A new attempt to achieve better Road Safety

Smart Highways and glow in the dark roads being tested


by Torsten 1mak Schmidt
– 2429 Readers

It may look like you've stepped into the Tron universe with its glowing neon lanes, but for designers at Studio Roosegarde, creators of glow in the dark road markings, the reality of energy conservation is far from fantasy.

Renewable energy is becoming the catchphrase of the future, and this Netherlands-based company are doing their bit to save electricity by eliminating the need for street lights. The brightly glowing markings appear along a 500m strip of the N329 highway in Oss and are created using a photo-luminescent powder integrated into the road paint, developed in conjunction with road construction company Heijmans.

There's no news yet on how the paint holds up against wear and tear the glow lasts up to eight hours once powered throughout the day, but a patchy inconsistent strip would not pave the way as effectively as energy-guzzling street lights.

Considering the huge electricity cost savings, it's in the interests of road operators to employ these sorts of trials, however they often get held up by government red tape. Roosegarde recently issued a call to action, stating "There needs to be a call to ministers all over the world. This is a problem, and we should not accept it. We should create labs in the city where we can experiment and explore these kinds of solutions."

If the trial proves successful, the future of our highways looks bright.



Source
arstechnica.com