Create Your Own Bike Lane
Adam Stein, 21 Jan 09
With lasers! Concept system paints a virtual lane wherever you travel
This product doesn’t actually exist, but based the internet enthusiasm for it, somebody ought to get it into production real quick like:
Traditional blinkers might alert drivers to a cyclist’s presence, but they don’t do a very good job establishing a zone of safety around the bike. By “painting” a visible marker onto the pavement, Light Lane establishes a boundary that could keep riders safer.
Beyond any utility the device might have as a safety device, it seems like a nice social statement. If your city doesn’t support cyclists, then make your own infrastructure, in a non-destructive kind of way.
Of course, the product doesn’t actually exist, and it’s not clear that it would even work. Bikes bounce around and vibrate a lot, and that nice crisp line would likely be more of a blurry squiggle. If this device interests you, though, the Down Low Glow Lighting Kit - Two Tubes-Envy(green)
Adam Stein is a co-founder of TerraPass. He writes on issues related to carbon, climate change, policy, and conservation.
Adam,
It actually could work. You combine image stabilisation approaches from latest-gen cameras etc with micro-mirror laser imaging, with say a 5 milliwatt helium-neon laser as the base emitter (with an onboard processor to handle the stabilisation and the mirror controls) and for my money you either mount two emitter arrays, one to each wheel (perhaps hub-integral) or do a single shoulder-mount (like a mini backpack sitting up high) with two beam paths from a splitter.
Could be a real product if some bright spark techie picks up on this... any takers?
Rick de Freeze, are you still out there?
Posted by: Gerard Falla on 21 Jan 09
I posted a conceptual piece on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Although impractical, worth looking at and discussing.
www.therecordplayer.net/2009/01/bikers-revenge.asp
Posted by: The Record Player on 27 Jan 09
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