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Santander Cycles to trial lasers to reduce blind spot danger

Hire scheme partners with Blaze Lazerlights in trial which will see 250 of London's hire bikes fitted with lasers...

Santander Cycles and Blaze lights are partnering to trial the use of lasers on 250 of the London hire bikes.

The green Blaze bicycle logo will shine on the road ahead of the trial bikes, from a laser built into the frames, in an attempt to alert drivers of cyclists in their blind spots.

Trials will complete later this year, during which Santander Cycles says the product will be "robustly" tested, before potentially being rolled out across all London hire bikes.

James Mead, General Manager of Santander Cycles, said: "As part of our wider work to make London's roads safer for cyclists, we have worked closely with Serco and Santander to undertake a small trial of Blaze Lazerlights, which alert drivers to an approaching cyclist in the blind spot at night time. Although the technology has been available for several years, this is the first time that it has been built directly into the frame of a hire bike.

"We will be robustly testing both the technology, its effectiveness and peoples’ opinions of it during the trial and hope to make a further update later this year."

Transport for London says the lights have already been trialled at the Transport Research Laboratory, and they will be asking people who have used the trial bikes to comment on them, as well as checking the lasers last the trial, and only operate at night, as they are supposed to.

Keith Moor, Chief Marketing Officer for Santander UK, said the Blaze partnership would help address safety concerns, a key barrier to uptake of the scheme, while potentially supporting the growth of a London-based startup.

He said: “Santander’s vision when signing up to sponsor the London Cycle Hire scheme was to make the experience of hiring a cycle, fun, rewarding and easy. 

“Innovations in the scheme are something Santander and TfL are both committed to.  We want to make it easier for more people to choose Santander Cycles to get around this great city.”

Phil Ellis, COO and Co-Founder of Blaze, said: “Cycling is growing in London with over half a million journeys made by bike every day.  However personal safety is still the biggest barrier to participation.

"We designed the Blaze Laserlight™ to actively reduce collisions and near misses by giving cyclists a larger footprint on the road, and helping them be seen in situations where they are otherwise invisible, through the innovative laser."

Transport for London declined to disclose the cost of the trial but said it was paid for out of the project's annual budget. If successful the lights' roll out will be paid for from additional funding by Santander.

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15 comments

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KiwiMike | 8 years ago
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So having been widely lambasted by anyone who's actually used one in the real world, especially on wet roads, they have managed to convince Santander bikes that this is a Thing Worth A Go.

No, no it's frickin' well not. Given the incredibly rare chance of being knocked off a Boris bike, how the hell are they ever going to garner statistically-significant data from a trial of a few hundred lights, being ridden by a hugely diverse number of people all over London?

Utter waste of time and money.

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CygnusX1 | 8 years ago
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Whoever writes the copy for the Facebook links should be shot. Fricking lazer beams?!?! Either swear properly with anglosaxon conviction or don't bother

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KiwiMike replied to CygnusX1 | 8 years ago
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CygnusX1 wrote:

Whoever writes the copy for the Facebook links should be shot. Fricking lazer beams?!?! Either swear properly with anglosaxon conviction or don't bother

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Evil

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A V Lowe | 8 years ago
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Fitting a proper and visible front light might be a good start - compare the feeble flashing white LEDs' (do they actually comply with bike lighting regs? - certainly not a focussed beam?)

The substantially more successful Glasgow bike scheme (costing c.£1500/bike compared to the Bixi (specially modified London version)costs) has a proper bike headlight, and rear light which has a standlight function.

And as for a laser - there is an issue with laser pens being used and causing temporary blindness, on train drivers, pilots, and a documented 'assault' (deliberate use of a device known to cause harm directed towards an individual) by a London bus driver on a cyclist recorded on camera. To project a clear and bright green image that competes with the golden-white light on the street I suspect that this unit may need to be slightly more powerful than a laser (pointer) pen. Given the known harm that such focussed laser light can do, what protection and control measures are in place?

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wycombewheeler | 8 years ago
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Getting rid of the massive illuminated sign that draws attention away from the cyclist might have more impact.

