Instead of strapping a fat guy onto your bike, a new—smaller—gadget has been created for bikers who are tired of getting stuck at red lights due to their bike's weight. This device can trick traffic lights into believing the bike is actually a car by sending out a strong magnetic field, thus tripping the induction-loop sensors in the roads. However, because this gadget is still only a prototype, it currently isn't available to consumers, so don't rid of your personal fatty quite yet! [Wired]

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Of all the Big Brother things corporations, governments, and other nosy entities that want to examine all the minutiae of our daily lives looking for transgressions of stupid little rules, I feel like speedtrap cameras are the most egregious. Endemic in Europe, they're gaining a foothold in the US. They break the whole system that governs the way we drive on American highways, the fundamental fairness of the road, that unspoken agreement between poh-lice and people who drive: It's only speeding if a living, breathing cop spots you. And even then, they might just let you pass. The Mini Coyote from Novus can restore this balance.

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Nokia, in collaboration with UC Berkeley, has opened a six-month pilot program for Mobile Millennium, a crowdsourced traffic reporting system that grabs data from GPS-equipped mobile phones. The Mobile Millennium client will work on any Java-capable GPS phones with a data plan, so the hope is that adoption would be wide enough to provide useful, real-time traffic data to potential travelers.

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It's been a year since Intelematics launched their SUNA traffic channel in Melbourne - since then it's been extended to Sydney and Brisbane and is available on six of the top satnav manufacturers units. Wait... better make that seven brands, with today's announcement that selected Uniden satnavs will now play friendly with the SUNA traffic channel.

The Uniden Trax 436 is SUNA compatible straight out of the box. Considering it has an RRP of $500 and comes with bonus mapping for all of New Zealand, it actually sounds like a pretty good deal. At the moment it isn't clear whether or not any other models are traffic-compatible with an external TMC antenna, but it would surprise me if they weren't.

In any case - more satnav options with Traffic is a great thing no matter which way you look at it.

On Monday Nokia, NAVTEQ and UC Berkeley will launch the Mobile Millennium project which will use GPS data from thousands of mobile phones to gather traffic information in the San Francisco Bay Area. By having users relay and access the information, it will enable them to find and avoid traffic congestion, similar to the Dash Express GPS system. I'd participate, but I wonder how much researchers would benefit from my daily commute from bed to kitchen table.

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Those traffic loop sensors embedded at stop lights to detect the presence of a car have always provided fodder for vehicular snake oil vendors: I've seen products promising to eliminate red lights ONCE AND FOR ALL by ingeniously fooling a mysterious (but gullible, apparently) system hidden below the pavement. While false promises abound, this patent for bicycles seems to be more on the legit side, and could result in more carefree whizzing through intersections than previously allowed.

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You know a marketing exec with a fiercely long commute at UK-based credit card provider Barclaycard must have been daydreaming one day about being whisked back home by a water slide. If I didn't sit at home working in my underwear this would be my dream too. [Barclaycard via The Raw Feed]

Satnavs have been fairly stagnant feature-wise since the SUNA traffic channel launched in Australia - each company has their own version of the same thing, so ultimately it comes down to a UI or design choice on the part of the consumer. But the new Go 730 and 930 from TomTom looks to change that with their iQ Routes technology.

Essentially, it analyses every possible route and works out the fastest trip, not necessarily the shortest, depending on speed limits, roundabouts, traffic lights and other stuff that will slow you down. Then it will recommend which route will take the least amount of time.

In addition to this new tech, both the 730 and the 930 let you enter your destination address by voice - simply say where you want to go, rather than keying in the details. The 930 stands apart thanks to the inclusion of world mapping (meaning you don't need to pay extra for maps on your driving trip around New Zealand (or Ireland, Europe, the US etc.) and a Bluetooth remote control.

Both models will be hitting shops in November, with the 730 costing $549 and the 930 going for $849. Or, if you want traffic straight out of the box, you can get a version of each for an extra $100.

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Researchers at MIT are using computer networks and cabbies to tackle a routine problem that I, personally, can attest to: Boston area traffic jams. Called CarTel (get it?), the system creates a network by way of cell phone-sized black boxes. The boxes currently sit on board 50 cars and taxis in the Boston area. Drivers access the CarTel web portal for real-time info on their own vehicle as well as those around them. "Everybody's data is contributing to collective views of what congestion looks like," said MIT associate professor Samuel Madden.

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Intelematics, those traffic-lovin' Victorians who created the SUNA traffic channel for your satnav, are bringing their traffic updates to digital radio when it launches in May next year.

While the service won't be anywhere near as comprehensive or practical as the navigation built-in to your satnav (which lets you reroute to avoid congestion), this service will instead act more like the traffic updates you get from the radio already, except in text form on new DAB+ radios.

It won't cost anything to the user, so long as they have one of these new radio receivers in their car. And while most people aren't going to head to the local auto shop and buy a new radio for their car, within a few years pretty much all the new cars will come standard with these new radios, meaning traffic information will be readily available for people who own shiny new cars.

Actually, even though this is a pretty cool service for digital radio (which is almost certainly going to struggle to gain traction here), it'd still be cheaper to just buy a traffic-enabled satnav...

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