Under the tag line, “The Washington, DC area is great. But it could be greater.” the Greater Greater Washington site features a bicycle related way to make it so. The Aura Project: Bicycle Lighting System comes from 2 industrial design students at Carnegie Mellon University. They noticed how dangerous riding at night can be, especially when most bicycle lights are angled forward and back. This can be good for seeing your own way and alerting cars driving along with you but is a problem at intersections, where many accidents occur. The video below shows a solution that is clever and quite beautiful.
Project Aura: Bicycle Safety Lighting System from Project AURA on Vimeo.
RGB LED lights are placed inside the wheels rims, and are powered by pedaling. The lights change colors depending on the speed you are going. Their project blog says they are currently figuring out how to commercialize their invention. It seems like a simple, green, and fun way to make bicycling a little safer, thus contributing to growth of the bicycling community. Let us know if you spot these lights where you live. Good luck to inventors Ethan and Jonathan![Image]
