A close brush with a distracted driver is enought to intimidate the most avid bikers from riding at night. The problem is not just about visibility, as safety lights are effective at capturing the attention of a driver. However, these lights are typically constrained to the bike frame, which highlights only a fraction of the bike’s envelope. Bike lanes have proven to be an effective method of protecting cyclists on congested roads. One key is that the lane establishes a well defined boundray beyond the envelope of the bicycle, providing a greater margine of safety between the car and the cyclist. Yet, only a small fraction of the streets have dedicated bike lanes, and with an installation cost of $5,000 to $50,000 per mile, we shouldn’t expect to find them everywhere anytime soon. Instead of adapting cycling to established bike lanes, the bike lane should adapt to the cyclists. This is the idea behind the LightLane. Their system projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with familiar boundary to avoid. With a wider margine of safetly, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bike a more viable commuting alternative.

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