Holland has more bicycles than people in the country, and the same goes for smartphones. Although it’s ethical to say that cyclists are quite vulnerable in traffic compared to motorists, in Holland they rule the roads, especially in large cities where everyone’s cheerfully whatsapping, texting and navigating on his/her bike and not minding traffic rules, or indicating direction with so much as a simple arm movement like everyone was taught in school. Police, also on bicycles, turn a blind eye.

In a bid to give cyclists at least an indicator and so make them even bolder in traffic, Vodafone has developed the Smart Jacket. On your smartphone you enter your destination and then put the phone away in a special pocket on the jacket (so sadly you can’t hold it!). Bright arrows on your back then indicate the turn you are going to take and another arrow on your sleeve lights up to tell you (!) where to navigate to. On the down side with the phone safe behind a zipper there’s no social-media’ing, selfie’ing, texting, or babbling while you ride. To cheer up everyone else in traffic the jacket is capable of showing the Vodafone logo, a smiley, or

THA
NKS
 
on the back.