The people behind Loud Bicycle

We have previously posted about the generous backers who jumpstarted our project. This post is going to be about the people behind the scenes who are turning the wheels and making everything happen.

Product Development / Engineering

How do you go from a good idea - to a great product? Having 600 customers with a stake in the outcome to give suggestions is a great way to start. But there are still things you need some experts for.

Randall R. Jacobs has been advising me on Loud Bicycle since it was just a bare car horn mounted with pipe fittings. A Mandarin-speaking former professional mountain biker (see badass photo) with a wealth of start-up, product development and commercialization experience, Randall recently accepted a position at Specialized Bicycles.



John Prata is a mechanical engineer with experience designing for injection molded parts. Working together with Randall and I, John has helped productize the horn design. You’ll see his work in the custom ergonomic pushbutton to trigger the horn. If we are lucky, he might even appear in some future Loud Bicycle demonstration videos.



Andrew Lansey is the mechanical engineer who really got us started. He designed and built several versions of the housing completely from scratch. When we settled on a general design he tweaked each curve until it looked just right. He continues to support the project with a sharp engineering eye to both detail and the big picture. You’ve probably heard his voice in the Kickstarter video, it’s the voice that sounds awesome. He’s not biking in this picture, but he is sending a balloon to the edge of space.

Industrial Design

The aesthetics of the housing are extremely important so we are glad to have Chris Owens dedicated to the job. He is a fantastic industrial designer from Austin TX and his expertise is giving the Loud Bicycle horn a much more professional look. He is also reshaping the housing in order to fit all the production components. He had a role in our Kickstarter video too: producing the animated rendering of the spinning horn.

Graphic/Web Design

Look around the page: this website, our stickers and the T-Shirt were all made by our amazing graphic designer Allison Johnston. She puts a lot of creative energy into her work and it shows. You are going to see the fuzzy fruits of her talents next on the packaging materials of the horn. Allison works fulltime as a freelance designer and artist from her current home in Houston, TX.

Beta testers

We have 4 wonderful Beta testers from New York City, Chicago and Massachusetts. They are testing each iteration of the horns in turn as they come out and giving great feedback at each critical stage. You might see some blog posts by them in the coming months as they review their experiences.

Thanks!

We are really grateful for all the people who are helping make the Loud Bicycle horn the absolute best bike horn out there.

Open up your city, get a bike

What is the fastest way to get around the city of Boston? We have one of the best public transportation networks in the nation but cycling is still a faster way to get most places. To test this I used Google maps to measure the time it takes to get from Cleveland circle to anywhere in Boston, both by bike and by the T. Cleveland is a hub of 3 subway lines and several bus lines so it seemed  like a fair challenge. In the video above, color represents the time it takes to get somewhere.
The fastest places to go by T are not surprisingly along spindly corridors defined by rail tracks and bus routes. The flashing colors reflect the rhythm of bus and trolley schedules. In contrast, the time to bike is solid and steady. There is no arbitrary network of paths defining where you can go quickly - and no pressing constraints on when you must leave.

To read about how these maps and this video were made hop over to jonathan.lansey.net but in summary: many thanks to Stamen Design, colorbrewer, Google and Matlab.

Here is the high resolution biking map, feel free to share with

this link: http://bit.ly/biking_any_time

Here is a high resolution (T) map, feel free to share with

this link: http://bit.ly/T_Time_Boston

The Boston Green Line by ericodeg, creative commons

A super special thanks to our generous backers

Initial project funding for Loud Bicycle was achieved by 600 generous contributions from around the world, via a Kickstarter campaign. We are really grateful for all the support.

Blazer backers:

Amanda Wendt, Robert McCormack, Sergey Galkin, Eli Lansey, Aliyana Wasserman, Lucy Bernholz, Joel Z Leibo, Tucker Lieberman, Melissa Murakami, Tory Orzeck, Sheena K Stuart, Eric Rayvid, d freymann, Jeff, Alana Lynch, Kathy Bennett, suzanne segalowitz, Steve Montalto, Tiffany Chu, Shawn Weil, Dawn Dennison, Sam Kapala, Jeremy Schneider.

