Final Student Project
Bike Safety: Glow in the Dark Bike Paths
We came to the idea of bike safety from our personal interest and experience with biking and wanting to incorporate that into the community in some way. We ultimately came up with Bike Safety through glow in the dark bike trails. We came up with multiple ideas of bike trails within rural locations to try and give bikers a sense of safety during the night, aiming toward rural areas because there’s lighting in the area.
During the final phases of the prototype we came together, pulled ideas that didn’t work or fit, and decided to come up with a presentation and website displaying what we would do if we had more time: QR code stickers placed around bike populated areas that would lead to a website with information of maps with trails with light up areas and the such, quick links to community contacts within bike safety departments in the community, and more.
TEAM 8
Dio
Abel
Summer
Angie
Coach
Jill Van Dugteren
Mentors
Jerome Wang
Zaid Syed
ISSUE DEFINITION
What is the issue?
Bikers struggle to find their lane on a street and cars struggle to see the bike lane too.
Why is it important?
Boston MA is one of the safest cities for bicyclists. But why is it that bikers are still involved accidents?
- The highest injury rate for biking accidents occur in ages 16-20 from a study in 2011
- Biking accidents have gone down by 5000 in the last year to only 45,000.
- However, the number of fatal accidents has increased by 12% at the same time
RESEARCH
Summary
We conducted interviews with close friends and family to collect information on who our demographic may be and other factors as well. Those people also completed a quick form for us to find out their age range and other demographic information.
After mocking up a prototype, we conducted interviews aimed toward feedback that would lead us toward making a second prototype that encompasses all of what we wanted to show and address.
Photo Research
Interviews
- Bike riders believe the onus on road safety should be on car drivers
- Bike safety includes not only the biker but the bike itself
- Uninjured bike riders have an unrealistic perspective on their own safety
Prototype Research
- Some major insights from our preliminary research stage was that we found our demographic was typically riding during the evening and night. This was one of the few reasons we really leaned toward glow in the dark trails in the category of bike safety.
- A lot of people preferred to be led to a website rather than a social media post/account, a big factor in us making a mock up website.
- People really did think that a glow in the dark bike trail would work. Despite us going off of that mindset and thought process, we still incorporate and stand true to trying to showcase glow in the dark bike trials.
Survey Results
DEFINE
The main point of this project is to:
- try and make bikers feel safer at night
- highlight areas of caution that could be dangerous for bikers
- enlighten bikers on information they might not know about themselves as bikers
Effectively trying to create a mock up of what could be a community in Cambridge through forms that are filled with information of resources of common safety to keep in mind, along with contacts to bike departments and planners to understand what kind of changes could happen to the community around you in time.
IDEATION
Initial Ideation
- Glow dark paint for bike lanes
- Make drivers more aware of hitting cars
- Qr code -> website for casual biking locations with info on bike safety
- Quickly to add bike visible stickers on clothes
- Airbag on bike
- Car protective layer
- Car bubble machine to protect bikers
- Blinkers on side mirrors to alert drivers of bike
- Bike alert button of dangerous roads/paths
Prototype Ideation
First we thought of creating a website to give other bikers information about bike safety and websites that gave them more knowledge about bike safety. Then we settled on focusing on one specific way to provide bike safety which was glow in the dark paint.
PROTOTYPES
REFLECTION
- Next time we would change how we managed our time.
- We liked how much teamwork there was.
- We also liked how we were comfortable with each other, helping each other if one of us struggled with getting something done.
NEXT STEPS
We enjoyed the process of this project and the experiences, but we agreed that it wouldn’t be something we would continue.
