Veloloop, A Trick To Give Cyclists Green Lights Everywhere

Who likes red lights? Now a tech-savvy cyclist knows how to get green lights whenever he wants.

Seriously, this might not seem like a big deal if you live in a bike-conscious city with plenty of cars to always trip the green light, but what about the times your bike isn’t placed just right to be detected? Normally, a cyclist would have to wait for a car to arrive to get any love from the stoplight. (For more information about how the inductive-loop traffic detector works, click here to watch the video).

However, now bicyclists can easily trip a traffic light by using a Veloloop, a microcontroller-based device that triggers inductive-loop sensors for bikes.

As a practical invention, Veloloop helps you find the exact spot where the sensor is looking for traffic with an LED that lights up when you’re stationed over the loop. Once the Veloloop locates the sensor, it essentially tricks the traffic detector into thinking a larger piece of metal — like a car — is waiting at the light. What a brilliant idea!

Veloloop doesn’t make your bike heavier. It’s a 7-inch aluminum square that attaches to your non-drive side chainstay through zip ties. A magnet affixed to the spokes in your wheel signals to the Veloloop when you’ve stopped so it can start looking for the inductive-loop signal. When the LED on top of the battery box turns red, you’re on. Now everything you need is to stand still until the light turns green.

Although the company didn’t achieve the numbers it needed to be a successful Kickstarter, Veloloop did find dedicated audiences, and the product will be sold at veloloop.com for $95 after its beta testings.

Sometimes, you don’t need to have a big idea to innovate your life. Keep going Veloloop!

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