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As the authorities struggled to get the power back on in Sandy-stricken areas of the northeastern United States last week, I couldn't help but think: Wouldn't it be nice if some of the infrastructure itself had its own power? Studio Roosegaarde, the Netherlands-based "international design laboratory," has a neat idea along these lines. Their Smart Highway project was awarded Best Future Concept at the Dutch Design Awards earlier this week.
The Smart Highway's brilliant central idea is that the road surface would have glow-in-the-dark elements embedded within it that would soak up sunlight during the day, allowing them to store up 10 hours' worth of illumination at night. There would also be graphic elements, like giant painted snowflakes that would appear in response to low temperatures, to indicate freezing conditions and warn drivers of slipperiness.
While the project won Best Future Concept, this isn't pie-in-the-sky; Studio founder Daan Roosegaarde has partnered up with a paint manufacturer that can actually produce the stuff, and with the help of Dutch infrastructure management group Heijmans, they'll begin applying it to a several-hundred-meter stretch of roadway in Brabant, Holland, sometime next year. "Heijmans and Roosegaarde," Daan told Wired UK, "are not going to wait any longer for innovations to find their way through the political system, but will start building this highway now."
Comments
Current divider lanes use retroreflective paint. They light up when hit with the headlights of oncoming cars, reflecting the light back in the direction of the source (the driver). Which is a very clever solution in itself, leveraging existing systems (headlights) to outperform passive solutions.
A glow-in the dark system like the one proposed would appear much less bright to a driver, and would only be an improvement if cars stopped having headlights.
If anything, there should be MORE retroreflection...that way, we could replace streetlights with the ambient light from the headlights.
Who ever came up with this idea has been playing Forza Horizon...
I just want someone to make the lines on I-95 going through Providence, Rhode Island work when it is raining at night.
I think it's a great idea, it's true there are reflective glass beads mixed with or on the paint that light up the road markings when lit by a car's headlight, but having them lit up, even at low brightness, would still enable drivers to see farther away where the road is going. Of course it won't replace headlights to see obstacles and road conditions, but it could certainly help.
I wonder how they would appear when covered in snow/slush/ice?