It has been known the need to increase the safety of people who use the bicycle as a means of transport.
A first aspect to be considered is represented by the visibility of the cyclist who, in case of poor light or adverse weather conditions such as the presence of fog, mist or rain, is particularly reduced. For this reason, bicycles are generally provided with one or more position lights to signal the presence of the cyclist. In addition, cyclists wear clothing such as vests or high visibility reflective suspenders, mandatory in poor visibility conditions.
A further need of a cyclist is to warn road users of his intention to change direction. Cyclists generally signal the turning by laterally opening the arm associated with the turning direction. This can be dangerous as the cyclist does not temporarily hold the handlebar with both hands, resulting in less control of the bicycle and less stability.
Solutions have been devised that enable the cyclist to signal the turning in a safer condition.
KR 20140069503 discloses a device for signalling direction for a bicycle comprising a lever integral to a lower portion of a stem of the handlebar. The device also comprises a pair of sensors associated with a support member of the stem predisposed to detect the direction of rotation of the lever and to send control signals to a control unit. The control unit, based on the signals sent by the sensors following the rotation of the stem, controls the turning on and off of direction lights corresponding to the direction of turning.
The above-mentioned device uses the movement of the handlebar to turn on the lighting of the direction lights, therefore, it does not allow to signal the turning in advance.
CN 204279746 U describes a navigation system for a bicycle comprising a series of direction lights and stop lights and a manual control device, preferably associated with the bicycle handlebar, by which the cyclist turns on the above-mentioned lights depending on the desired operations.
Despite the higher level of safety achieved in the field, there still remains the problem of efficiently signalling the turning in advance without engaging the hands of the cyclist.
A further complained problem is that it is often necessary to mount the device on the bicycle or make changes to the bicycle itself to make the device working.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds