If you’ve decided to take up cycling as part of your New Year’s Resolution but are already fed up with the cold dark nights, and potentially dangerous vehicles out on the roads then the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo might just have come up with the thing for you: LifePaint.
Now granted it can’t help with the state of the weather, but with the dangers the dark and dingy roads offer it does have a solution.
Every year in the UK over 19,000 cyclists are involved in accidents. That’s maybe not the normal way to start a promotional video for your latest product, but it is a shocking stat that certainly makes you sit up and take notice, and is a figure that will be drastically reduced if car manufacturer Volvo have a say in it.
But how much can a car company do to improve bicycle safety? For the past few years Volvo seems to have been on a mission to find out.
Long known for its commitment to safety features, the Swedish auto manufacturer is doing what it can to carry over that reputation into two-wheeled safety, and has a pretty ambitious vision for the future: A vision that by 2020, no person will be killed, or seriously injured, by a new Volvo. It’s a lofty mission but one that Volvo seems committed to seeing through, and something that will be helped greatly by this latest release. And this is where the LifePaint project comes in .
So what is LifePaint? It is a reflective paint that can be used to cover a cyclist’s clothing, bike frame, helmet, and virtually any other surface.
The spray paint itself is transparent during daylight and lasts about a week once applied. Shine headlights on it at night, and it becomes reflective to enhance visibility in traffic.
Volvo is targeting cyclists with the Life Paint project, but says it can also be used to light up pedestrians' clothing, children’s backpacks, dogs' leashes etc
It is water based and will not damage the colour or the surface of your chosen material that it is sprayed on to.
Originally when it was released it was only being sold at 6 locations in London, but if it caught on, Volvo said it would make it available countrywide, and internationally, and that is just what is going to happen, starting with Volvo car dealerships, and the ability to purchase online.
Watch the video below for more on how Life Paint can make bike commuters more visible, and check out Volvo’s webpage dedicated to it here, where it can now also be bought.