Here’s something just for Sue, who keeps asking for turn signals for her bike.
Michael Chen of Middlesex University in the UK designed his “Reactiv” responsive cycling jacket. The jacket uses an accelerometer that senses movement to change the color of the LEDs in the back from green (accelerating) to red (braking). It has amber LEDs in the arms which are activated by a tilt switch behind the elbow. These light up when the arm raised, indicating the cyclist is about to turn. Michael’s Reactiv jacket won the 2008 James Dyson design award. Via Bicycle Design.
I’m sending Sue one of these Safe Turn bicycle lights to try out. I’ll get her thoughts and post a review here. A quick overview of the Safe Turn light: you wear it on your wrist and it automatically flashes on as you raise your arm to signal the turn. It works better than I expected it to. Safe Turn is an Australian product but they have a U.S. Distributor in Mango International. You’ll need to ask your bike shop to call the distributor for this product if you want to see it. I’ll post more details later, but for now I give this turn signal light