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Portland-based industrial designer Tory Orzeck has careers at both GE Plastics and Nike under his belt. He also founded his own ID firm, Fuse, which has done projects for the likes of Herman Miller and Gerber. But for his latest project, Orp, Orzeck is turning to Kickstarter to create a safety device for cyclists.
In 2007, a young cyclist and art student was killed in Orzeck's home base of Portland. She was in the blind spot of a cement truck, stopped at a red light. As the light turned green and both began to move, the truck made a right turn, towards the cyclist, who was crushed and killed.
That got Orzeck thinking about the problem of bicyclists' relative invisibility on the road, and what he could design to solve that. But thinking outside of the box, he realized increasing visibility was only part of the solution; he ought to incorporate sound—loud, high-decibel sound—to alert a motorist to a cyclist's presence in the event of an emergency.
Here's Orzeck himself explaining his resultant design solution, the Orp:
At press time the Orp had clocked $38,000 out of a $90,000 target, with 27 days left to pledge. Get in on it here.
Comments
Orzeck should move the tail to the underside of the handlebar, so you don't have to contort your hand to use it.
I like the idea of bike-users and their safety, but i think that this product could improve in something that doesn't involve an extremely irritating sound. Just think how often could you use a +100 dB horn in a city..
Rodrigo, better a driver get irritated than a cyclist get killed. If you can't give driving the attention it deserves you shouldn't be driving. Period. It's not like cyclists would be using this unless they needed to protect themselves against soccer-mom-with-six-kids-an-iPhone-and-breakfast.
This is a good idea, especially with the integrated light, though I like this other guy's admittedly less practical solution better: http://youtu.be/7DH2Nh6N9Rc
yeah, I used to have a bell on my bike when i was a kid... maybe they still sell them..? It was more ergonomic to ring than the orp.
Scott, i get your point.. but what i tried to say it's that it might be irritating for the cyclist to use it at least 2 or 3 times in a single block or the driver could get scared and do a potentional dangereous car move.. It's just an opinion!