Kickstarting a bicycle safety revolution: Kent Frankovich at TEDxSacramento TEDxCity2.0
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- čas přidán 3. 11. 2013
- As an avid cyclist, Kent Frankovich wants more people to take to two wheels, but understands that lack of visibility is a safety concern for many would-be riders. His desire to increase nighttime bicycle rider safety and visibility, coupled with his electromechanical engineering background, inspired him to co-found Revolights, Inc.
Originally invented as a way to improve on the industry standard for a headlight, visibility benefits of the patented Revolights bike lighting system quickly catapulted it to national attention through CNN, Mashable, the BBC, WIRED, the New York Times and numerous other media outlets.
While at NASA-JPL, Frankovich provided electromechanical design support to Mars' Curiosity rover mission. He also worked to improve GI Tract Diagnostics as a researcher at the Stanford BioRobotics Laboratory. Kent now hopes to use his unique perspective to shed new light on the issue of bicycle safety, ensuring a better future for urbanites in the City2.0.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Loved the photo at 1:08 showing the space comparison of 60 people in a bus, on bikes and in cars! Really makes a strong point.
Gotta love how his reflection as an American wasn't "let's fix our roads". His response was basically, "Look, we know our roads aren't going to get fixed, so we might as well have super bright lights at ground level so we can dodge potholes every 5 seconds in the dark". I'm not against better lighting, but our roads are in bad shape in many areas.
Bike safety starts with protected bike lanes. The safety problem for bicycles is the threat of being hit by a fast moving metal and plastic, cars and trucks.
Agreed, but many local governments see that there aren't a lot of cyclists and assume they don't need a bike lane or other infrastructure. The sad thing is, many studies have shown that cycling works the opposite of that. If you build the infrastructure, they will come. AND cycling infrastructure that is inviting to cyclists pays for itself and then lowers the cost of city maintenance overall.
Visibility is a close second though.
D. Pisanu and D. Monroe, here is a little more info on Revolights and what they fit. As stated on the website Revolights will fit 700C and larger wheels (27s aka "archaic"). There is absolutely zero issue with disk brakes and Revolights. The wheel size of a 29er is actiually 700C so Revolights will indeed fit. Just remember that they are designed for use on road, not off-road and your 29er will need to have tires within the width specs given on the website. I hope this clears up any questions.
So it's a tedx ad for revolights. I'll stick with my super bright 60lux dynamo headlamp. The entire setup was cheaper than revolight, less complex, and FAR more useful. The entire road ahead of me is flooded with light, as the light has a built in spillover area left and right so you can be seen from the sides. Best of all no batteries (which oddly the revolights need, even though he listed those as a downfall of other headlamps).
LEDs have made bike dynamo lighting totally the best solution to bike lighting. Yeah, even the "tire draggers", of which I have three - I only have one Shimano dynohub. I have a few battery lights, but they're just supplemental - the main lighting on all my bikes is dynamo, and even the tire driven ones aren't at all bad to ride with.
Great vlog, I am from The Netherlands. Just fight for it! Like these great vlogs my friend!
you could just design a light which mounts on to the forks and have it pointing to the ground in front of you and the same for the back, just put it on the seat stays. for side visibility, just integrate a side light onto the main light.
Now that's clever, I wasn't expecting to be this impressed, and it looks cool too.
Took a mandarin class with this guy. Real cool guy and super sharp.
Busch and Muller, SON, and Supernova have been making some of the best Dynamo powered bicycle head lights for years. With recent advancements in lens and LED technology these lights provide amazing visibility at night. It is really frustrating to is an innovator try to solve a problem that has already been solved. People don't ride bicycles in the U.S. because they don't have good lights they don't ride because our roads suck and cars are subsidized.
Where to buy and will they work on 20" front wheels and a 26" rear on a tadpole trike?
Wow!!!! Pure pleasure..... 🚲🚲🚲🚲🌟🚲🚲🚲🚲🚲
Cars have become an obsession yet they are linked to our economy ,our road building , our wars, our ego, our dating, our status, our love lifes, our everything. Yet they take so much out of our wallets, and pollute the air we breath.
How well does that headlight light up the road?
light on the handle bars works good: shines further ahead to see the potholes sooner. idea: lights on the wheels spoke is expensive and not sure if it lightens up potholes sooner
Whata cracking wheel spinning idea...
6:54 why not just mount the light on the front fork near the hub?
