A Brilliant Idea - Portable Bike Lane

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.

A friend sent this post to me...I've noticed it on several other blogs. The first came from here.

Week 3 & Buzz 29er

It's the third week into bike commuting. Adding more miles...not much more than to work and back however. My schedule has changed for the next week or so and I will have some late shifts.

I'm glad I have several lights for my bike so it's easier to ride at night. I don't know how some riders can go without lights. They are taking a huge risk. There are so many roads without street lighting and people just don't see cyclists as well at night. I'm looking into some better lights down the road, but just having some lights makes a huge difference.

I've added about 27 miles in the last few days for a total of about 123 miles for the three weeks on a bike. I'll keep adding it up.

I was reading a past post on Bike Hugger and noticed that Novara will be introducing a Buzz 29 inch bike for 2009. I very excited about that prospect. I'm curious to see what it looks like. I also heard a rumor that there will be a drop-handlebar Buzz and I wonder if it is the same bike. A drop-bar 29er Buzz would be pretty cool in my opinion. I'll just have to wait, but I am beginning to look for a more road-style bike and that may do the trick.