There are several countries around the world where you can rent bicycles and take a cycle through the city. The UK is one of those countries and over in London, residents and tourists can rent bikes, also known as Boris Bikes, to take around the city with you while you explore, and recently the Transport for London has decided to up its safety features.
How will this work? Basically they will be equipping these bicycles with lasers. Designed by Emily Brooke who founded Blaze, these lasers will help project a bright green logo of a bicycle in the front of the cyclist. This will help keep drivers alert of these bikes to prevent any untowards accidents.
According to the company’s Chief operating officer Phil Ellis, “Personal safety is still the biggest barrier to cycling. 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.”
At the moment it is currently being trialed, but if successful it is expected to rollout to all 11,500 of the bikes for hire. So far it seems to be pretty well-received, with initial tests finding that the lasers made cyclists 96% more visible to buses compared to LED lights.