SAFETY LIGHT FOR CYCLISTS

When it comes to the safety of cyclists, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that high-visibility clothing just doesn’t meet the mark anymore. The latest innovation to ensure safe riding on two wheels at night comes from the French tire manufacturer, Michelin. The device, dubbed Bikesphere, is a promising-looking orb that sits neatly between your handlebars, using lasers to project an unmissable ring of light around the rider that highlights the safety distance that cars must bear in mind when overtaking a bicycle. According to Michelin’s statistics, 1 in 5 drivers doesn’t respect this distance, causing more that 5000 avoidable accidents every year.  

Created to save lives, Michelin’s Bikesphere uses a light sensor and proximity detector to analyse the cyclist’s environment and change its intensity dependent on their situation. Should a car be approaching, Bikesphere will intensify its laser projection to alert both the rider and the driver of the risk. By projecting a double laser red spotlight to outline the safe area around the rider, Bikesphere enables drivers to react properly in plenty of time.  

In daylight or moments of good visibility, Bikesphere only activates the regular headlights that are integrated within the device, in order to save its battery for night time. Yet as soon as dark starts to fall, the sphere wakes up and starts protecting a shield of light around the cyclist, drawing out a safety area that’s easy for any driver to see.

The Bikesphere is the first product to come out of Michelin’s ‘trendy drivers’ movement, which seeks to change the habits of drivers and reduce accidents on the road. The movement crowdsources ideas, giving them the money needed to get off the ground in order to start reducing road traffic incidents. 

Check out Bikesphere in action.