Early Bird backers:

Chris Lin, John Ko, Kim Hock Toh, Michael Curtis, Susan Lansey Jewsbury, Robert Zander, Daniel Lieber, Jon Good, Sam Lam, Jonathan, Nariti Vanich, ChefSean, Karan Kapur, Dr. med Hank Schiffers, Nate DT, Joe Tate, Gail Walker, Eric Jones, Eric, Brandon Rupinski, Connie Haine, Omri Ben-Amos, Hugh Roper, Ted Davidson, powlsy, chris mccraw, Dianne Silver, Nathan Burrows, robert lang, Eric Reynolds, Tim Pierce, Gary Brouhard, John Lake, Steve Miller, Evan Brubaker, calvinbean, Jon Bode, roy theunissen, Carl Ekstrom, Patti Deriso, Brett Gallagher, Gustav Mikael Dahl, Natasha Zabchuk, Will Jennings, Emily, Jeff Wielki, Mark Hillman, Peter van Gils, Roger Guerrero, Ariel Yahni, Othmane Benkirane, Randolph Meiklejohn, alexander chang, Laura smeaton, Louise Johnson, ng ren kai, Jennifer ROwe, mitcho, Ramon Hermida, damon, Sean, Steve Ferdman, christopher weiss, Ben Yuen, QTeggin, Thomas Goetz, Ryan Cummings, Solomon Simon, Sarah Sieloff, Baran Keskin, Esteban Sardera, Tim Hulsey, Geoffrey Marshall, Ehren, David T.

Pioneer backers:

Stephen Fried, Jason Glasgow, Matt Zapp, Toby Rossmann, John Wedoff, Mark Rizzo, Alex Cook, Tim Kelley, Hartley, Joseph Gilbertie, Frank, David Hill, David Baumgold, Gregg, rodney gordon, Marco Grasso, Olinda Cho, Kenneth Hirsch, Alan breda, John Olson, Ed, Noel Hidalgo, Phillip Baraona, jeff lucas, Jack F Rudy, Rachel Schneider, Rebekah Stout, Nancy Harrowitz, Karen Melnick, Jim Ricciuti, John Favazzo, Gary Black, Jonathan Sessions, Jeremy Bazinet, Nick Holman, Anthony Floyd, Duncan Clemens, Julie Hammond, Helene Bladek, Daniel Wylie, Edward Reiner, Thomas Fortin, Erin Foley, Arthur B Davis, Noah Flower, Zev Lowe, C Gramley, Elisa Girard, James Rebitzer, Mx Jxn, KevinR, Dave Atkins, Chris Haynes, Greg Lief, Thomas Lakofski, michael turner, Yawei, Michelle, Jamie Liptan, Kenneth Gray, chuck, Kevin Hasley, Henry Kaiser, Ron Lauzon, Michael Cosaboom, Amy Goodwin, Jonathan Poritz, Tim Nolan, Jon Pierce, Sharp, Avi Drissman, Cody Rice, Lane Kneedler, Lars von Sneidern, John Kyle, Steve Struble, Jesse Mortenson, Kent, Brandon Cunningham, Ben Robinson, Robert Ryan-Silva, Peter Akrill, greg downing, Russell Neches, Austin Sos, Isaac Marx, Jayson Elliot, Bill McMillin, Andy Mardesich, Nicholas Tang, John B. Williams III, James Arrufat, Ben Andes, john park, Jaik Smith, Jim Snyder-Grant, Coralia Pineda, Ruth Lingford, jack diboise, karen l miller, Nicholas Woolridge, Alexis Carpenter, Drew Huening, Ryan Pratt, Don Lester, Michael Cukan, scott mcphee, Mike Coryell, Julie & David Wexler, Barrett M Johnson, Bryan Maret, Matthijs Abma, Marc Sopher, David Tetrault, Mark Alexander, Ken Shipp, Jason, John Randall, Ian McNally, KENNETH NOSEK, Tracey Morris, Ivan Sanchez, J. Mortenson, Jay Zott, john gale, pablo suárez-serrato, Russell Baruffi, Damon, Jesse Dungan, Matthew Planchard, ninja smurf, Bettye Clement, Oren Ofer, sam and brenna lord, Keith Moore, David, Patrick Gibson, Scott Magers, GingerELA, Skip Intro, Jeff Roberts, Ryan Cimino, Greg Buckland, Jon Stern aka Wee Heavy, Hasani, Virginia Wright, Michael Benjamin, Robert Hollander, Louis Thiery, Ladd Van Tol, CHRIS CHULKA, Kenneth Smalley, Siobhan, Maximilian Albrecht, bayleaf, ktknndy, Danny Muehlschlegel, Kristen Richard, Warren Bailey, Stephanie Henkel, Lars-Petter Steen, Jason Puliti, George Taylorcrest, Michael Friend, April Kinghorn, Sarah Cooke, Charles Magnuson, Ellen Kirk, Noah Sachs, MACHIN, Kevin McReynolds, Brian Averill, Andrew Cortright, Lani Hollander, barista, Rui Xin, Michael Scheetz, Karin Hill Appleton, Eric Williams, Ryan Riley, Angelique Hofmann, Terry Cohn, Mikayo Langhofer, Diana Felton, edworthy, Ah Xing, C.T. Lin, Richard C. Goodson , Jr., Michael Bereman, Karli VanSickle, Debbie Conlon, Lee Toma, Stephen R Kirts, Pat Chamberlain, Dorothy Al-Ghosien, Ian Emmons, Alex Chou, Nune Lemaire, jscinoz.

