Northern Europe wins at everything except weather. link One stretch of road in the Netherlands may make you feel like you're cruising through a video game. A new glow-in-the-dark pavement has replaced power-sucking streetlights for a 500m (.3mi) piece of the highway. The result is a Tron-like street that shines courtesy of solar-powered photo-luminescent powder incorporated into the road paint. This is just a proof of concept, but its creator, Studio Roosegaarde, hopes to use parks as a testing ground for new versions of the product. Down the road, new iterations might even include informational markers -- like functional street art. For instance, in freezing temperatures the entire surface might light up with giant flakes to alert drivers (until they get buried by snow). There are also plans to incorporate wind-powered lights that shine only when cars are nearby, and ultimately a special lane where electric cars could charge up while they drive. As you might imagine, the road will have to pass several government safety and durability tests before we can just throw out our streetlights but the glow-in-the-dark road, however, paves the way for the next generation of highways. Hopefully, future versions also support our flying cars -- those are coming soon, right? <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IBTx87xiscs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
How is it the euros are always light years ahead of us. First they introduce us to hot blonds now this!
There's a UK company that has something similar for sidewalks. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/...light_victoria_park_in_cambridge_england.html
The biggest problem is the roads become virtually invisible when it rains at night. The roads become like mirrors, and driving on wet roads at night is just a ridiculously stressful experience.
Pshhh... why would they make them edible...?!?!?! You'd be eating while driving and we all know that's a no-n... WAIT A MINUTE... WAIT A MINUTE... that's a GREAT IDEA!!!
Cool idea but I really hope they don't take this too far as street art. Distracted driving is already a big problem and the last thing I want is things like glowing art in the pavement.
There is nothing that I want to do more at this very moment than drive on that road at night with the TRON soundtrack playing
Only a matter of time before some sick b*stard paints lines off into a tree with glow in the dark spray paint.
I'll second that. Some of the roads out here where I'm at (just on the Ill. side of STL) are as dark as dark gets at night. No houses, no street lights, no real sign of civilization for miles at a time. Just woods and fields of corn and soybean. There are no stripes in the lanes and the width of the supposed two-lane highway is about the size of 1.5 lanes on a normal highway. Deer are all over the place, particularly in the fall, and if one decides to jump out, it's so dark on the roads that you wouldn't stand a chance of doing anything to get out of the way.
Could you imagine riding in the passenger seat while having taken LSD? That's some awesome stuff right there.
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