Reflective Spray Paint For Cyclists Makes You Glow in the Dark

In crowded cities like New York, riding a bike to work can be like playing a real-life game of Frogger. And it’s even worse at night as all of the cabs, pedestrians, and buses buzz past you, seemingly unaware that you’re even there.

To help improve biker safety, the carmaker Volvo has joined with reflective paint maker Albedo 100 to introduce LifePaint. According to Popular Science, LifePaint is a kind of spray paint that sticks to your clothes and bike helmet to help make you more visible to everyone you share the road with.

The paint works by reflecting the light thrown by headlights from cars and trucks, causing whatever you sprayed it on to glow an otherworldly white.

Sounds cool? It gets better. The best part is that LifePaint is completely invisible during the day. So you can spray it on your clothes and not have to worry about looking like a reject from a low-budget sci-fi movie during your bike to work. And then at night, when you need it, it starts glowing. 

LifePaint isn’t a permanent solution to your late night biking safety woes, though, as it washes off and lasts a week after you apply it. So you’ll have to keep spraying your clothes and helmet if you want to keep lighting up like a beacon every time a car’s headlights get near you.

It also helps if, you know, cars actually try to avoid you as you peddle near them. Because lets face it, all of the reflective paint in the world isn’t going to help you if the driver next to you isn’t paying attention.

Anyway, Volvo is pushing LifePaint as part of its 2020 Vision campaign, which seeks to ensure no one is killed or seriously hurt by a new Volvo by the year 2020 –– an incredibly ambitions goal.

In its promotional video, Volvo shows LifePaint applied to cyclists and their bikes, but unfortunately, LifePaint can’t be used on bicycles, as it doesn’t adhere to metal. Instead, Volvo used one of Albedo 100’s permanent paints, which isn’t something you’d want to put on your clothes.

Want to bring your pooch with you while you bike? Albedo 100 also makes a reflective paint for animals, as well.

Volvo isn’t the only company attempting to use technology to increase bike safety. The popular Blaze Bike Light on Kickstarter, for example, is an innovative clippable bike light that projects a symbol of a bicycle onto the street six meters ahead of you. It’s one of many high-tech bike lightson the market now. Another approach came from Swedish company Hovding, which introduced a kind of airbag bicycle helmet last year. 

LifePaint is currently available in six bike shops around London, though Volvo says if the initial rollout is a success it will expand sales internationally.