Boris Bike (or is Sadiq Cycle now) query

[Russell]

My new contract sees me walking to the City and there are many many bikes on the roads - very pleasing to see.  I have noticed that some, a minority, of hire bikes are showing a green light to the front.  Why is this?

Thanks

R

[Jaded]

The green light is a loser thing that projects a bicycle onto the road in front. Check it out when it is a bit darker in the day.

[Salvatore]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2015/sep/16/london-santander-hire-bikes-high-tech-laser-lights-amid-arms-race-to-be-seen-blaze

[Whitedown Man]

Apparently by casting a small green silhouette of a bicycle onto the road six or so feet ahead of the actual bike, the cyclist is protected by magical forces from drivers who would otherwise crush him/her with their two tonnes of metal.

[Ham]

It's customary to be dismissive of anything like that in these hallowed halls, but one of the major issues for all these odd "safety" measures such as this, odd stop lights, indicators etc has always critical mass of takeup leading to driver understanding.

The fitting of these lights to the hire fleet has created that critical mass in London, and actually they are pretty good, as they say "cyclist coming" from a few meters back, helping visibility especially at junctions. Likely as not useless elsewhere in the UK, but there you are.

[Tim Hall]

The green light is a loser thing that projects a bicycle onto the road in front. Check it out when it is a bit darker in the day.

Freudian typos R us.

[alexb]

It's customary to be dismissive of anything like that in these hallowed halls, but one of the major issues for all these odd "safety" measures such as this, odd stop lights, indicators etc has always critical mass of takeup leading to driver understanding.

The fitting of these lights to the hire fleet has created that critical mass in London, and actually they are pretty good, as they say "cyclist coming" from a few meters back, helping visibility especially at junctions. Likely as not useless elsewhere in the UK, but there you are.

I was really skeptical at first, but they work really well. You get a green flicker well in front of the bike, maybe 10metres ahead, which is really noticeable against the white washed background of car headlights. Also seeing that green marking on the road in front of you, if you are in a vehicle or on another bike in the traffic queue makes you realise that there is a Boris bike somewhere back there...

[Whitedown Man]

As ever YMMV, but for me it's yet one more thing to add to the "blame the victim" list that drives (sic) the British philosophy re. vulnerable road user safety and motor vehicle driver supremacy, i.e. unless the vulnerable road user was wearing shiny fluorescent yellow clothes head-to-foot AND was wearing a plastic hat AND was lit up like a Christmas tree with at last two pairs of flashing lights front and rear AND was casting forward a spooky green pictogram THEN "they were asking for it".

[ACyclingRooster]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2015/sep/16/london-santander-hire-bikes-high-tech-laser-lights-amid-arms-race-to-be-seen-blaze

In the true business style of things that are no more - it should now referred to as Sadiq Cycles (formerly known as Boris Bike).

Perhaps they could refresh the visual identity of the Sadiq Bike with a multi-coloured paint job and some massive daisies to adorn the large  flat areas around the rear wheel splash guard/shields.

[Kim]

It's customary to be dismissive of anything like that in these hallowed halls, but one of the major issues for all these odd "safety" measures such as this, odd stop lights, indicators etc has always critical mass of takeup leading to driver understanding.

The fitting of these lights to the hire fleet has created that critical mass in London, and actually they are pretty good, as they say "cyclist coming" from a few meters back, helping visibility especially at junctions. Likely as not useless elsewhere in the UK, but there you are.

The answer is of course to do SCIENCE, something which electronically-administered hire bikes naturally lend themselves to.  In a year or two we'll be able to see whether the ones with FRIKKIN LAZERS result in a lower collision/KSI rate than the general Borish (TBAGO) Bike population.

[Brucey]

I suspect that one advantage of said device might be that pedestrians are a little less likely to step off the pavement in front of you. IME this is a constant hazard when riding in urban areas, only topped by lunatic mothers who quite often will push the pram into the road and then (if ever) bother looking to see if the road is clear or not....

cheers

[Kim]

I suspect that one advantage of said device might be that pedestrians are a little less likely to step off the pavement in front of you.