Great talk, thanks Kent
by the year 2022 , every country will build 2 separate lane , 1 for bicycle , 1 for motorcycle .....is very SAFE ..
... ,, cheers. ,,
where did you hear that? that would be cool
I love the idea of these lights but there's one huge glaring flaw:
26" wheels are the most common wheel size for bicycles in the United States and they don't make Revo Lights in that size.
Now I'm curious about German bicycle light laws.
The voltage and wattage requirements almost seem arbitrary now that L.E.D.s are the norm. Most of my lights are ~3v and are pretty powerful, nothing to write home about, but brighter than a lot of 6v stuff I've seen.
"Cat's Eye" translates as reflector, never heard it called that, but it makes sense.
With the exception of the voltage/wattage requirements (maybe the letter Z thing which I don't understand really) my bike actually passes as is unless they get upset about the extra lighting I have. I've have a green light in my front spokes and a red in the back for side-safety.
Yeah, spokes lights, or lights on the valve are not allowed here.
They just recently lifted the ban or was it just loosened up on battery lights for bikes over 11 kg.
it used to be that only the lighter racing bikes were allowed battery powered lamps, but anything heavier then the 11kg needed to use a bicycle dynamo.
The light vs wattage rule is in a way absurd, but then again, makes sense. I have a light array on my bike that will blind every unsuspecting biker, pedestrian and car driver.
And shining lights from the side?! Oh no. big no no. if you open that door, you are going to face the problem that now suddenly car owners will want under lights on their cars, glowing spinners and what not. this can't be done
*snort*
anyways. 29"ers are getting really popular here now.
haven't checked out Revo's web presence in a while, but I recall their set up to be abit problematic when used with Disk Brakes.
29"ers are popular here too. Revo supports 28"ers, a size considered "classic" or "archaic" very few new bikes have 28"ers and the ones that do are usually supposed to be "retro".
Great job there - now, just need to make some for a mountain bike as I inquired a few months ago, would be nice to have a pair or beta test them here in Oregon.
Lovely nice bike ride many years
The light to close in front of you makes that you see things to late.
Also a lamp on the handlebars works good as you set them the right way and not point them straight forwards what most people do.
Not really impressed with his light. A light that low is also not always see in traffic. Car lights you see because they are a lot brighter.
A jacket with reflection and light on it is a lot more visible.
Watch the solution of Audi
YES
Active lights in all honor, but has Kent ever heard of side reflectors? There are reflective tires, there are reflective stickers you can slap on the rims (or any other part of the bike really), there are reflective tubes you can clip onto every single spoke. Cars have their own light sources anyway, it would be foolish not to make use of them.
It's pretty cool but it hardly replaces the "old" lights. It would never live up to the requirements here in Denmark for that reason. It's not illegal to have things that aren't approved, but you'd still need approved ones as well. It might be able to replace the need for reflectors in the wheels but that'd be about it I suspect.
It's great from the side but so are reflectors. It just doesn't have sufficient lighting pointing forwards and backwards. Sure, people will see you when they get close, but we'd like them to see us a bit before that. Also, being able to see a pothole 5 m in front of you is a bit late tbh. Maybe you just need to get a better headlight or stop pointing it at the clouds if you can't see the road ahead of you. :P
A guy i know had his wheels lit up like a xmas tree ...the reason he stopped doing that ? crashing! haha, he couldnt stop looking at the pretty lights on the wheel in front of him resulting in him crashing into lampposts etc ..
can we introduce a GOOD bicycle lane - safety -
Mal, no estaba claro que en TED no ibas a promocionar?
i hang a long cylindrical light-i guess they are used for camping at the end of my handlebar left side from a cord. its visible from 4 sides, always moving as it swings, it eliminates the need for a rear light, and it lines up on your outside not centered which keeps cars farther away when passing. does not light up road though. i'v designed it to be removable to prevent theft.
Tron light-cycle bikes anyone?
WOW
I work around epileptics. Somehow i think these may be a seizure trigger.
this is a product demo
this guy is my moms best friends brother
High lights show the road defects better, check off roaders. Those little LEDs were only lighting the floor.
Trips aren't equivalent. Car trips are longer-usually. Do you commute 25 miles on a bike-and home?
Bikers don't carry ten bags of groceries. They are uncomfortable in weather such as snow, cold and rain.
P.S. Those gimmicky lights didn't make any forward light.
