Safety when Commuting 2

SammiG

elo again.

I've been looking though the feedback and have realised that the main 3 topics you came up with were to do with road surfaces, the facilities at work, and disrespectful/unaware road users.

Seeing as my A level work involves me designing and making a solution to combat one the popular issues there are limitations as to what i can do, for example i cannot improve all of the road surfaces accross britain :P , but i have been thinking that perhaps a way of keeping other road users aware of cyclists would be good? for example LEDs incorperated into high viz (not sure how many commuters actually use high viz) or something to help driver to keep thier distance around cyclists.

OR

Another topic was to do with lack of space to dry cloths at work and the poor facilities, by making a sort of light weight, portable drying device to be assembled in the corner of an office which could either them be left in the office or taken home daily, this would enable cycle gear to be dried throughout the day if weather conditions were bad. this object would obviously have to be very expandable, and lightweight to kep it practicle when commuting.

lockups were also mentioned, was this a lack of them? or a lack of security for them, also what part of the bike do you feel is least secure when locked up?

any info on these topics, and what you think of them would be great guys. cheers

regards

sam

biondino

If you can come up with a genuinely innovative and radical way to make cars notice and avoid you then you'd be doing the cycling community a great service (and probably earn a huge amount of money). Drying clothes is just a bit too marginal a benefit I think, though others may disagree.

STEFANOS4784

biondino wrote:

If you can come up with a genuinely innovative and radical way to make cars notice and void you then you'd be doing the cycling community a great service (and probably earn a huge amount of money). Drying clothes is just a bit too marginal a benefit I think, though others may disagree.

+1

ride_whenever

^^^ what they said, drying can be done with a bungee cord, and waterproofs negate the need for wet clothes all together.

but making driver avoid you will be very tricky, maybe a device that sprinkles caltrops out into the road as you go that then dissolve over the next 30secs or so...

lost_in_thought

Agreed with the above, also with the limited space available in offices etc it would probably be unviable.

I'd shoot for the visibility thang if I were you.

However, for the LEDs in the hi-viz, someone has already thought of that... see here

linsen

www.howies.co.uk used to make a brilliant rucksack with a blue and white "keep right" arrow on it.

A jacket with similar?

chuckcork

I've seen battery powered lights built into a jacket before, can't remember who makes them but they were at the cycle show in 2006.

marchant

I've often wondered, what with the general opinion that flashing lights are more noticable than constant ones, and that passively reflective areas can be good as they don't need batteries etc, why doesn't anyone make a moving reflective device for a bike? Think of one of these sort of things;

but instead of foil, coated in retroreflective "stuff". As you ride, it gets turned by the wind and reflects headlights etc back, but as it's moving it's more eye-catching than plain stripes/dots. Obviously it would need a design overhaul (or matching 3m handlebar streamers ), but it ought to be effective.


Oh it's 9 o'clock, the nurse is here with my tablets

always_tyred

Is that supposed to be some form of decorative motorised fan for drying clothes?

bluecow

linsen wrote:

www.howies.co.uk used to make a brilliant rucksack with a blue and white "keep right" arrow on it.

A jacket with similar?

If you search for this rucksack, some people have made a very valid point... if the cyclist wants to turn right it makes it all a bit too confusing for the car driver. Leave the road signs on the road, me thinks.

bluecow

I cycle to work, 15 miles each way and my biggest issue, apart from nearly getting mown down by the token tw*t in an expensive car every trip, is not having anywhere to dry my towel after my shower (we're lucky enough to have a couple of showers, cant imagine how id do without one- id smell pretty bad i imagine). I dont want much, just a radiator which is switched on, out of everybody's way. Plus somewhere to dry my gloves.

SpinyBike

A supersoaker loaded with paint stripper would be nice :twisted:

STEFANOS4784

marchant wrote:

I've often wondered, what with the general opinion that flashing lights are more noticable than constant ones, and that passively reflective areas can be good as they don't need batteries etc, why doesn't anyone make a moving reflective device for a bike? Think of one of these sort of things;

but instead of foil, coated in retroreflective "stuff". As you ride, it gets turned by the wind and reflects headlights etc back, but as it's moving it's more eye-catching than plain stripes/dots. Obviously it would need a design overhaul (or matching 3m handlebar streamers ), but it ought to be effective.


Oh it's 9 o'clock, the nurse is here with my tablets

Hmmmmm, actually +1 maybe. With a springy stem so if drivers do hit it then at least we wouldn't notice might be a good idea (i don't care what i look like on my bike my work mates have called me a string of liquerice, a gimp and a gay stick-insect but ah well at least i aint fat :P 8) ) (6 ft and 10 1/2 stone to give ya some idea )

jangle

bluecow wrote:

, is not having anywhere to dry my towel after my shower (we're lucky enough to have a couple of showers,

What about using micro fibre travel towel? I use one at work and after a shower it is probably dry in about 30 mins or so. It is drys when folded up and compacts down to about 30 x 10 cm, so I just chuck it in my drawer ready for the next day. you can get them at any outdoor store, such as this micro fibre towel

Bassjunkieuk

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Hmmmmm, actually +1 maybe. With a springy stem so if drivers do hit it then at least we wouldn't notice might be a good idea (i don't care what i look like on my bike my work mates have called me a string of liquerice, a gimp and a gay stick-insect but ah well at least i aint fat :P 8) ) (6 ft and 10 1/2 stone to give ya some idea )

I'd say their just jealous :-)

I quite like both idea's, however I think the "drivers keeping their distance" one would probably be the best as clothes drying is really only useful on days it rains or if you sweat a lot!

I'm not sure how best to achieve this as I think regardless of how visible and well lit up you are you're still going to get plonkers passing within an inch of you. I do remember seeing a product somewhere that was basically EL wire, that lit up. I think it was in the pages of C+. I think the holy grail tho could be along the lines of LED's that offer very high light output for little energy input.