Smartbell – rhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUFmuWIt8QQedefining safety for cyclist

5 million cyclists ride everyday on Polish roads. Every year 1 million new bicycles are bought. And as the road infrastructure is not adapted to the needs of new urban commuters, the cyclist ride on shared roads, creating new dangers for both themselves and the drivers. 15% of road accidents involve cyclist, but while the insurance for cars are obligatory standard, cyclists are not interested in having insurance.

AXA was introducing new insurance for cyclist – Smart Bike. But how to get the attention of the modern urban cyclist to the matter they refuse to think about –safety standards on the road? 

The urban commuters from big cities, who every spring change cars to bikes, are the most vulnerable road users. The number of incidents involving cyclist raise every year, but there are no legal obligations for them to have the insurance, and they refuse to recognize the danger they put themselves in every day. Cyclists don’t even realize how silent they are from the car driver’s perspective and how being the only road user who is not audible, put them in danger. AXA strategy was not to scare them with consequences, but to offer an innovative solution to raise awareness, catch the consumers’ attention and present AXA as the provider of the new safety standards for cyclist.

As AXA is the world’s biggest insurance company, dedicated to redefine standards for better everyday life, we decided to get the cyclist attention on the safety issues by upgrading the only safety feature bicycle have: the bike bell. That’s when the smart bell idea was born. The Smart Bell is a new type of bicycle bell, that along with the normal bike bell sound, use FM frequencies to transmit the signal through the car radios within the radius of 5 meters. Smart Bell disrupts radio signal to transmit bell sound through the car’s speakers. The smart bell uses RDS Traffic Announcement protocol to transmit the bell signal even if MP3, CD or AUX is on.