Saturday, August 23, 2008

Bicycle Speed Vest


I linked to this yesterday, but this bicycle vest that displays your speed is cool enough for its own post.



This high visibility vest with reflective panels also displays the cyclist's speed with large, lighted numerals. A sensor on the wheels sends the speed data to a small computer, which is programmed to display the speed on electro-luminescent wires sewn into SPEED-VEST.

The whole story at the designer's blog of how they created this project and won a design contest is pretty fun to read.

And Sioux Geonz, I'm sure a bicycle turn signal can somehow be integrated into this.

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

I want one! But I want one with some smaller letters at the bottom that say "There, you see, I am NOT going only 5mph; in any case, on this street the speed limit is 25mph. Have a nice day."

Cafn8 said...

Hmm, I can see this being very helpful for use with overtaking cars, but I'd be afraid of being pulled over for speeding on downhills.

James T said...

That is a very cool idea.

Jennifer is right too point out that motorists often do underestimate the speed of cyclists on the roads. I just heard someone complaining about a group of racing cyclists taking up the lane while going 10 mph in front of his car. Maybe the group was hogging the road and not letting traffic pass (that is another issue), but 10 mph... somehow I doubt that.