This is a piece of practical technology that may have a positive effect on one of bikeshare’s biggest psychological barriers: perceptions that riding on city streets is unsafe.
Motivate, the company that runs Citi Bike in New York City, will install extra-bright “laserlights” on 250 bikes. The lights project the image of a bicycle onto the pavement about 20 feet in front a rider. 75 percent of cyclists felt safer biking with them, according to Motivate.