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Even in an exciting city, traveling the same route every day is boring. On foot or by bicycle in Manhattan, I’ll often take different routes to a familiar destination for the sake of variety. This occasionally pays off when I spot a new café I’d like to try, spy something novel in a store window, or run into someone on the street that I haven’t seen in years.

Along these lines, London-based cyclists Mark Jenner and Tom Putnam in collaboration with MAP Project Office have figured out how to combine random variety with the necessary precision of a navigation system. Their product, BeeLine, is a handlebar-mounted navigator that knows exactly where you want to end up, but doesn’t guide you there turn by turn; instead it provides the most basic of feedback, a simple graphic arrow, that rotates compass-like to always be pointing at your ultimate destination. The twists and turns you take along the way are thus up to you, and the unit will fit a variety of handlebar styles.

« The idea is to open up the city for exploration, » the duo writes, « and put urban cyclists back in control of their journey. »

Here’s their Kickstarter pitch, launching today:

The device is expected to retail for £60 (US $90) but the first 200 pledgers will be able to snag a beeline for as low as £30.

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