In fact there is a case for restricting the use of unnecessary lights generally. If for no other reason than energy wastage.

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bikebot replied to wycombewheeler | 8 years ago
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wycombewheeler wrote:

Getting rid of the massive illuminated sign that draws attention away from the cyclist might have more impact.

In fact there is a case for restricting the use of unnecessary lights generally. If for no other reason than energy wastage.

I really hate these things.

//lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pQxTXe8P-EU/Ubhvli-FiEI/AAAAAAAAKvk/OmyfpkSAXsA/s640/blogger-image-1169331892.jpg)

A big glowing screen stuck on the roof of a taxi at the level of my eyeline. Any taxi driver using one of those deserves to have laser beams shone in his eyes.

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jacknorell replied to bikebot | 8 years ago
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bikebot wrote:

I really hate these things.

//lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pQxTXe8P-EU/Ubhvli-FiEI/AAAAAAAAKvk/OmyfpkSAXsA/s640/blogger-image-1169331892.jpg)

A big glowing screen stuck on the roof of a taxi at the level of my eyeline. Any taxi driver using one of those deserves to have laser beams shone in his eyes.

They're even more fun when you imagine the "think cyclist" message on that screen while the driver intentionally attempts to bully you out of primary position...

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bikebot replied to wycombewheeler | 8 years ago
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wycombewheeler wrote:

Getting rid of the massive illuminated sign that draws attention away from the cyclist might have more impact.

In fact there is a case for restricting the use of unnecessary lights generally. If for no other reason than energy wastage.

I really hate these things.

//lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pQxTXe8P-EU/Ubhvli-FiEI/AAAAAAAAKvk/OmyfpkSAXsA/s640/blogger-image-1169331892.jpg)

A big glowing screen stuck on the roof of a taxi at the level of my eyeline. Any taxi driver using one of those deserves to have laser beams shone in his eyes.

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bikebot | 8 years ago
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How did they get the shark in that little gap?

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congokid | 8 years ago
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It would be useful to know if any of the tragedies involving people on bikes in London so far this year could have been avoided with this supposed safety intervention. Since many occurred during the hours of daylight I'm not wholly convinced of the efficacy of this latest addition to the panoply of pointless blinking and flickering placebos.

I'm also puzzled by this steadfast refusal by transport authorities to address the real source of danger on our roads and their eagerness to waste precious time, effort and budgets on fripperies that firmly place the burden - and cost - of safety on the potential victims, but which can only ever have a cosmetic effect.

As they are, Laserlights might or might not benefit people on bikes - the jury is out - but they do nothing to address the far from negligible danger posed by motor traffic to other vulnerable road users. But, as with hi-vis clothing, I can see them being marketed as yet more essential PPE for everyone outside motor vehicles, including the school walking bus.

It's the laziest and most cynical form of road safety intervention.

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flathunt replied to congokid | 8 years ago
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Congokid & StevieDee; never in the same room...

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flathunt | 8 years ago
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Another amulet to ward off negligence. Marvellous.

I don't know if anyone's come across one of these coming the other way but they're f***ping annoying, an extremely bright green flickering light from within the housing despite the 'laser' being pointed at the ground. Admittedly I've only seen two but they were annoying both times, and I'm normally cool like a cucumber.

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picko | 8 years ago
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Good to see them trying something different to improve safety. Any chance of them using this as an opportunity to gather credible data to determine whether these devices actually reduce danger though? The article reads like this is a marketing thing to "address safety concerns" with an unproven device rather than as a means of generating actual evidence (e.g. comparative near misses/KSI rates etc.).
The Ken bikes could be a great test bed for this kind of thing - if the right people are involved...

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harrybav replied to picko | 8 years ago
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Quote:

Good to see them trying something different to improve safety.

Trying something different instead of just doing simple things we already know work is not really "good to see", I think.

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CXR94Di2 | 8 years ago
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Good idea maybe to include an illuminated area around the whole bike as the dynamic safety zone that no vehicle should encroach !

Link it to a camera recording system maybe

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