Safety beacons
Something goes wrong on a ride — a crash, an injury, a mechanical you can't fix in the middle of nowhere. A beacon tells the people who can actually help: your safety contacts first, then, if you choose, riders nearby.
Sykla is not an emergency service. If a situation is life-threatening, the app prompts you to call 911 first, before anything else. A beacon never replaces that call.
How it works
- Three tiers. Life-threatening, injury, or mechanical. For life-threatening situations the app puts calling 911 in front of you before the beacon goes anywhere.
- Your safety contacts come first. People you pick — in the app or by phone number. They get your location, your note, and a live report link. Contacts always hear about your beacon, no matter what.
- Nearby riders, if you want them. You choose whether riders within about 15 km see your beacon in-app or get a push notification. Riders who come are volunteers — "heading there" is a courtesy signal, not dispatched help.
- A 60-second undo. Pocket-fired a beacon? Cancel within a minute and nothing goes out to the community.
- Honest closure. You (or, if you can't, a responder who arrived) mark the beacon resolved, and everyone still heading your way is stood down. Beacons quietly expire after 4 hours.
Keeping it trustworthy
- False alarms have consequences — with a floor. If responders arrive and the scene wasn't as described, repeat offenders lose the community audience: first the push group, then nearby riders. Their own safety contacts are never cut off. Restrictions age out after 90 days.
- You control who shows up. If a responder made you uncomfortable, report them from the beacon — they immediately stop seeing your beacons, and a pattern of reports removes them from everyone's.
- Your report page is private by obscurity and design. The link only exists for the people you send it to, and it shows your first-name display name, never your account details.