A safety app setup for bike commuters

What makes commuting different from a weekend ride

Weekend riders choose quiet roads and good weather. Commuters take the route that gets them to work, at rush hour, in the rain, and after the clocks change, often in the dark in both directions. You are mixing with drivers who are late, distracted or turning across your lane, and you are doing it twice a day.

The CDC reports that nearly 1,000 bicyclists die each year on US roads in crashes involving a motor vehicle, that most bicyclist deaths occur in urban areas, and that roadway measures like bike lanes improve safety. For a commuter, that translates into a simple priority: the route you ride matters more than almost any gear you buy. A few extra minutes on a protected lane or a quieter parallel street is a good trade.

The upside of commuting is that the people in your life already know your pattern. Your partner knows you leave at 7:40. Your coworker knows you usually walk in at 8:15. A safety setup should put that knowledge to work.

Turn your arrival time into an alert

Most commute incidents are minor: a flat, a dropped chain, a near miss that leaves you shaken. The serious ones are rare, but when they happen you may not be able to call anyone. A return time covers that case without asking you to do anything mid-ride.

Stop-and-go traffic and the stationary alert

A stationary alert asks "Are you OK?" when you stop moving for the time you choose. On a commute you stop constantly: red lights, a train crossing, a queue at a bridge. If you use one, pick a time comfortably longer than your longest normal wait so it stays quiet on ordinary days. Many commuters find the return time and crash detection cover them well enough and leave the stationary alert for rides on quieter roads.

Habits that do more than any app

An app helps your people find you after something happens. These habits make it less likely anything happens at all.

• Lights front and rear, on in daylight too. For the dark months, our guide to bike commuting at night goes deeper, and bike commuting in winter covers ice and cold.
• Ride predictably: hold your line, signal early, and stay out of the door zone of parked cars.
• Wear a helmet. The CDC notes helmets reduce the risk of head and brain injuries in a crash.
• Keep your phone charged and mounted or in a jersey pocket, not in a pannier you might be separated from.
• Carry ID with an emergency contact, like a printed emergency card in your bag or wallet.
• Scout a new route on a weekend first, so rush hour is not your first time through a tricky junction.

A rainy Tuesday, walked through

Sam rides 6 miles to work, usually leaving at 7:40 and locking up at 8:15. At the front door he starts an outing with a return time of 8:30. His Guardians are his partner and Priya, who sits two desks over.

Halfway in, a car turns across the bike lane and Sam brakes hard and goes down on wet paint. He is bruised, the phone on his handlebar mount is fine, and crash detection (beta) starts its "Are you OK?" countdown. He taps that he is OK. He walks the bike to a bus stop, locks it and takes the bus the rest of the way, ending the outing when he gets to his desk at 8:40.

Because 8:30 passed first, Priya got the overdue alert at 8:35. She checked the link, saw his marker moving along the bus route well off his usual line, and called. Thirty seconds later she knew he was fine. That is a false alarm, and a useful one: it proved the setup works.

What your Guardians should know

Tell your Guardians your usual route and the two or three spots where you would most likely stop if something went wrong: a bike shop, a transit station where you might bail out in a storm, the coffee place halfway. It makes the last known location on the link much easier to interpret.

Agree that an overdue alert means "call me", not panic. If you do not answer, they check the link, call again, and if your dot has stopped somewhere odd on a busy road with no reply, they call 911 with that location. If you do get into a crash, our step-by-step on what to do after a bike crash covers the first few minutes, and how to get help if you get hurt while bike commuting alone covers calling for help with no one around.