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Safer Cycling: A Car Horn for Your Bike

The Loud Bicycle horn, a Kickstarter project, aims to give bikers a new tool for dangerous situations: a horn that sounds like a car.

Bicycle use makes for cleaner, quieter cities filled with healthier and more productive people, but the perceived dangers stop many people from cycling. People have told me, "I love biking, but I'm too afraid of traffic to bike in Boston." In response to this, we designed the Loud Bicycle horn that sounds just like a car horn, so it grabs a driver’s attention and forces them to unwittingly yield to bicycles. The safety benefits of the horn give more people the confidence to travel by bike.


I had the idea for the horn when a car that was making a left-hand turn hit my friend. A blaring radio distracted the driver and he didn’t hear my friend screaming before the collision. She was lucky and was not seriously injured, but no one should have to rely on luck when faced with a life-threatening situation.

Drivers recognize car horns, and instinctively stop when they hear them, so it makes sense to have that same kind of horn for bicycles. My team and I designed and built several prototypes, and I tested them on my 8 1/2 mile commute. The car horn was so effective at alerting drivers that I really wanted to give more cyclists the opportunity to use one. We are now raising money on Kickstarter to cover the manufacturing costs and start mass production of the horn as soon as possible.

We have high hopes that our horn will have an impact on safety extending beyond the riders who actually have the horn. A few months ago I was almost hit by a minivan turning to enter a busy parking lot. I braked hard while beeping my horn to avoid a collision. All the nearby cars slowed as heads snapped toward the sound of the horn. The minivan driver flashed me an apologetic look, and I resumed my commute. The incident left an impression on everyone; a man standing in the bike lane near the lot actually apologized to me as I passed.

Each situation like this raises the visibility of bicycles and encourages nearby drivers to be more careful and to stay alert for bicycles. In this way, our horns are improving safety for everyone on the road, even cyclists that don’t have a Loud Bicycle horn. We want your help to make increased safety for cyclists a reality. Our Kickstarter campaign ends on January 12, so please share the link and pledge your support today.

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Click here to add supporting the Loud Bicycle horn to your to-do list. \n
Images courtesy of Jonathan Lansey\n

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