A MOMENT OF REFLECTION By Brodie Cowburn
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fter a handful of frightening, unavoidable, near misses while driving his car, Mt. Eliza resident Arthur Ranken decided to take the safety of cyclists sharing the road with him into his own hands. The result has been the development of Arthur’s ‘SeeMe’ reflectors, a brand of self-adhesive reflector segments designed to be placed on bicycle frames, helping to increase visibility and giving drivers more time to react and slow down for cyclists when driving at night. “They’re made with no batteries, no moving parts, and no plastic mounts to break, just a strong, reflective, adhesive material. They create visibility for bicycles at a distance of 160 metres in low beam lighting from any direction. A lot of thought, research, and planning have gone into the product,” said Arthur. “This campaign is very important, because it’s designed to dramatically reduce accidents involving bicycles and cars.”
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32 | PENINSULA
February 2018
Each pack of SeeMe Reflectors comes with installation instruction, a spacing guide, and eight self-adhesive reflective segments, designed to be placed around the forks on the front and back of the bicycle. They are designed to be arranged in blocks of four, so that riders can be identified easily and be visible from any angle at night. “As you drive along you’ll see a block of four reflectors on the back of the bicycle, which will tell you that it’s a bicycle and not another vehicle. It’s important to identify that it’s a bicycle because they are the hardest to see on the road and the most vulnerable to accidents,” Arthur said. Arthur says the reflectors are made using some of the latest high powered flexible reflective material available, and that the product will be locally made in Victoria in Carrum Downs. Unlike other reflective materials on the market, SeeMe Reflectors are designed specifically for bikes. continued next page...