Boston cyclist Jonathan Lansey was glad to hear his friend had been lucky enough to survive a collision with a car while riding her bike. But after learning that a blaring radio had distracted the driver from hearing his friend scream, Lansey had the thought that no one should have to rely on luck when faced with a life-threatening situation.
"Yelling at drivers is not very effective," Lansey said. "I searched everywhere to find a good bike horn, but the few serious horns I found sounded grating or unrecognizable. When you honk a car horn, [drivers] react immediately."
Lansey came up with a prototype that produced a car horn sound and found that replicating the warning associated with a car was an effective way to get drivers to stop, even before they identified the source. He soon pulled together a team and developed his concept into a real product, and created the final model of the battery-powered horn at the Artisan's Asylum in Somerville, Mass.
While Massachusetts law only requires cyclists to make an audible sound when overtaking pedestrians, it does not require a bell or horn mounted on bicycles. Most cyclists rely on a variety of gear--reflectors, lights and even brightly colored clothing to catch the attention of those with whom they share the road.
Lansey is about to take his product to market, having raised over $50,000 with a Kickstarter campaign. It's a good start, but he hopes future iterations of his horn will be much smaller and lightweight.
"But the horn horn will still sound like a car," he said. Listen to Lansey's horn sound here.
