WEDNESDAY, Oct. 24, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- Engineers are peddling what they believe is a significant safety advance for nighttime cyclists.
A mechanical engineering professor and two students at the University of Florida have developed a battery-powered illumination system that makes the entire outline of a bicycle glow. They unveiled the system at a recent bicycle trade show in Las Vegas.
The system lights up the frame, spokes and tire rims using electroluminescent (EL) panels, producing a light similar to that from new wristwatch lights. The panels run off a 9-volt battery, which can produce a steady light for 10 hours or a blinking light for 30 hours.
EL panels can last for several years without fading. The panels are waterproof, and the battery pack can also be made waterproof, allowing cyclists to ride in the rain.
The glowing bicycle panels are the brainchild of Christopher Niezrecki, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "I live in a college town, and there's a lot of students who ride around at night," says Niezrecki. "It seemed like there had to be a better way to improve visibility of riders at night. . . It just made sense to put a panel like that onto a bike and make it more visible."
Bicyclists who ride at night now rely on reflectors and a headlight and taillight to improve their visibility to cars, pedestrians and other bicyclists. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that although 12 percent of all cyclists occasionally ride after dark, fewer than a third of them use a headlight or taillight. And by 1982, the last year for which full statistics are available, 42 percent of bicycle-related deaths occurred at night.
Dr. Matthew Thompson is an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and an expert in bicycle-related injuries. "Anything that really improves the visibility of the cyclist is likely to decrease the risk of [a] bicycle-motor vehicle crash," he says.
Engineering student Gregory Yoder, who along with Matthew Young helped Niezrecki develop the system, says that the panels offer greater protection than current nighttime illumination products.
Unlike reflectors, he says, these panels don't require an external light source to become illuminated. Lights "are difficult to see when you're at an obscure angle," says Yoder. "And even then, from a distance you can't even tell what it is. It just looks like a spot of light. You don't know that it's a bicycle."
Niezrecki says that LED lights -- low-emitting lights like those that tell you an appliance is on -- are now available for the rims of bicycle tires. "But my personal opinion is that they're not as good as the bike that we've done as far as visibility goes, because you have to be moving in order for [the LED light] to be visible."
The inventors say that the panels can be seen from more than 100 yards away, revealing the outline of the bicycle. But Yoder, who rode the bike on the university campus at night last week, says the light from the panels isn't so bright that it would interfere with the rider's vision or perception.
The prototype made by the team cost approximately $1,500, but they suspect that the price will fall to about $70 for a new bike, and older bikes could be retrofitted with the system for roughly the same price.
The panels can be made in several colors, and the researchers hope that it could become a marketable product within the next year or two. They say that the same system could also be used on mopeds, motorcycles, wheelchairs, scooters and skateboards. They haven't yet settled on a name for the EL system.
Thompson also says that reflective clothing can give riders an advantage because that increases their visibility to drivers in taller vehicles, such as trucks.
"There's no one thing that's going to reduce cycle and motor vehicle crashes, but everything helps," Thompson adds. "We know bicycle helmets help; we think educating children to ride more safely helps, we think bicycle paths might help. So this [system] may just be one more thing that may help reduce crashes."
What To Do
Wear a helmet whenever and wherever you ride. It could save your life. And until a better system is on the market, make yourself as visible as possible when riding at night.
Check out this Consumer Product Safety Commission publication that says that nighttime cyclists are at risk.
For cycling safety tips, visit the Web sites for the National Bike Safety Network or the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.
