Light Lane: laser light for safer cycling

Here's a cool idea from US designers Alex Tee and Evan Gant. it's a bit of out of the box thinking that seeks to make cyclists safer by putting them in a box . A box of light… your own laser generated bike lane.

The duo who work for US product design company Altitude call the idea, naturally enough, the Light Lane – it's just a concept at the moment but click through to their blog and you'll see that it's attracted a fair amount of attention from around the world… it could become a reality.

Here's how they explain the thinking behind the Light Lane on the Altitude blog, Dustbowl it's worth clicking through to read some of the comments the idea has generated.

“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.”