Cycle Vest Indicates Speed For Safer Traffic

In order to improve traffic safety for bicycle riders, Mykle Hansen created the so-called Speed Vest. The Speed Vest is a piece of clothing that indicates the speed of a bicycle rider on his or her back. This way other traffic users, such as car drivers, can take bicycle riders into consideration more easily. But will they? That is the question addressed by this project according to Make Magazine. Lots of bicycle riders get hurt in traffic because other traffic users misjudge their speed or don’t see them at all, this prototype combines visibility with speed assessment skills. The technical part of the project is shortly explained below.

“This light weight night-cycling vest displays your current speed in glowing, 7-inch-tall numbers easily visible to cars. On the back, an Arduino microcontroller reads input from an off-the-shelf bike speedometer sensor, and then switches power to sewn-in numerals made from electroluminescent (EL) wire.”

A complete how to guide with nine steps to make your own Arduino-controlled Speed Vest is available on the Speed Vest website!

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