COMPETITION: Your idea to improve cycle safety could win you 5,000 Euros

toast in ya pocket

Build infrastructure that separates cars from cycles. A model that works in Europe i.e. Denmark.

So its all about infrastructure but, UK gov plc is  focused on Road improvements and HS2 all good stuff and needed for the future of the UK . We are too far behind the game with cycling on an already over conjested small island. 

So what we should do better is to incorporate new infrastructure project as ststed above which also deliver real cycle routes and paths  and not a wht line on the pavement or road

https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/your-personal-guide-to-cat...

Your own personal 'Green Wave' LED Strip ?

Oh, it's been done !

I'm with Bez, it's just more gadgets and trinkets, a complete and utter waste of time. No mention of the real threat.

Disappointing that CTC have got into bed with this, the IP rights grab adds insult to injury.

And before anyone starts blaming cyclists for RLJ, pavement cycling etc etc, let's have properly funded, properly executed universal Bikeability, and compulsory 'cycle experience' training (where they get to mix with motor traffic) for new drivers and those returning from a ban.

Speed is "way down the list" of dangers? Not where I live. And it's scary as hell, 30 in the 20 zone, stops more people cycling.

A GPS unit with a radar of some sort that marks and records data of near misses such as time and location and closeness to the rider making it public to a data base 

also indicators like a moped has 

Glow in the dark bikes such as the provis silver jacket that sort of colour 

Glow in the dark wheels 

Impact sensor on helmet in case of crash that records g force 

A device that vaporises the vehicle (but not anyone in it) of any driver that illegally uses their horn

A GPS device for drivers which detects when they have made a turn and checks that their indicators were used in good time.  Automatically makes a report to the police if not.

Oh wait, it would have to be illegal to turn without indicating (as it should already be) first.  Oh well, back to the drawing board.  We can at least start with the speed detection and reporting?

As everybody else has said, you need preventative measures aimed at the users who pose the biggest risk (or preferably isolating them from those more vulnerable).  This will inevitably take more than trendy gadgets or apps, which will just be a distraction from the more important work.

What Bez & ironmancole said ^^.

Once again we're moving the conversation away from the one key thing that will actually help - building proper infrastructure. It would help if that could be combined with actual real-world scenarios from Holland, Denmark etc rather than working to some wild-eyed, half-cocked idea dreamed up by a council bod to spend £150,000 of "green transport" funds as quickly as possible before it gets re-allocated.

That said, I'd also propose mandatory dash-cams and "black box" recorders in all cars and real consequences for law-breaking rather than the pathetic excuse we have at the moment where pleading exceptional hardship and saying that the sun was in your eyes releases you from any and all fault.

My 'invention' is a 12 inch metal spike mounted on the steering wheel of all motor vehicles together with the banning/removal of all safety related equipment (ABS, seat belts etc). Effectively, if you have a road trafic collision, the metal spike impales you - would focus driver's mind on driving safely no end!

Ah, terms and conditions:

16. All entries and any copyright subsisting in the entries become and remain the property of Allianz.

So if you enter, you lose all rights to your idea.

Well, screw you.

The things that will increase safety are infrastructure engineering and legislation. The more time spent focusing on techno-trinkets, the more the conversation is diverted away from the things that have real use.

Techno-trinkets are of use if you can legislate for them to be installed in the vehicles that are the source of the threat, but without that it's just a tech industry circle-jerk.

"Collecting data on and understand cycling collisions better"

This is something I'm working on, but it only tells you so much. When someone is killed or seriously injured, the police gather forensic information, but it seems that once it hits the CPS and the courts no-one really fully understands the implications of it.

I like evidence and I like data, but at the moment it seems that the bottleneck in extracting its value is the pervading lack of ability to understand how human behaviour leads to the tragic events that generate the evidence.

That's not a tech sector problem. It's a legal industry problem and, frankly, a social problem.

Mind you, since I'm working on one of the suggested ideas anyway… hmm.

Oh so tedious. Other than the bleedin obvious we need to invent 'other things' to protect vulnerable road users?!

How about inventing the concept of social care and justice mixed with a touch of personal responsibility for those who are incapable of driving without endangering everyone else? 

Nope, lets just invent more crap to stick on a bike so those doing the killing have another excuse to use when that 'latest innovation' wasnt actually being used?

Government could make sweeping reform in very short time, just as they proved in the banking crisis when all their banking mates went cap in hand in desperation after betting on black when red came up instead.

Government chooses not to do anything to upset the motoring lobby and never will. Gimicks like this to come up with new innovations are dangerous distractions to the real issues the authorities refuse to engage with, a decision I strongly feel amounts to wilful negligence when lives continue to be taken.

Might as well set up a competition to invent a new rape alarm whilst police refuse to go into the park and actually just catch rapists. Sort the aggressors out, dont pile it all on the victims.

Passing distance laws with actual distances.

Liability laws.

Stronger sentancing, better wording of careless driving and dangerous driving laws.

Pre-defined laws - flesh them out more, sun in eyes etc not an excuse for bad driving.

Smidsy = mandatory points off license.

Playing with phone = mandatory driving ban like drink driving (almost)

Close off residential streets, make 'quiet-ways' actually quiet, they're not quiet if people are rat-running in them.

Don't even think about giving the award to some stupid victim blaming 'cycle-safety' product idea.

Segregated cycling everywhere.

Don't you already know this stuff CTC?

Fix the appallingly rubbish national cycle network, stickers does not equal a cycling route, smooth tarmac 1.5m+ wide does. Stop putting stupid barriers on cycle routes.

OK, following an exchange via twitter, I'm actually going to propose something on here that I believe would improve safety for cyclists.

My invention is a GPS based speed limiter for motor vehicles, though I can't really claim that as my invention as I'm sure patents already exist.  My innovation would be to make it available to UK courts, so that they can mandate its installation for persistent speeding offenders (multiple offences over a defined margin, or following a ban).  

The technology is available to do that today.

Ban all car insurance.

The advantages would be twofold.

1. Everytime a driver uses his/her car (s)he risks his/her capital asset which would focus the mind on the task of driving.

2. Bad drivers put everyone elses capital at risk so police would be under strong social pressure to remove them from the road.

Ban all reporting of "them" and "us".

Ban all reports on cycling accidents.

Ban all reporting on cars.

Ban all reporting on bikes.

Ban The Daily Mail

Ban anything that allows people to identify with this tribalism and promotes the hatred.

Then allow people to work out for themselves.

Bank details in my profile, thank you.

I'm in Amsterdam at the moment. It's pretty flipping obvious why so many people cycle in safety here and its nothing to do with apps, reflective nano paint or radar equipped robocars.