How "Smart" Is This Helmet?

Call me a Luddite, if you like:  I am still skeptical about any "smart" bicycle accessory.  

I am even warier of a "smart" helmet.  That is what Apple stores have begun to stock.  

The Lumos helmet has front and rear lights, as well as brake lights.  What makes it a "smart" helmet, though, is a feature that is activated when the wearer also wears an Apple watch:  hand gesture recognition.  When you signal a turn or stop with your hand, it activates LED turn signals on the back of your helmet.

To go with the helmet, Lumos has introduced a new  Apple watch and iPhone app that makes hand gesture recognition possible.  An Android app for the same purpose will be introduced soon.

(In case you don't have an Apple watch, the helmet comes with a wireless remote that activates the turn signals.)




As best as I can tell, the helmet can only read "stop" and "turn" hand signals.  But those aren't the only hand signals I, or other cyclists, make--especially to inconsiderate motorists!

And what about hearing-impaired cyclists?  Can the apps read sign language?

Asleep At The...Handlebars?

Is it possible to ride while sleeping?

I may have done just that on at least one occasion.   In particular, I recall a time I picked up a small package on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and delivered it to an office in the Wall Street area--a distance of about 8 kilometers, in traffic.  When I arrived at that office, I opened my eyes and had no idea of how I got there.  And, when I stepped out of the building, my bike was locked to a parking meter.

When you are a messenger, nobody much cares about whether you slept or about anything else you might've done on your bike, as long as the document or package is delivered in a timely fashion, as they say.

It also helps not to have outstanding arrest warrants.  That is what Angela Yates is learning as I write.

Police officers found the 43-year-old sitting on a bicycle, passed out, in a Middlesboro, Kentucky gas station.  They woke her up and found that, in addition to her arrest warrants, she had a criminal summons.

During her arrest, the police searched her property and found a syringe containing a clear substance they believe to be crystal meth.  They also found eight other syringes and other drug paraphernalia.

Yates was then taken to the Bell County Detention Center, where she was strip-searched.  A quart-size bag containing what officials believe to be marijuana, along with another liquid-filled syringe, were found in her possession.  

She faces a number of charges.

If she is using those substances, I can't help but to wonder how she even got on a bicycle!

Is The Future In A Miniloop?

If you are a cycle-commuter, someone is sure to ask, "What do you do when it rains?"

In most places, you have the following choices:

1. Use fenders and raingear (or carry a change of clothes).
2. Get wet.
3. Use other means of transportation.

I'll admit to having used 3.) when it's raining, cold and windy--or during a hard, driving rain when I could hardly see in front of me. I also have used alternative means of transportation--which, for me, here in New York, means the subway--when there was more than a dusting of snow.

Some day the weather excuse won't wash--at least, if architect Richard Moreta has any influence over urban planners.

He has just unveiled his "MINILOOP", an enclosed elevated bikeway designed to snake alongside streets or highways, or cut their own paths through cities.  

Moreta says he has designed MINILOOP to be easily replicated in, and adapted to, different locales:  It can be made open-air for warmer climates and fully enclosed in less hospitable environs.  Most important, though, he believes his design will not only help to reduce the number of motor vehicles used for transportation; they will afford more vertical space for trees and plants to grow and help filter the air.