On Bicycling: Las Vegas Strip Abhors Bicycles, But Here They Are Adored
This story is sponsored by Las Vegas Cyclery and ism bike seats
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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
MONTEREY, Nevada — Veteran car tech safety man Kevin McMahon knows bicyclists hate motorists nearly hitting them.
So, McMahon spent several years in product development and invested several hundred thousand dollars to create a bike safety device that triggers the crash-avoidance system of cars when motorists get too close to bicyclists.
He debuted the USA-made bicycle safety device for $89 at the Sea Otter Classic bicycle festival at the Laguna Seca track outside Monterey. We spoke with McMahon about the first bicycle safety product that registers an impact on a car’s crash system. Take a listen:
It clips on a bicycle seat post and activates a car’s anti-crash program when the car gets too close to the cyclist, triggering the car’s system to beep and even initiating the car’s brakes if the driver ignores the beeps.
“This enforces the three-foot law in a good way,” McMahon told LVSportsBiz.com at his exhibitor booth Friday. “This is screaming your presence to the car’s collision-avoidance system.”
McMahon, a Plano, Texas resident, worked 30 years in auto technology, transportation safety and public policy. He was general counsel of the Automotive Safety Council.
He works with two other men on developing the Wingman device. “It’s three guys and a dog who doesn’t work hard.”
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It was 6:25 AM when I pulled into the media parking lot at the Sea Otter Classic.
I came extra early to beat the brutal traffic from Salinas to Monterey to the Laguna Seca race track where the world’s biggest bicycle festival is held from Thursday to Sunday.
The media room was going to open at 7AM, so I strolled to the hundreds of exhibitors that set up shop in the hilly terrain off the ocean and Monterey Bay. The light was sweet as I looked at the downhill mountain biking course.
There was Nicky, a former teacher who now works for a bike shop selling Trek bikes in Monterey, getting the bike valet ready.
He said he and his fiance can afford to live in pricy Monterey thanks to two incomes and a price-controlled apartment.
During our chat, the winds off the Pacific and the bay kicked in and the pleasant conditions turned into foggy, cold and misty air.
It was surreal and spooky to bike my massive single-speed, steel-framed Surly Pugsley around the exhibitor tents.
By 9:45 AM the soupy Seattle weather was gone and I ventured out on my Pugsley. That’s the beautiful thing of covering this event — I bring my bicycles right into the media center and nobody bats an eye or touches the bike. That’s the code.
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