Safety

Australian houseboat builder Matt Duncan was stunned when he saw footage of the Japanese tsunami on television. He was so taken aback, in fact, that he decided to do something to help people survive future tsunamis. The result is his Tsunami Survival Pod (TSP), and you can buy one of your own for AUS$8,500, or about US$8,900.  Read More

Despite some recent design improvements in field, it's still pretty hard to pedal around with a helmet-mounted rear-view mirror and look stylish. There are, however, alternatives for the fashion conscious cyclist. The CyFy WristView integrates a rear-view mirror into a bracelet, giving you a low profile, adjustable means of checking for traffic behind you.  Read More

The Torch T1 bicycle helmet utilizes an integrated LED lighting system to increase a cyclist's night-time visibility. After earning over 50 percent more than its Kickstarter goal just a few months ago, the T1 is now available for pre-order.  Read More

The average household contains at least a few spray bottles filled with liquids that ... well, that children shouldn’t be playing with. While most bottles now incorporate nozzles that can be “turned off,” many people don’t bother doing so, plus kids can just turn those nozzles back on themselves. The situation has led to the design of a new type of child-resistant spray bottle, that has two triggers.  Read More

In old bicycle racing photos, many of the racers can be seen wearing what are sometimes now referred to as “leather hair nets.” Actually known as pistard helmets, they were made of padded leather and offered little protection, but they did conform nicely to the shape of the rider’s head. Carrera’s new foldable helmet is a modern (and safer) take on that same idea.  Read More

Researchers in the U.K. have developed a “magic carpet,” but not of the mythical flying variety. The new device consists of a carpet underlay embedded with plastic optical fibers and electronic sensors that can detect and map a person's walking patterns. With all of us progressing inexorably towards the age when the consequences of a fall can become much more serious than an embarrassing inconvenience, the researchers say the smart carpet is aimed at cutting the roughly 50 percent of hospital admissions in the over 65 age group in the U.K. that are the result of falls.  Read More

If there’s one thing that truck drivers don’t want their articulated tractor/trailer rigs to do, it’s jack-knifing. This typically occurs when the tractor skids on the road, and the momentum of the trailer causes it to swing out from behind, ultimately resulting in the tractor and trailer being folded up against one another – not unlike a jack knife’s body and blade. The folded rig usually ends up blocking the road, and the tractor can’t undo the situation under its own power. Fortunately, Greek researchers have recently created a system that they claim could greatly reduce jack-knifing.  Read More

The best ideas are often, but not always, the simplest ones. So while there are many ways in which a cyclist can make themselves visible to motorists and pedestrians at night-time - these LED systems that light up your rims, for instance - perhaps all that is needed is a frame that glows in the dark. Bike manufacturer Pure Fix Cycles believes so and is introducing the GLOW series, of which The Kilo is the first.  Read More

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles resulted in the deaths of 618 cyclists in 2010 ... and that’s just in the United States. Regardless of who was at fault in those accidents, one thing is certain – urban cyclists are safer when they’re better able to keep tabs on the vehicles around them. While helmet-mounted mirrors are a great help in that regard, many cyclists don’t use them. That’s why Canadian entrepreneurs Greg Maxwell and Richard Seck invented the Isoteko mirror.  Read More