[burningion]

I've never been hit in my 2,000+ miles in saddle, and I attribute this to my refusal to follow the established crosswalk pattern. The left hand turn especially is most dangerous from my own personal observations.

On an side note, what about technology to better defend cyclists? I've seen motorists in the US try to intimidate cyclists off the road. I think some sort of bicycle defense system may very well be appropriate here, and there's room for innovation.

If anyone's interested in working together on making cycling safer, PM me.

[MartinCron]

Personally, I'm yearning for a sort of "black box" recorder that would just always record video and GPS as well as any information from the vehicle (signals, brakes, etc.)

I guess you could make one in software and have it run on a smartphone in a special mounting bracket somewhere. You could even have it interface with a bluetooth headset/helmet for any audio annotation you want to make (e.g. "that guy in the Mustang is driving really aggressively")

I have had two (thankfully minor) accidents on my Vespa, neither of which were my fault. Having video of the guy making an illegal left turn in front of me could have made the ordeal with the insurance companies less painful. Maybe.

[sophacles]

I've always wanted a device to strap to my handlebars that takes a short video loop. It also has a rear camera, so i get "all around" view. If I press a button, it saves the video. This can be coupled with a bluetooth or usb connection to phone/laptop/whatever, and automatically uploads the video, along with gps coords, to a website. This site can be community based, where sharing the videos is encouraged. Since the license plates of the cars involved are also then visible, perhaps a lookup of name and other info can be automated, and a complaint filed to the appropriate authorities.

Other embarrassment could be arranged too -- but the line to harrassment here is narrow...

[mhb]

Might as well add an accelerometer to automatically save if it exceeds a threshold.

[sophacles]

As long as its in addition to the button, instead of in place of it. Lots of aggressive driver actions don't result in crazy acceleration on my part.

[larcher]

I would think the accelerometer trigger would be in case of any unintentional dismount or an unscheduled end-of-trip, rather than a cyclist powered change in speed. But yes, have both. Options are good.

[sophacles]

I was using the term acceleration in it's physics sense "a change in the velocity vector" which means both speed and direction. Crazy meant multiple rapid changes in direction and speed, like say, falling off a bike would result in this "crazy acceleration" as would being hit by something.

Also, sometimes the reaction/result of aggressive drivers isn't catastrophic. For instance, today on my way home from work I had 2 different drivers decide to come within a foot of my bike while passing. This is a calculated move, intended to scare me and teach me a lesson. I know because in one case, I asked when we both got to the same red light, and in the other, the rude gestures of the driver. An accelerometer would have shown nothing, as any reaction on my part would probably have been worse than just hoping the driver didn't judge wrong.

It's not just "tight driving" either, other times drivers are rude, make threatening actions with their vehicles or just plain block my motion preventing me from changing lanes, making turns, and so on, which should be captured, but don't cause anything particularly noticeable in accelerometer data.

Alternately, the false positive rate is probably pretty high here too. I have at least 2 places on my daily commute where I short-cut thru alleys and make some pretty jarring curb passages. There is one particularly tricky transition from street to bike path involving 3 turns in a very short distance (30ish feet). On fast days I bet it looks more like reacting to an aggressive driver than most aggressive driver reactions (from an accelerometer point of view).

[mhb]

Maybe an expletive detector too, then.

[MartinCron]

I hadn't even thought about the accelerometer. That would be useful information to persist as well, and also available on smartphone platforms.

[something]

um, there (should be) an app for that? the whole setup could probably bluetooth to a mobile device as a recorder. i might want to know it's dedicated, though. if the wheel is spinning, the unit is on and recording.

[ydant]

There's this -

http://www.vagabondish.com/looxcie-wearable-bluetooth-camera...

And also the GoPro

http://www.goprocamera.com/

Neither of which quite match your requirements, though.

[bigiain]

And these, which are all over eBay (search for "808 camera", this is just the first google hit I got, not any particular recommendation for this seller):

http://cgi.ebay.com/808-Car-Keys-Micro-camera-Spy-DVR-Suppor...

and _really_ inexpensive - you get ~60-70 mins of recording on a 4gig card, which is about the internal battery life too. I bough a few of them and am playing with recording my 40min (motorcycle) commute every day...

Again, they miss some of the stated requirements, but at $15 or so they can be forgiven some faults...

[sophacles]

Cool, thanks!

[something]

I'm also a big fan of the black-box idea. i live in the same area as guy in article. been hit 3 times. twice sideswiped by an aggressively right-turning vehicle that thought they should speed past me, slam on the brakes and turn into me. Both of those guys SAW me and tried to beat me to their turn. i had no chance. both falls were no big deal because i could choose how to go down. ...one of the guys even sped away. third time a guy signaled a right turn into a parking spot, pulled in, then with right turn signal still on, banged a U-turn. i t-boned him. again, not bad because i slammed on the brakes and kind of jumped into his car with my back, absorbing impact. that one could have been far worse had he turned a few seconds later.

two of these accidents were in the heart of cambridge, ma (very bike friendly) on streets with wide bike lanes. one in Arlington (mass ave.)

had i a 360 record of each incident i could prove that each of the drivers was operating as recklessly as a drunkard. i probably would have no-harm-no-fouled the two that profusely apologized and wanted to make sure i was okay. i'm sure they are very careful around bicycles now. the hit-and-run, well, i would have played my role as a litigous american and sued his pants off.

i guess it's time to spec-out a cyclist's black box.

too bad i have to go to work now...

ON MY BIKE!

[lsc]

how about gear that protects you in a fall? On my motorcycle, I always wore enough leather and padding that getting off at any reasonable speed, assuming I didn't hit something or get run over was something I could walk away from with literally no pain. My big concern was always finding all the parts I scraped off the bike.

On a bike, okay, you wear a helmet, but it's not even as good as the open-face helmets you get on a motorcycle. I know I've fucked up my face pretty good getting off a bicycle. (the dentist did a pretty good job, but if you look closely, you can still tell that my front teeth are not, uh, factory.)

And then the rest of your body; I mean, I know you can't wear 20lbs of dead cow like I did on my motorcycle if you've gotta pedal, but it seems like some kevlar and some of those CE pads for the shoulders, hips, elbows and knees would work almost as well.

Now, I'm probably clumsier than most people, and I'm not a particularly good driver in general (though I'm also a fairly conservative driver, so my record is good enough that I get the 'safe driver' discount on my auto insurance.) but god damn, good safety gear makes a huge difference on a motorbike, why not on a bicycle?

[dschobel]

What do you mean by "bicycle defense system"? In downtown Chicago I've seen more than one bicyclist hurl a massive bike lock at a car which was acting aggressive (following within inches of the bicyclist and leaning on the horn) but I doubt that's what you had in mind...

[famousactress]

Maybe PM is karma-walled? Maybe I'm failing to find it. Either way.. famousactress (at) gmail.. I'd love to talk more about ways to make cycling safer, and I have a few resources that would be helpful.

[jrockway]

HN does not have private messaging.