Cycling jacket wins design award; LEDs change colour as the cyclist brakes

[PhotonBoy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7340000/7340963.stm

"...The jacket uses an accelerometer to sense movement, changing the colour of LEDs on the back from green when accelerating, then to red when braking...."

 

[DUQ]

Man that's cool!

 

[TONY M]

Nice gadget but let's hope it doesn't become a requirement for all cyclists - seriously.

The Mayor of London wanted all cyclists to have registration plates! Aaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Thats enough to put anyone off cycling. Hehehe.

 

[chimo]

Not sure if I like the colour changing back lights but the sleeve lights are interesting.

 

[RGB_LED]

Very cool! I like both the changing lights and the amber arm lights. I don't normally have any issues with cars behind me as I use a reflective jacket, have the flashing red light on the back of bike on my night rides and I do a lot of head checks and signal whenever doing lane changes.

The jacket changing lights to red may have helped in the one incident I had when I was going about 35km/h (about 22mph), was cut off by a car changing lanes and drifting into the bike lane, I braked hard and, unbeknownst to me, some flake on a bike trying to prove how macho she (!) was, had kept pace with me on my rear wheel and nearly rear-ended me. She screamed and hollered at me to watch what I was doing... ! :sick2: Talk about having issues. This invention may have helped in that case since she would have seen the back of the jacket lit up like a christmas tree. :devil:

 

[2xTrinity]

I don't like the idea of color shifting at all -- but if it must be done, it should be restricted from the amber to red range in observance with vehicle lighting laws. In the USA at least, Rearward lights are only allowed to be red or amber. Forward lights are restricted to white and amber for normal vehicles. Forward-facing red is for emergency vehicles, blue is reserved for police, and green is never used on vehicles.

A better solution IMO would be to use amber for the 'turn signal' lights, red for constant-on tail lights, and have the existing red lights jump to higher intensity, or turn on additional red lights when braking. This is essentially what cars do.

For that matter, variable intensity brake lights based on rate of braking is always something I've thought would be a good idea for both vehicles and bikes. Quite often drivers approaching a stopped or slower car will gently tap on their brakes, then at the last second realize they aren't braking quickly enough to stop in time and SLAM on the brakes. A sudden change in intensity on the brake lights would be helpful for all the drivers behind them.