Take your bike lane with you

January 19, 5:29 PMDenver Cycling ExaminerGary Koenig

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Copyright LightLane

It sounds like the ultimate fix to help protect you against distracted or sinister motorists. In an ideal world there would be adequate bike lanes on both sides of every street and road in this country. Despite some rumblings about the time being ripe for bicycling to get more federal spoils, bike lanes everywhere ain’t gonna happen in your lifetime.

So what if you could magically carve out a bike lane anywhere you happened to be? That is the premise behind a design concept called LightLane from Evan Gant and Alex Tee at Yanko Design. Note the date on this post – it is NOT April 1 and this is NOT an April Fools joke (at least I don’t think it is). LightLane as conceived by Gant and Tee is comprised of a series of laser light projectors that project lane lines beside and to the rear of your bike and a bicycle lane icon behind you. Looking at the graphic, which is clearly a mock up not an operating prototype, you will see a crisp projected bike lane protecting our rider/model.

Obviously this idea would only work at night, when there are relatively many fewer riders than in the daytime. Would you buy one if you could? When I first saw the poster I thought it was the most clever idea I’d ever heard, but after some rumination (which for me is much harder than it looks), I’ve decided that it probably would be more counterproductive than helpful.

There already is a product available today to help you carve out a virtual bike lane during the day. Products like the Flash Flag extend horizontally from the left side of your bike, effectively making it wider than it is, thereby creating an extra zone of safety to your left. How many of us use a product like this? If I see one a year I’m surprised. There are plenty of reasons why you’ll never see these in significant numbers, but the biggest may be that it just adds one more to the many reasons that drivers can come up with for why they hate cyclists. Trying to carve out an “it’s all about me” lane where there isn’t room for one is not going to help our cause.

The idea guys behind this concept didn’t do themselves any favors by using a helmetless and lightless bicyclist to illustrate their idea. I’m guessing the product will never get to market, and if it does, I’m doubtful that sales numbers will be very impressive. Even so, it is an incredibly cool and innovative idea that shows what a clever mind can come up with when thinking outside the box.