence. Most don't. Good. Because I already knew they were there. But I get it. The active element in a potential collision has most of the control over the outcome. I don't need or use the horns in cars, and I have never used bells or horns on bicycles. Except for friendly signalling.

Flag: Ability to easily attach and remove from the bicycle. A blinky light of at least 350 lumens at the top would be ideal.

Recumbent bicycles and especially low slung racing style recumbent tricycles that are being operated on public roads can benefit from 6' flags, but a standard bicycle absolutely does not need one! If a rider cannot be seen without a flag the addition of a flag is not going to improve the situation enough to be worth the hassle of its impact on handling, wieldiness, etc. A flashing light on top is just more passive annoyance. What I am trying to convey by this post is that bicycle riders must stop thinking that passive strategies are effective. If a car is on a collision course with you, you must somehow get out of its way! You must not rely on them to make you safe. They may not. Then what?

8. What should a car driver do when they see a cyclist in the street?
The most important thing is to maintain at least three feet of clearance from the cyclist at all times. A pothole or bit of road debris that even a small car would never notice with modern suspension can send a cyclist head over heels.
3' is not a magic number. If a car slides past me with 12" clearance, going just 5 or 10 mph more than my speed, I am not bothered. If they blast past, 3' away at 45mph I AM bothered. It was wrong of the DOT to pick this magic 3' distance and then give drivers the license to pass bikes at 45, 50 and much more miles per hour! If you fall towards a car that is 3' away it will hit you in the head killing you instantly. If that car is going less than 20mph relative to your speed you have a chance of surviving. Relative speed is the metric that should have been used when governing motorist behavior when overtaking bicycles.

Second, I really wish someone would look at body armor options. There is a lot of seemingly good body armor for motorcycle and car racers, but the expense is crazy and the fitment requirements seem difficult to meet unless on is very knowledgeable or is buying local with some very good customer service. To be honest, an inch of padding on the sides of the knees and sides of the hips could be the thing that saves the cyclist a couple of years of physical therapy after even a low speed interaction with a car driver.

Motorcycles move the rider through the air fast enough that wearing padded clothing doesn't overheat them. But it does overheat many. I have a lot of tolerance for heat but most of my friends ride practically naked. Down to sandals, because cycling shoes are too hot. Now you want to put armor on cyclists? Don't get hit. Rule number one. If you are hit there isn't any armor made that can save you. Just accept that and adjust riding style to suit. It might mean MOVING to another city or state if the driving culture where you live is so awful that you need to consider body armor for vehicular cycling.

No new product will make us safer. Lights, reflectors, and our brains are more than adequate. At this point it's up to city planners, traffic engineers, and car manufacturers to stop killing us, so we're screwed.

Thank you for your time and insight Cscottdavis, appreciate it.
Thank you too Leisesturm & Korina. BTW-there are products in the market with sensors that warn the rider when a car is approaching and even have cameras to document it, they are very expensive of course and not priced for the casual commuter or pleasure rider riding in the street. Innovation/technology has advanced more than the childrens safety flag of old times. Of course no safety product can prevent selfish, unscrupulous inconsiderate drivers constantly looking at their cell phones, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try by asking riders of their insight and experience to find something new, if it can save even only one life, it is still worth it. Presenting something new to city planners may implement new laws or required product. That's how seatbelts started, click it or ticket. If it doesn't work, you tried, some one else may come up with a better idea. Thank you for your time.

Agree 100% with a slight modification: At night blinking blights, In daylight, bright colors and bright blinking lights. Old, male, Washington State

Me: BRIGHT flashing headlight and tail light by day, Steady headlight and flashing tail light after dark. I'm over the color obsession since quality lights were invented.

65yo male, Deep South.

(Bright colors can't hurt if you're into it. No denying)

Safety for bicycle riders (and pedestrians and those in cars) is a road design issue.

Roads designed by engineers in The Netherlands, Sweden and elsewhere are quite safe. Roads designed by engineers in the U.S. are the most dangerous of all developed countries resulting in the greatest numbers of deaths and serious injuries.

No amount of lights, reflective this or that, sounds, flags, or helmets can overcome the dangerous and inappropriate road designs produced by U.S. traffic engineers.

If your using a trailer, drape a Hi-Vis vest over the rear and secure with Zip Tie or other such attachments. If your on just a bike I would use a Safety Triangle which is sold my Amazon or LBS.

Self driving hands free AI bicycles and Anti-Lock Brakes

A lot of cyclists fear rear end collisions the most, probably because one feels pretty vulnerable from cars coming up from behind, but the more common car-bike collisions are the right hook (where a car passes you on the left and then makes a right turn in front of you), and the left hook, where a driver coming from the opposite direction turns left and hits the cyclist. Rear end collisions are much less common. I know it does not answer the OP's question, but expecting these right and left hooks will make for safer cycling. And sorry, I don't have crash statistics in front of me.

1. Here, I wrote down what I consider to be unsafe patents in the cycling industry. Most notably - pedal to cranks interface. It could be made safer, less prone to breaking, and the solution discussed there is feasible/realistic to mass-produce. It would also get rid of the left-handed thread on left pedals.
2. No idea - the question is too vague for me (it may be my fault).
3. I don't think I need a safety pole. Dislike the idea of hauling a pole.
4. See above.
5. Nope.
6. Nope.
7. Don't see how a sensor could keep me safe. Unless it communicates with computer-driven cars.
8. Notice them. And remain calm. If possible.
9. Pedestrians jumping in front of me - our traffic laws are such that I could easily see prison time even if a pedestrian literally runs into me (so nothing I can do to avoid a crash apart from not riding a bike). Crazy.
10. Visibility is lower. If it's a Saturday, some drivers are more likely to be drunk.
11. I'd have to be paid to haul it.
12. See above.
13. Middle-aged man, urban, densely-populated city, central Europe.