First something you might already know:
Contrail invented a system to leave a faint chalk line behind the bike while riding it. See the
official website or the homepage of the
studio gelardi (the creators) for more information. They claim that by leaving road marks like that cycling would become safer as cyclists see which routes are frequently used (after all they create a bike lane themselves) and hence cycling is safer there. Well, I am not so sure about that and I also don't think this is something that should be used largely (I don't like dusty air when I'm cycling), but every now and then it could be fun.
However, this product only exists in theory and not yet in real life. On the other hand I have tried a real
bicycle painting tool on the closed down Andrássy street in Budapest:
They took a fixed gear bike, mounted sponges to each of the tires and connected them to bottles filled with colorful paint. Well, a certain area of the street was covered with paper for the painting purpose. Still fun to leave some bikeprints.
Me on the painting bike
But don't be sad if you don't have the opportunity to ride a painting bike. Just wait for the winter and leave your bikeprints on uncleared roads in the
snow :).
4 comments:
The chalk lines idea would be great for a city to encourage for a week before and during "bike to work week/day". This would make "official" or safe routes more clear.
Often, there is poor inter-connectivity and signage for bike lanes. It would sure help relieve part of the stress in what for some, is a very stressful event.
How cool! I agree that the chalk-marks bikes are a great idea to indicate routes and bikepath connectors. Breathing in chalk dust would bother me as well, but this might not be a problem if it is not too thick. There has to be quite a lot of it, I think, to be dust. I am curious now whether this concept will actually be developed.
Oh, this is so cool!
This is such a cool idea because it makes cyclists become so much more visible - we would go from being a flash of wheels and metal whizzing by to a semi-permanent prescense that drivers and other road users couldn't help but notice. Espcially useful at a pedestrian crossing too - those lines might just make them cross with their eyes as well as their ears and maybe see them before we almost crash into them!
Checking out some of the more wobbly lines would be fun too!
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