Probably true.  I'm in the habit of switching my dynamo lights on when wheeling my bicycle through pedestrian areas (eg. Mordor Central) for exactly that reason - the flickering light increases people's awareness that I've got a bicycle beside me, and reduces the amount of people waking into the pedals or stopping dead in front of me.

However, while annoying, lemming incidents rarely result in injury - especially not serious ones - so they're unlikely to show up in the statistics.

[Whitedown Man]

I suspect that one advantage of said device might be that pedestrians are a little less likely to step off the pavement in front of you. IME this is a constant hazard when riding in urban areas, only topped by lunatic mothers who quite often will push the pram into the road and then (if ever) bother looking to see if the road is clear or not....

cheers

Thank goodness fathers don't push prams. Or aren't lunatics. Or something.

[Jaded]

The green light is a loser thing that projects a bicycle onto the road in front. Check it out when it is a bit darker in the day.

Freudian typos R us.

Ha! This damn ios autocorrect

[Jurek]

I find it distracting in a not very safe way when I am being followed by one of these hire bikes in the dark, and they are projecting something green and prancing just ahead of my front wheel, when my attention could be better focussed elsewhere.

ETA: top thlip, Jaded.

[Kim]

While the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations don't specifically mention FRIKKIN LAZERS, I'm fairly sure that showing a green light to the front is verboten.  I wonder if Boris (or whoever it is that looks after the bikes these days) has given the matter any consideration...

[telstarbox]

They're not really "lights", more a projection onto the road. I think they're additional to the existing dynamo white front light if that makes any difference.

[Kim]

Obviously nobody cares about such things under normal circumstances, but hire bikes are a bit more official...

[SA_SA_SA_SA]

While the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations don't specifically mention FRIKKIN LAZERS, I'm fairly sure that showing a green light to the front is verboten.  I wonder if Boris (or whoever it is that looks after the bikes these days) has given the matter any consideration...

I think somewhere in the forum.cyclinguk.org (was CTC) is a post by Chris Juden (then CTC Technical Officer) stating that for pedal-cycle lights in addition to your required approved ones, those optional lights can only be red for rear, but  front can simply be not red (or blue): so an extra front lamp may be green but I was always dubious about such green LED front lamps:
mimic-ing a green traffic light seems unwise .

I suppose a lamp only projecting green symbol onto ground would just be a green optional lamp
mounted with an extreme dip.....

[clarion]

Green lights are reserved in the RVLR for doctors attending emergencies.

However, I think RVLR may only be for motor vehicles.

Nonetheless, showing a green light to the front is terribly bad form.

But I've not heard of a prosecution for those awful blue lights used by cars & trucks.

[SA_SA_SA_SA]

Green lights are reserved in the RVLR for doctors attending emergencies.

However, I think RVLR may only be for motor vehicles.

Nonetheless, ......

Don't you mean flashing green lights for doctors?
I wonder if that precludes flashing green cycle lamps then?
The RVLR covers pedal-cycles but the law views all cycle lamps as position lamps    ....
http://www.cyclinguk.org/cyclists-library/regulations/lighting-regulations

[Kim]

I did the FNRttC at the weekend (first London-based one for *ages*) and noticed that a great many Boris bikes were doing the laser bike logo thing.  Being green, it wasn't invisible like red lasers usually are, and - unencumbered by the windscreen and powerful headlights of a motor vehicle - I found it quite attention-getting.  It might well serve to reduce the amount of lemming pedestrian incidents, particularly in shared-use areas.

[Andrij]

I did the FNRttC at the weekend (first London-based one for *ages*) and noticed that a great many Boris bikes were doing the laser bike logo thing.  Being green, it wasn't invisible like red lasers usually are, and - unencumbered by the windscreen and powerful headlights of a motor vehicle - I found it quite attention-getting.  It might well serve to reduce the amount of lemming pedestrian incidents, particularly in shared-use areas.

ROTFLMAO!