London's Santander bikes get high-tech laser lights amid arms race to be seen

Great as it is to see Blaze's Laserlights trialled for some of the hire bikes, proper infrastructure would be even better

Among the attractions of London's city-wide bike hire scheme, like those elsewhere, is its fundamental sameness: use one of the machines and, once you've checked for a wobbly saddle or rubbing wheel, you know it will look and ride more or less exactly like its 11,000-plus fellows.

Until now. The bike scheme, now sponsored by Santander and so newly red rather than blue, has just announced it is fitting 250 of its bikes with a posh gizmo called the Blaze Laserlight.