How do you improve road safety for London's plucky cyclists?
Give them sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads. Or failing that, just laser beams.
That's the thought behind a trail upgrade to Santander's hire cycle service (Brris Bikes, in common parlance): 250 bikes have been fitted with the Blaze bike light, that projects a green bike image onto the road 6 metres ahead of the cyclist.
The Blaze system improves a cyclist's visibility at night, flagging up their presence with this 6-metre "warning" to road users who might not have spotted a bike hanging about in their blind-spot, at junctions or while a car is overtaking.
"Personal safety is still the biggest barrier to cycling," said Blaze Chief operating officer Phil Ellis. "We designed the Blaze Laserlight to actively reduce collisions and near misses by giving cyclists a larger footprint on the road, and helping them be seen in situations where they are otherwise invisible."
Should the trial prove successful (we've no idea how they'll be measuring it... waiting to see if anyone riding a Blazing Boris Bike gets hit at night?) Transport for London has stated it will roll the service out to all hire bikes.
Failing that, you can pick up a Blaze light yourself for £125.
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