Long standing UK lighting company Lumicycle, has launched a new brake light that could help cut the number of accidents involving cyclists. It uses an accelerometer to detect braking and lights up a mega power braking light to warn motorists.
According to the 2012 Department of transport figures 80% of all accidents involving cyclists occur in daylight, with 25% of fatalities being caused by the cyclist being hit by a vehicle approaching from behind.
To help counter this, Lumicycle says its new InSight Lights “provides powerful rear and side illumination to clearly mark the cyclist’s position, plus a super-bright brake light triggered by an intelligent wireless braking design whenever the cyclist applies the brakes”. This system, utilising on-board G-force sensing technology and proprietary software, constantly monitors both the rate of deceleration and also learns the terrain it is being ridden over. When the cyclist applies the brakes, high power LED units in addition to the tail light units are illuminated to warn following road users that the cyclist is slowing down. No additional wires or sensing system is required on the bike, and the unit can be oriented vertically or horizontally using a simple to use O-ring mounting system.
The Insight lights are constructed from aluminium, with precision optics and powered by internal single rechargeable Samsung lithium ion battery cells that provide exceptionally long run times. The lights accept charging inputs from a mains charger, 12V vehicle adaptor or computer USB output and can also be powered and charged by all Lumicycle Lithium Ion external battery packs.
Martin Montague, Lumicycle CEO, commented: “With the majority of accidents involving cyclists occurring during the day, it’s clear conventional lights didn’t offer a solution. Our new super-bright InSight features technology that we believe will help drastically reduce the number of accidents both at night and, crucially, during the day. That this product is entirely designed and manufactured in the UK – as with all our products – is something we’re immensely proud of.”
Continuing, Montague said: “Pre-orders have been streaming in since the product was announced at the London Bike Show, and we’ve already had to begin scaling-up our production plans as a result.”
The new Lumicycle Insight will launch in May 2014, and is expected to retail at around £80.
See: www.lumicycle.com for more details.
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If they become popular enough so the car users are expecting it great otherwise they may just be confused.
Is that also the same figure for the amount of cyclists riding, i.e. more ride in daylight than in the dark.
Is this going to be as useless as the hazards on my car which flash when you stop hard?
(I also suspect that the reason a lot of cyclist are hit from behind is because cars go faster than bicycles, rather than a failure to notice said bike stoppping….)
Looks like a nicely packaged product and it is good to see a UK light manufacturer Innovating, as to how usefull it would be I am dubious however I can see it being usefull for the likes of a guide on a night ride.
I think it’s a good idea.
Hazards on harsh braking can also be useful, especially in a motorway situation when people don’t realise how hard you are braking.
There is a problem with a lack of consistency though but that is the problem with bike lights in general. I can only wonder if we are going to eventually get a standard for bike lights that include a properly aimed dipped headlight and a rear/brake light similar to this.
When you think about it, cars and motorbikes have to abide by set rules and quality of lights, why not bicycles?
I’m torn on the option of a brake light.
However I’m delighted to see a rear light with a decent toggle switch that would be usable with thick gloves on, rather than a tiny pip to find and press.