Riding smartly: Roanoke business offers safety tool for cyclists

Warren Schimizzi has had a few sparks of entrepreneurship before, but none that really stuck.

Schimizzi, an avid bicyclist, said he finally found the right idea last year with the birth of his business, QRide. The company sells stickers meant to be placed on a cyclist’s helmet that can be scanned by a smartphone in the event of an accident. The stickers use a QR code, a type of bar code, which is read by a phone’s camera to display vital information about the cyclist.

The system is similar to MedicAlert, which sells ID cards, bracelets and necklaces to alert emergency personnel or bystanders to a victim’s medical history.

But Schimizzi said those types of items are often forgotten by cyclists.

“If you wear a helmet, it’s on there all the time,” he said. “You don’t have to remember it.”

Unlike MedicAlert’s bracelets and necklaces or competitor RoadID’s shoelace plaques and other products, QRide can display a virtually unlimited amount of information because it’s Internet-based, Schimizzi said. Those details, like a medical history, blood type and family contacts, can be updated on QRide’s website by the customer at any time.

QRide is the 44-year-old Roanoker’s first business. He started it in October as a side project while working as a salesman for a telecommunications wholesaler in Roanoke.

“The idea is definitely a result of a lot of prayer,” he said.

Schimizzi and his wife, Paula, are both passionate cyclists, but they often ride at different times because of conflicting work schedules. He worried about what might happen if his wife was in an accident and couldn’t call for help.

“If you crash, the first person who’s going to find you is almost never going to be an EMT,” Schimizzi said. “It’s going to be another cyclist. The first place you’re going to look is at their face to see if they’re OK. So that’s why I put it on there.”

Schimizzi believes QRide is the first company in the country to offer such a product. Other businesses and localities have launched similar services, but they’ve not been targeted directly to bicyclists.

The stickers can be found in several area bike shops, including East Coasters in Roanoke and Blacksburg, Cardinal Bicycle in Roanoke and Just the Right Gear in Salem. Manufactured by a third-party company, they’re sold in packs of two and retail for a suggested price of $19.99.

Schimizzi would not say how much money his company has made so far but estimated he’s gone through about 300 pairs of stickers since producing a first run late last year. He’s the company’s only employee.

At East Coasters in Roanoke, service manager Jeff Cheng said the stickers have been selling well, though he didn’t have specific sales figures.

“I think they’re an excellent idea,” Cheng said. “It’s not something that everybody thinks about, but it’s a good thing to have.”

Cheng said he doesn’t carry medical identification with him when he rides but was planning to reconsider after being interviewed.

“My wife rides, we go out, but I don’t carry any sort of medical ID on me,” he said. “We probably should.”

Tiffany Bradbury, a spokeswoman for Roanoke Fire-EMS, lauded products like QRide for the potential benefit they provide an accident victim.

“All these types of informational devices that are available to us as first responders are great,” she said. “The quicker we can get info on the patient, the better pre-hospital care we can give them.”

Bicyclists’ medical information is stored on QRide’s website and can be viewed by anyone who has access to an individual’s sticker, Schimizzi said. He said users shouldn’t store potentially sensitive information like a Social Security number with the company.

Schimizzi said he plans to leave his current job and make QRide a full-time endeavor beginning in July. He wants to begin selling the stickers to retailers nationally and in Canada and is considering making a larger size for motorcyclists.

Chris Berry, president of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, said he thinks the stickers have applications for outdoor activities outside of bicycling, like kayaking and rock climbing.

“I think it’s a really cool idea,” Berry said. “Anyone who is involved in any sort of an outdoor activity where a serious physical injury is possible could take advantage of this.”

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