It was obvious from the podcast who was more marketing in the group being interviewed and that concerns me. The Audi chap sounded reasonable and the infrastructure guy sounded like he just wanted to make roads safer and more effective, but I did get a feeling that this (like Hannah said) would be the next helmet/HiVis.
The comparison with flashing lights is a bit weak though. You can buy cheap, effective blinky LEDs for next to nothing and so they are easily accessible for cyclists with even really limited spending power. I really doubt that this new tech is going to be as cheap as that, or as readily available in anything like the near future. Maybe if the car makers deliberately subsidised them/gave them away it would catch on, but if the tech is 50 USD or the equivalent, it’s going to start being a luxury to a lot of people. Also, bringing in a dead relative is a dick move. Like you said, you can’t respond to that without sounding like an asshole.
It’s odd to hear the obvious differences between US and UK road users too. The UK has small, crowded roads and drivers that have a rep for being angry and even using cars as deadly weapons. Is the same true in the US? They have more space and straighter roads, yet seem less hate-y about it, or is that just me not being exposed to it more often?
