Bring Your Own Lane!

Whether it’s San Francisco, New York, or any bicyclistic city in between, you’re destined to witness biker after biker dancing with danger, especially at night when visibility is uncomfortably low. Many cars, trucks, and buses, like immature kindergartners, don’t like to share and subsequently choose to ignore bikers’ rights to the road.

In addition to a high price tag, new bike-lane inhibition is promoted by arguments on a legislative level, such as one in San Francisco that accuses the city’s large bicycle population of creating more pollution than automobiles because they supposedly impede the flow of traffic. In spite of these roadblocks, cities across the country are beginning to get the picture, slowly and seemingly reluctantly adding more lanes here and there, but what are cyclists to do in the extended meantime? Alex Tee and Evan Gant’s LightLane device was recently just a concept but is soon to enter reality as a much-needed visual declaration of personal biking space. The two Altitude, Inc. designers know that any amount of panicked shouting or bell-ringing are no match against prevention when it comes to bicycle safety. With a dire shortage of dedicated lanes, LightLane provides urban cyclists with a solution that adapts to them and any route they make take. The compact projector mounts easily to the rear of a bike frame and projects a bike lane-inspired linear pattern that provides great visibility and a familiarity that helps catch a driver’s attention.

Originally presented as a losing design competition entry, LightLane has continued onto a path to production thanks to widespread public interest and encouragement. The patent-pending device features preliminary design specs like high-visibility DPSS (diode-pumped solid state) green lasers, super-bright red LEDs, a 3-hour runtime on its rechargeable lithium-ion battery (but how cool would it be if it was pedal-powerd?!), a universal frame attachment bracket, and compatibility with universal mobile phone charger standards. Although it is currently only in its production engineering stages, LightLane has speedily made the jump from a design concept to a real product-in-progress. Upon its anticipated release, it will most definitely receive an overwhelming welcome by safety-hungry bike riders ready to brave the night.