Swedish company Hövding – best known for its bicycle airbag-helmet, which was explosively modeled at a Transportation Techies meetup in 2015 – is back in the news with the release of another bike product that puts a modern spin on a classic function.
The yellow handlebar buttons, called “Flic” buttons, combine the best of so many things needed to advocate for safer bicycling streets: a practical technology that allows riders to easily take action and note where they feel unsafe.
Writer and Mobility Lab contributor Brandon Donnelly explains how it works at his blog:
Working with the London Cyclist Campaign, distributed 500 yellow handlebar buttons. Cyclists were then instructed to tap these buttons whenever they felt unsafe or frustrated with current cycling conditions.
Every time the button is hit, the data point gets logged to a public map and an email gets sent to the Mayor of London reminding him of his promises around cycling. Both of these things happen via the rider’s smartphone.
Here’s what the public map looks like at the time of writing this post:
Not only does it tell you pain point locations, but it also seems to suggest the primary cycling routes. I think this is a brilliant initiative because it’s entirely user-centric. It’s telling you how people feel on the ground.
Should the campaign prove successful and spread to other cities, the buttons would be good news for cities around the world, and Hövding hopes to find champions who are interested in distributing them. Other cities’ local bicycling advocacy groups would be natural partners, as valuable safety data helps inform outreach and planning efforts.
In the Washington, D.C., region, for example, up-to-date bicycling safety data has been difficult to come by. Last fall, safety advocate Jacob Mason noted that it’s easier to find data on road kill in the District than data for road crashes. Thankfully, this should begin to change with D.C.’s recently passed Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Administration Act of 2016, which will require the publication of crash data, but a “Give a Beep”-style button could contribute even more granular “close call” information for when collisions only nearly happen.
As cities around the world work to identify and act on infrastructure improvements for safer bicycling, products like the yellow bicycle button have the potential to direct efforts to where they are most needed.
Edit: The Flic button is manufactured by Shortcut Labs. Find more information about it here.
Photo, top: A screenshot from the “Give a Beep” campaign video (London Cycling Campaign).