Summary

Cycling as a mode of transportation is becoming increasingly popular and has its own culture, styles and products. This rapid increase in popularity has not been complemented by a comparable increase in cycling specific infrastructure. As such cyclists share the road on a daily basis with all other road users giving rise to an increased risk of accidents. Visibility is one of the key factors in making other road user aware of cyclists, however, current solutions only produce or reflect light in a static or periodic manner.

Original brainstorming was based around the concept of using state of the art lighting in order to improve cycling safety. It soon became apparent that in order to develop a truly innovative product it would be necessary to evolve a cycling solution beyond the concept of adding more light.

This project aims to design an affordable cycling safety platform that uses intelligent electronics and programming in conjunction with related safety equipment to improve the visibility, communicative ability and, by proxy, the safety of the user. The system will use an array of lights, sensors and processing chips to interpret the surroundings and communicate intuitively to other road users the presence and intentions of the cyclists.

The primary market for the product is adults aged 20-50 who use cycling as a regular mode of transportation in busy metropolitan areas in the UK such as London (aka “a cyclist commuter”). The secondary market is adults of the same age band who are safety conscious and who cycle in residential and rural areas.