Hero backers:

Max Tenorio, Liz Seaman, Daniel Alavi, Melissa Dorwani, barbara marino, Christine Chen, Beth, Dan Krohne, Antonio Bay, Ben Foster, Sterling RW Wind, Justin Milner, Timothy B Thrift, Ronald Colvin, David Dannenberg, Blair Blanks, Nadja McNeil Jackson, meagar, Victor Essers, joseph ryan, Nicolas Ojeda Thies, Melissa Jewsbury, Kate Rubick, Alan S. Chan, Nathan Nagy-Hanley, Elsa Ramirez, Bob Lansey.

Funded by Kickstarter

Last night as the clock struck midnight, the Loud Bicycle Kickstarter campaign came to a close and the next phase of the project began. With six hundred enthusiastic backers and a solid 122% of our initial goal reached, we are really excited to finalize the design and move on to production.

Thanks so very much to everyone who has joined in, we can now proudly wear the badge:

Traditional bike horns cannot be relied on in emergencies

Existing bike horns do work a fair amount of the time, but you wouldn't want to rely on them in any kind of emergency situation.
See these horns use extremely high frequencies which are harsh on the ears and people often can’t even tell where the sound comes from. Zoe Williams from the Guardian wrote that pedestrians "get the 140 decibels, but [they think] ‘What's a tumble dryer doing in the sky?” Auditory illusions like these are well studied [source] and are caused by the narrow range of frequencies that cheap piezoelectric sound generators and cheap air horns can make. In an emergency, horn volume is much less important than getting a driver to recognize and react appropriately to the sound.

This is how you might look listening to a traditional bike horn. photo by littleprincessdiaries / Creative Commons

Some say that drivers could eventually learn to associate a particular screech with a speeding bicycle, but "abstract-sound warnings were found to be learnt and retained with far greater difficulty" than relevant warnings including car horns [source]. To make matters worse, the creators of all the different screechy bike horns have patents on their unique sound, effectively destroying any hope for a standard recognizable "bicycle-warning."

Car horns, however, are universally recognized by drivers everywhere. The LoudBicycle car horn for bikes is the best solution for protecting cyclists in emergencies.
Make your pledge today before the kickstarter is over: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lansey/loud-bicycle-car-horns-for-cyclists

A car horn on your bike will make your ride safer

As a cyclist you are immersed in the environment; you can hear leaves crumple under your wheels, feel the breeze on your skin and detect the tiniest imperfections in the pavement. Your eyes constantly scan the road looking for cars that might veer into your path. When you see such a car, take a deep breath, because if the car starts to veer - you’d better hope they hear you screaming. The Loud Bicycle horn is a far better option; let me explain why.

