Make Your Own Bike Lane

[TeleHoar]

http://dustbowl.wordpress.com/2009/0...and-evan-gant/





A close brush with a distracted driver is enough to intimidate the most avid bikers from riding at night. The problem isn’t just about visibility, as safety lights are effective at capturing the attention of a driver. However, these lights are typically constrained to the bike frame, which highlights only a fraction of the bike’s envelope. Bike lanes have proven to be an effective method of protecting cyclists on congested roads. One key is that the lane establishes a well defined boundary beyond the envelope of the bicycle, providing a greater margin of safety between the car and the cyclist. Yet, only a small fraction of streets have dedicated bike lanes, and with an installation cost of $5,000 to $50,000 per mile, we shouldn’t expect to find them everywhere anytime soon. Instead of adapting cycling to established bike lanes, the bike lane should adapt to the cyclists. This is the idea behind the LightLane. Our system projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid. With a wider margin of safety, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bike a more viable commuting alternative.


They need to make a daytime version!!

[Gman]

this is really cool

[pechelman]

the idea has merit, i just dont see it actually doing shit
the image would probably be pretty faint and shaky
drivers probably wouldnt even see it over their head lights
red isnt exactly the most night vision friendly color to see anyway, and some people are color blind
all this is ignoring the fact that simply projecting a bike lane onto the street doesnt mean jack shit.

want a real deterrent to stay the F-away?
hang a 2 ft long whippy pole off each end of your bike with a big stack of washers\nuts on the end perpendicular to your bike frame (ie hanging out left and right)
cover the poles in reflective tape

or you could just be non core and ride on the sidewalk when theyre generally deserted at night

im all for sharing the road though
im also interested to see how this 3ft law in colorado does

[nickwm21]

if i saw someone with that i would run them over

a single blinking red led would probably do a better job