Ring_my_bell
An alternative communication idiom that inspire sense of friendly communication between drivers and bicyclists.
A driver wants to alert a cyclist ahead. The horn is the only option available.
But a horn behind a cyclist is alarming — it communicates urgency, not courtesy, and cannot say:
“I see you, I'm behind you, take your time.”
Ring My Bell gives the car a different “word”.
In the specific context of a car approaching a cyclist or pedestrian, the system triggers a bicycle bell — a familiar sound, a civil one, the kind of sound that says hello rather than warning.
The gesture is small.
The social argument behind it is not: the road is a shared space, and the vocabulary we use in it shapes the relationships between the people using it.
A horn is the sound of a private vehicle asserting priority.
A bicycle bell is the sound of one road user acknowledging another.
These are not the same message. The connected vehicle is capable of sending both. The design decision is which one fits the situation.
The road is a shared space, and the vocabulary we use in it shapes the relationships between the people using it.
Even if you are just trying to warn or say “hello!”, using a horn while driving behind a bicyclist can come off aggressive and/or worse, catch them off guard, contributing a sticky situation.
Ring_my_bell recognizes the road as a collective space shared by many forms of mobility.
Encouraging this type of dialogue between cars and bicycles offers a means acknowledgment, a sense of playful conversation between these different modes of transportation and creates a friendlier and more civil culture of shared space and collaboration.
US Patent: Systems And Methods For Providing Proximity Alerts Between Vehicles And Personal Transportation Devices
Patent No: 11189173 Issue Date: Nov 30, 2021
