On the desolate streets of Manhattan through the bleak early days of the pandemic, Rosemary Sigelbaum discovered that driving a bicycle to work at Lenox Hill Hospital provided a desperately wanted respite from the stress of 12-hour days witnessing the worst of the coronavirus’s horrifying results.
“It was quiet, and on my approach residence it gave me time to decompress,” Ms. Sigelbaum mentioned of her commute between the Higher East Aspect and her residence on the Decrease East Aspect.
These empty avenues of late March have given approach to the town’s typical cacophony of site visitors, simply as extra individuals are discovering the benefits of biking to work: no crowded subways, buses or shared taxis. Bicycle corporations have posted out-of-stock notices for the primary time in years. Gross sales in Might skyrocketed 103 p.c in contrast with a yr earlier, in response to the NPD Group, a analysis agency.
However as all these new bikers are discovering the thrill of biking, they’re additionally discovering the hazards of driving on two wheels, particularly in cities.
Even earlier than the pandemic, bicycle fatalities in New York practically tripled final yr, to 29, from 10 in 2018. This yr, at the very least 14 folks on bicycles have been killed. With extra bikes plying the streets with automobiles, buses and vehicles, there’s extra strain than ever to search out methods to make the roads safer, for everybody.
The most effective security measures are those who maintain bicyclists and motor automobiles aside, advocates say. Many biking advocates are attempting to capitalize on the pandemic recognition of bicycles to push for extra devoted bike lanes.
It’s “the first technique of addressing bicycle security,” mentioned Kyle Wagenschutz at Folks for Bikes, an advocacy group. Certainly, cities together with Milan, Paris and New York have been including miles of motorbike lanes this yr, with extra deliberate.
Nonetheless, bicycles and automobiles must get alongside, and security researchers are more and more seeking to expertise for solutions.
Final fall in Turin — earlier than that space of Italy grew to become a pandemic epicenter — a wobbly bicycle owner skirted a line of parked automobiles on a jammed suburban road as a big sedan quickly approached from behind. Within the morning drizzle, the motive force was targeted on a four-way cease that was developing. Immediately a warning graphic flashed on a show above the dashboard, indicating {that a} bicyclist was immediately forward, and the motive force slowed to provide the rider extra room.
Such encounters are a part of a future imaginative and prescient of bicycle-to-vehicle communications that might assist stop accidents. The Turin demonstration, supported by Fiat Chrysler and the 5G Automotive Affiliation commerce group, concerned a 5G wi-fi program meant as an example the benefits of high-speed communications amongst automobiles, bicycles, site visitors programs and metropolis infrastructure. (This has an alphabet soup nickname, C-V2X, for “mobile vehicle-to-everything.”)
The LINKS Basis, a tech firm, had outfitted the demo bicycle with a world navigation gadget to find out its exact location and a 5G transceiver to convey that data to close by automobiles. The idea envisions a future the place all the pieces — actually the web of issues — is on-line to create sensible roads and sensible cities. Visitors lights will see automobiles coming, automobiles will see pedestrians at intersections, and bicycles will speak to automobiles.
Some cyclists already use expertise, like Garmin’s Varia radar taillight, to warn of approaching automobiles, however it doesn’t actively stop collisions. Pedestrian and bicycle warning choices for automobiles use so-called superior driver help security programs. Some, like Volvo’s collision warning function, will even mechanically brake for cyclists.
Such expertise can cut back crashes involving cyclists and different so-called susceptible street customers by as much as 35 p.c, mentioned Russ Rader of the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security.
That’s an incredible enchancment, however extra will be achieved, as a result of these warning programs depend on video cameras and radar within the automobile; they can not see round corners. Moreover, camera-based programs depend on classification packages to pick bicycles from what is usually a cluttered background of mailboxes, timber, rubbish pails and phone poles. A bicycle-to-vehicle system would ship alerts round buildings and tons of of toes up and down roads.
“The issue then is to compute the likelihood of the bicycle owner’s path,” mentioned Daniele Brevi, a researcher from the LINKS Basis in Turin who was working the demonstration. Understanding the doable trajectories of a bicycle and what important data must be shared with close by motorists is important to bettering security.
“It could possibly’t simply be, ‘Hello, I’m a motorcycle,’” mentioned Jake Sigal, the chief govt of Tome Software program in Detroit and one of many founding members of the Bicycle-to-Car Govt Advisory Board. The group, which incorporates Ford, Normal Motors and Subaru in addition to bicycle corporations like Big, Specialised and Trek, is working to standardize what security data must be communicated in these so-called B2V transmissions.
It includes not solely velocity and path (is the bicycle owner going the fallacious approach in a motorcycle lane?) but in addition data comparable to a bicycle’s turning radius and most acceleration and braking — all information that might assist predict a bicycle owner’s path. E-bikes, scooters and single-speed bikes would have completely different profiles. Sensible indicators might additionally flash warnings when a bicycle owner was current to decelerate drivers.
Mr. Sigal mentioned the group deliberate to finish a number of area assessments of B2V programs with Ford by the tip of the yr. Researchers will deal with reliability and accuracy to make sure that the knowledge drivers obtain is constant and reliable. Wi-fi interference in city areas and adequate warning occasions are different important areas of examine.
And whereas numerous wi-fi programs could possibly be used, the preliminary assessments are utilizing Bluetooth, a pervasive wi-fi function that’s constructed into smartphones.
“We would like it to be accessible to individuals who can’t essentially afford a $200 bike laptop,” Mr. Sigal mentioned. Android telephones could possibly be used, for instance, by cyclists at the side of cheap sensors on bicycles.
In Turin, the problem of knowledge overload additionally grew to become obvious. An occasional bike warning on a quiet suburban road appears cheap sufficient, however a Manhattan avenue might generate an amazing surge of warnings and alerts. So when to warn drivers could also be simply as important as what to warn them about.
Whereas bike corporations are eager on discovering energetic, high-tech options to enhance bicycle security, they’ve additionally put appreciable effort into passive security measures.
“Making the bikes extra seen to automobiles is important, and a few of that’s actually low tech,” mentioned David Devine, international product director at Cannondale. Built-in daytime working lights and reflective sidewall tires are parts that Cannondale has added over time to enhance security, he mentioned.
Such strategies are about how cyclists can “reduce by way of the visible noise of the surroundings,” mentioned Eric Bjorling, model director at Trek Bikes. The bike maker has labored with researchers at Clemson College to enhance the visibility of its daytime working lights and recommends riders put on high-contrast clothes to face out. The corporate can also be engaged on making helmets extra inexpensive.
The important step remains to be to develop a typical that bike makers, automakers and metropolis planners can all use, Mr. Bjorling mentioned. “And if automobiles sooner or later are going to be extra autonomous, that is going to be wanted to assist A.V.s keep away from riders,” he mentioned, referring to autonomous automobiles.
Defending susceptible street customers utilizing networked communications is inevitable, mentioned Patrick Little, basic supervisor of Qualcomm’s automotive enterprise. “It is going to occur over the following five-plus years.”
In the meantime, Ms. Sigelbaum has encountered her personal challenges commuting on two wheels. She just lately broke a number of bones in her hand falling off a motorcycle, “all on my own.”
However she added, “I’m nonetheless going to bike to work to any extent further.”
