Bransons back Blaze laser-projection bike safety light

Saw these at the bike show. I don't think much of this to be honest, especially when you look at their website, which shows the cyclist using the light who has stopped way before the Advance Stopping Lane, in a bus-stop box and with the bus driver seemingly unable to see the lazer light on the ground - https://www.blaze.cc/product/lights/laserlight. It's also very expensive for what it is and apparently the fixing bracket isn't very robust.

Surely a better design would be a similar lazer light mounted to the nearside of these big vehicles (buses or lorries), which beams a light on the road, to show cyclists where their blindspot is? I just can't imagine a driver looking in their rear view mirror and seeing an image of a green cyclist on the road surface, especially given that some are not seeing cyclists with high powered conventional lights as it stands

Is it just me, or from some angles does this look like a big green cock and balls? Just saying like...

Saw a demo of this light at the London Bike Show and was quite interested until my mind started freewheeling.

All I could see as this green cycle danced about was a cat chasing a spotlight.

I'm very sorry! I think it's very clever and invented and promoted for the right reasons, but, I can't see it fulfilling it's brief. Imagine a junction in rush-hour with twenty or so of these lights. Cyclists have difficulty positioning normal lights so they don't dazzle drivers. Think of the new excuse - "I was momentarily blinded by his laser officer!"

'It's not 40 cm of room — it's an extra 40 cm of room. I think that is quite useful'

Extra...from where? The seatstay? It'd be more useful from the widest part of the bike, and it still wouldn't be wide enough.

Making your bike ever so slightly wider isn't going to stop idiot drivers not giving you enough room.

* interestingly, there's a woman who commutes on my route most days who has a safety wing. It doesn't reach as far into the traffic lane as her arse does. That's how useful they are.

With the possible exception of the pedestrian about to walk out in front of the bike - every single example of the light 'alerting a fellow road user' would have been covered by a decent bright normal light and proper (for which read safe) road positioning.

I'm sorry, I love that there's a steady stream of innovative ideas around bike-borne technology and I hope that the designer continues to come up with more ideas, but this isn't worth the money.

If it was two lasers mounted at either end of the bars so that they converged in mid-air 50m ahead of the bike, then we might be talking...

pointless, possibly dangerous as it may encourage a false ense of security.

I would worry about it being green.

I could just imagine the motorist in court: "your honour, I saw a green light and I proceeded across the junction".

Most of the dangerous actions I see are purposeful , this will just give that sorted person advance notice of a target.

safety wings...could be useful if they were longer. 40cm of room? no thank you.

High-tech solutions are fun and exciting but safety wings are effective (and very nerdy).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_safety_wing

Good on them for getting it funded and to market, but I really don't like the scaremongering-like, random stat quoting marketing BS.

It's just an[other] expensive light. As important as lights are, that's really all it is.

My brother did the Kickstarter thing...and was going to give it to me for Xmas. But before he told me this, I told him about my reservations of its effectiveness. He kept it for himself..

A light designed by a non-cyclist....hmmm.

I've seen a couple of these on the road and found it the most distracting thing ever. I couldn't make out what it was at first or where it was coming from due to the vibration moving the image about. Then said owner cycled through a red light, is it me or is there something wrong.

Why has the cyclist in the photograph stopped at the side of the bus and not carried on into the bike box?

Also there is no way that the bus driver can see that green bike projection on the road from his position.

Finally, what driver of any motorised transport drives along looking down at the road?

Gotta beat segregated cycle lanes aka glass alley/dog shit avenues which are packed full of 2-5mph hiviz clowns.

Can we have a kickstarter project for a laser projected "leave this much room" zone to my right? And whenever a driver intrudes, the laser turns into a lightsabre and cuts off that part of the car that went inside?

I was leaving Herne Hill velodrome last night in my car and it's hard to see down the road due to a) the parked cars and b) the curve in the road. A cyclisI rode was riding up with one of these and we saw the light well in advance through the other car windows due to the green glow which was unusual. The cycle symbol on the road was about 3m ahead of her, which wouldn't give much reaction time if that's what you saw first. I guess if you overtook one, you'd perhaps not pull in until beyond the light, but powerfull strobe lights that reflect back from way down the road would be more effective.

I bought some of these strobes as people only see you if they look your way. Now they see all sorts of traffic furniture reflecting upto 50m away and turn to see the source. Then they see me.

I've not had anyone pull out, step out, cut me up, or turn left across me in the 4 months I've had them commuting 11 miles into London. I have had traffic make space in lanes well ahead when riding past them.

I've also had police compliment them and the effect they have. Motorcyclists have wanted to know where they could get them (eBay special).

But her projections were very visible and it all helps.

I cycled past some guy with one of these the other morning (while still dark) and it was absolutely useless. I could just see the symbol when I was next to it. A £20 light is more visible. I shudder to think of anyone trusting their safety to one of these...

well I backed the start up too and got a light for less than £65.
I backed it as I thought it would be good to back a British start up and I wish them well with their venture.
I have used it now for nearly a week in some pretty vile conditions and would observe that the light is fine but the laser image is scarcely visible at anything other than slow speeds due to road vibration (poor surfaces).
It does have some use in getting the attention of the zombie pedestrians who normally step out in front of you.
It's nicely finished but not the finished article.
I have even had a cyclist in front of me complain that it is distracting....
in terms of bang for buck, you can't beat the cree light but that is nowhere near as neat a design.

Im not paying that kind of money for something I think motorists will think, 'oh thats a pretty green light of a cyclist' and while they ponder it and before they realise where its coming from the bike rider is on top of them. It also look like its manufacturing cost is around a tenner.

I paid 65 quid for a Cateye Nanoshot Plus, which is pretty much my miserly, tight-fisted limit for a front lamp. On full power (600 lumens) even pointed down to the road I get flashed by motorists all the time and its great though on unlit cycle tracks, its like taking my artificial daylight with me.

On normal power + strobe I still occasionally get flashed by motorists and its more than adequate to ride at 22mph at night on lit roads, but still spot potholes in enough time to avoid them at that speed.

If I cannot be seen with that and rear red strobe light then I am not going to be seen. Can't see this helping. And the bus driver in the article's image appears to me to be looking in his mirror not on the ground, but that might be a moot point as I dont think he even ahs line of sight to the cycle light on the road. Bad choice for a pic to show what the device can do in my opinion. Its just too expensive and riders still need a front light in my opinion as well.

I also backed this through Kickstarter but didn't get as far as trying the light because the bracket obviously wasn't up to the job and the light was loose in it. There's been an update to say new brackets are on their way.

(Also very disappointed about the "People say we should have separate cycle paths, but we haven’t got the space in the UK." comment and will be complaining to Emily about it.)

OK, I drive and I cycle and I walk - in London.

I don't look at the floor I look from waste high upwards so this would not help. As a driver a bright flashing LED light is what I see in a busy environment day or night.

Furthermore... by the time someone see this projections a meter or two in front of a moving bike ... it's too late to react.

This is one of ideas that was not really thought out I think.