Blaze – creator of the Laserlight bike light – has launched a video campaign to highlight the size of the blind-spot experienced by bus and lorry drivers in particular. In the video, Blaze highlights the need for cyclists to be as visible as possible at this time of year – detailing how to minimise the risk posed by drivers’ blind-spots
November and December are seen as significant months for urban cyclists; as following the clocks going back, evening commutes now happen in the dark, and are frequently cold and wet too. In November 2013, six people were killed cycling in London, setting a grim record and prompting the Stop Killing Cyclists campaign.
Globally, the UN’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) and the UK’s main road safety event, Road Safety Week are in November.
Given this context, Blaze is looking to bring cycling safety to the forefront. In a bid to raise awareness about the risk of blind spot incidents, the company invited the nine-piece Hackney Colliery Band to Copeland Park, Peckham, to stage a concert with a difference. The gig was performed entirely in the blind spot of a typical London bus and the only seat in the house was the driver’s. The whole thing was captured on video.
It shows unsuspecting drivers of the bus getting into the cab, checking their mirrors and seeing nothing, at which point the band assume their position in the blind-spot and the trumpet begins to play. The drivers hear the music, check their mirrors again, and even crane their necks to see if they can see the source of the music, all unsuccessfully. Then they suddenly see a green laser bicycle flash on the ground in front. Stepping off the bus to find out the source, they are ‘astonished to be greeted by the nine-piece band jamming by the bus right in front of them’.
Blaze co-founder Emily Brooke explained “The purpose of the video is two-fold, firstly to highlight how big the blind-spot of these large vehicles are – you can fit an entire brass band in one! And secondly to show how a Laserlight makes a cyclist more visible to drivers ahead. It gives them a bigger footprint on the road and can make them seen when otherwise hidden.”
The Laserlight’s effectiveness was further substantiated in a study conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory in 2014 in conjunction with Transport for London (TfL). The study assessed the visibility to a driver of a double-decker London bus of a Cycle Hire Scheme bicycle equipped with a Blaze Laserlight, compared with existing front white LED lights presently fitted as standard on the Cycle Hire Scheme bicycle. The trial was repeated to measure the visibility to a driver of a van, tipper lorry (truck) and car respectively.
The study found that the blind-spot areas around the vehicles, caused by the limitations of their body shape and mirrors, were significantly reduced by the Blaze Laserlight and the percentage of maximum visibility at night to bus drivers improved from 72.4% with just the existing LED lights to 96.2% with the Blaze Laserlight. The improvement for other vehicles was 65% to 97% for a van, 78% to 83% for a tipper lorry and 56% to 66% for a car.
The Laserlight is currently being rolled out across 11,000 Santander bikes and is being trialled on City Bikes in New York.
