Bike Contrails
December 2nd, 2010 by ant6nContrails is a project to turn bicycles into a paint brush. The goal is to create a device that attaches to a bike and leaves a washable chalk like trail – a bike contrail.
The Brooklyn, New York based organization behind the idea recently completed a successful kickstarter, raising ten thousand dollars. This will allow them to mass produce 2000 devices for relatively cheap, giving half of them away to non-profits.
You may call it public collective art, or just a nuisance. I think it’s a pretty neat idea. Like ants marking their paths with pheromones, it will show where bicyclists go. I am not sure whether it can help increase safety per se, as the group claims, but it will surely increase the visibility of bicycling. Which could help to make people more aware of this mode of transportation and encourage more cycling.
Plus, it looks like a fun toy to use.
images and video via bike contrail