The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 22

Guest: Irene & Philip McAleese, founders of cycling light and data business See.Sense.

See.Sense - cycling towards better data 

I start this podcast with a story. Last year I completed an epic nine-day, 1000 mile cycle adventure from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for my local hospice, St Christophers in Sydenham South London (there’s a link below – please do support their latest What Matters Most campaign).

It was an interesting and rather challenging few days. We used well planned routes that kept us off the main roads and largely away from the madness of the Strategic Road Network 

But what it did highlight was the variability and often shockingly terrible condition of the road surfaces and cycle ways available to those battling the elements on two wheels. 

Yes, there were some lovely stretches of smooth, deserted backroad to travel along, But there were also many appalling road surfaces to navigate, and some really poorly thought out and maintained dedicated cycle ways - which, frankly, were more dangerous that the main carriageway.

Nothing new of course to the average commuter cyclist or Sunday tourer. But it does get you thinking. With the rising demand for active travel - which is being supercharged through ubiquitous electric hire bikes and scooters across every major UK city, surely this problem has to be solved?

Which brings me back to today… fortunately on my cycle adventure someone else carried my bags. All I had on my bike was water bottles, a puncture kit, my Wahoo bike computer, iPhone 

And my wonderful high tech internet enabled See.Sense safety lights - which not only kept me safe with their excellent bright and reactive lighting, but that also monitored the road conditions and my cycling decisions every pedal stroke and pothole along the way.

It is therefore my pleasure to welcome Irene and Philip McAleese to the podcast today, the couple from Northern Ireland who invented my lights and this technology - it’s a fascinating story.

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