Nerdy concept, but I like it…
A couple of clever boys from the USA, Brady Clark and Mykle Hansen have come up with a way of helping other road users realise how fast cyclists actually travel - a vest which displays on your back, in big numbers your speed.
More info at Mykle’s site: http://mykle.com/msl/?p=21
The main idea behind their concept is education and the idea that other road users will probably be surprised at how fast cyclists actually travel.
It’s pretty nerdy to wear a vest with your speed on it, but I think this could also be good as a way of helping motorists with understanding relative and closing speeds. I know that if I’m doing 30kph and a motorist is doing 60kph, I want he or she to be aware that I’m a slower moving vehicle.
I can also think of lots of funny applications, and even some interesting safety applications - for example, a vest that senses objects entering a field some distance behind the rider and lighting up as a way of using a car’s presence to trigger an alert. Perhaps even more useful, would be to use this with a sensor on brakes to act as a rear brake light - I’m always a little nervous in traffic when I have to brake that motorists behind me take time to realise that I’ve hit the anchors.
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