Honking is an effective way to stop a car crash

Biking safely and responsibly are the most important things you can do to stay safe on the roads; but when there is an emergency, honking a car horn is your best option to stop an imminent accident.

Drivers ears are tuned to pick up the sound of a car horn above the bustle of noisy roads and any musical distractions, just like you recognize your name at a cocktail party. But, more importantly, drivers react better to the sound of a car horn than to other warning sounds [source]. This means that biking with a LoudBike car horn will help you avoid accidents in a way that just isn’t possible with other bicycle horns.

There are so many other reasons why a LoudBike car horn is the ideal horn to help protect you on a bike that I need to put them in a bulleted list:

• Our brains are really sensitive to a multi-note car horn sound. Dr. Shinn-Cunningham, my former professor and Auditory Neuroscience Lab director at Boston University explains “Modulated sounds (like when two notes beat) are more attention-getting than steady-state sounds.”
  Although the Loud Bicycle horn isn’t the loudest on the road, the modulated sound is the best way of grabbing the attention of a driver.
• In a collision-warning context people react to the sound of a car horn incredibly fast. One study from the University of Western Sydney showed that "without training, participants recorded significantly faster reaction times in response to auditory icons [car horns] compared with other signals" [source]. Another study lists car horns among the sounds that people react most quickly to even without a specific context [source].
• The two, relatively-low frequencies of a car horn make it easy to localize where the sound is coming from. And, more importantly, drivers actually use that information, showing "a significant performance advantage in the detection of potential emergency visual driving events ... when [hearing a car horn] coming from the relevant direction”
  [source].

• Lower pitched sounds like those of car horns travel far, even at low volumes; they can also penetrate windshields with much less attenuation than other bike horns. That is why you hear the bass-line of your neighbors music, even when they don't think they have it up too loud.

• Auditory reaction times are known to be a little faster than visual reaction times [source].

Having a Loud Bicycle horn will get a driver’s attention and have them taking actions to keep you safe as fast as humanly possible.

Getting a driver to respond quickly is critical

Even a few seconds of time for a reacting driver is plenty to save your life. When comparing the outcomes of different pedestrian accidents, the speed of the vehicle on impact has a huge effect on the outcome of the accident. If we suppose that speed plays a similar role in bicycle accidents then if a driver going at about 30 mph (50 km/h) brakes for only a half second, your chances of survival increase from 20% to 80% (see calculation at bottom). After two seconds the car will have nearly stopped.

[dc richards 2010]

When even a split second can save your life, you need drivers to react as quickly as possible and a Loud Bicycle horn is the best way to make it happen. One of our backers said it best:
"It's all about getting people ... to snap out of their fog & stop what they're about to do." -Calvin Bean

Summary

A Loud Bicycle horn grabs a driver’s attention and gets them taking the actions to keep cyclists safe as fast as humanly possible. Help us get the horn on your bike and in the hands of cyclists worldwide by pre-ordering a horn from www.LoudBicycle.com

Calculation footnote

Assuming that the vehicle complies with the minimum US regulated requirements for braking speeds given here as 21 ft/s^2 or 14 ft/s^2 for trucks.
So in 0.5 sec*(21 ft/s^2) in kph = 11.5 km/h. According to the graph, going from 50 km/h to 40 km/h (a difference of 10 km/h) will reduce the probability of fatality by 60% from 80% to 20%.

First public demo of the horn: a success

We had a great day yesterday at the Ferris Wheels Bike Shop in Jamaica Plain Boston. We fit the horn to a brand new Yuba cargo bike and sent a few people out to test it live on the streets.


Jamaica Plain has a strong bicycle culture with lots of bicycle commuters and bikes that carry kids. A few backers came out to meet us, excited to get their horns and stressing how important safety is to them.




Dan graciously offered to do a photo-op, thanks!


Here is a closeup of the button, it is really easy to brake and maneuver while honking our horns.