His lights are a terrible idea, they've over complicated and they don't actually light the path you're going very well at all. Here in europe bicycles all have miniature versions of car headlights integrated into them, powered by generators in the hub of the front wheel. They light up the road surface, and are visible to other people without accidentally blinding them, just like the lights of a car.
This is cool and all but my bike light simply tilts.
Revolights are out of business as of January 2019.
Bike lanes dont mean safety
what is e-bike
@Ben CyBer electric-bike
Promotion for a product on a TEDx Talk? Not even remotely the best solution out there.
This is a good example of bad bike design. If you are in the market for a bike light. Get one that clamps to your bars. It will be much much better than this.
I admit that these things look great in person, but that does not balance the fact that it is super complicated to install and doesn't offer any useful illumination up front. This design is for visibility only.
Kudos to the designer for trying out something new, but please don't promote this as superior to other simpler light designs when it really can't be backed up in real life.
Doesent help a great deal when it's raining, which stops a lot of people cycling. Perhaps one day when cars are obsolete we'll have covered lanes!
TED take this shameless product promo down
Kinda cool, but there were too many issues to make it practical for most everyone.
🤨
shameless self promotion.....buy any 18650 containg bike light ..
ones with 2 or 4 batteries are brightest
The filler words, “uh…” and “ah…” and “umm” are major faux pax (no-no’s) because they seriously detract from the content. And that’s really too bad because the content is pretty great!
if only people with a good disposable income can afford there lights what's even the point
another cyclists with more miles in an office chair than on the road. IF he had been on the road, he would know the insanity of bike lanes and how deadly they are. A full lane passing law is all we need, the same as any other vehicle on the road. Simple and cheap.
the 60 people comparison is silly…. In California the law is…. bikes must have 3 ft distance from cars to be safe. bikes and don't' ride tire to tire like they have them placed in the photo. Thus the truth is when riding 60 bikes take up almost and much room as a car does
Laura Wilson 2 bikes in the space of a car is no trouble. Also just look at how bikes approach junctions. Cars queue in huge lines but bikes can mass together. In London you will see 30 bikes clear a light sequence in seconds whilst only 5 or 10 cars make it through in the same time.
This is really just an infomercial for a defunct company.
This guy hasn't figured out rim reflectors are a thing, so instead goes on to design an overcomplicated mess.
I ride a bike with no brakes
If you follow traffic laws while riding a bicycle in my state, you will get run over and they will not stop. I will stick to sidewalks and side streets, always.
What state do you live in? I used to bike on sidewalks until I kept almost getting hit by cars turning and not seeing me.
Enough of this mega stupid infrastructure. Bike lanes are the most dangerous riding of a bike I do. Your statistics are skewed. I ride 12, 000 miles per year for the last 50 years. I have a pro cycling career, and have over 500,000 miles logged over the last 50 years. Bike lanes don't work because: 1. debris, all debris end up in bike lanes, the chance of getting a flat or blowout and ending up in the auto lane dead goes up 1000x. 2. Bike lanes are too narrow, cars will legally pass much closer when in a bike lane. 3. Bike lanes have curbs and no way to exit the lane for emergency. 4. Bike lanes add massive confusion at intersections. All we need is a full lane passing lane, the same law all other vehicle have except bicycles.
+Jenny Last you clearly don't live in the Netherlands.
+ShiftyF97 NO! I live in America where the automobile is allowed to murder cyclists at will. I am talking about America where this video is made and the infrastructure targeted. What does Netherlands have to do with America??? IN the Netherlands the bikes outnumbers the automobiles and most the bike lanes are no where near auto traffic.
+Jenny Last You are definitely right about being trapped in by bike lanes. I ride my bike in the suburbs on the back roads. I'm very familiar with the bike lanes in NYC and its used as a secondary pedestrian path or extra room for people to just stand. I think these lights are kind of cool, but $200? Most people who use bikes out of necessity ride a bike that cost less than that.
+Jenny Last 4 words: GO TO THE NETHERLANDS!!!
Other countries bike lanes are largely CRAP!! They don't know what they're doing.
+
this sucks.
You should not be allowed to own a bicycle. People have no right to own modes of transportation. Sharing a government owned bicycle 2 days a week would be better. They can charge a monthly fee of maybe 100.00. Also it would be a good idea to charge for the distance you ride and where you go with the bike. Also travel at night should be forbidden for several reasons.