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Glow-In-The-Dark Smart Highways Coming To the Netherlands In 2013
An anonymous reader writes "The Netherlands is moving forward with plans to build 'smart' highways that can become more easily visible in the dark or communicate weather conditions to drivers. Work will begin as early as next year. 'Special paint will also be used to paint markers like snowflakes across the road's surface — when temperatures fall to a certain point, these images will become visible, indicating that the surface will likely be slippery. Roosegaarde says this technology has been around for years, on things like baby food — the studio has just up-scaled it. The first few hundred meters of glow in the dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Brabant in mid-2013, followed by priority induction lanes for electric vehicles, interactive lights that switch on as cars pass and wind-powered lights within the next five years.'"
but cautious corporate officials decided to wait for AOL Netscape's patent on the "blink" tag to expire.
How will drivers see glow in the dark images when there is snow on the roads?
What happens when a really dirty set of tires goes over these markings on the road continuously? If they are not visible, will that lead to more accidents? It seems like a "smarter" thing to do would be to somehow network these highways electronically or using WiFi or something so that you can then use the computer in your car or smartphone to get very localized information about the conditions on the road on which you are driving.
http://xkcd.com/678/
If you'd written "dike" instead of "dyke", maybe your joke would have been amusingly relevant instead of offensive.
High friction surface which requires constant work and they want to paint it in temperature sensitive markings which will get covered in sot and worn down in a heartbeat? Prolonging any and all road maintenance.
Why not just have a sign painted in the same material which does the same job, except you can actually see it a lot easier?
I do like the idea of glow in the dark roads for increased visibility, but not for reading the temperature.
Now if the Netherlands would re-relax their laws concerning foreigners purchasing recreational drugs, I could really see a huge spike in tourism next year
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Our roads turn white to signal that it is snowing.
I'm glad there's at least one country on the planet with a clue. Or at least way more than anyplace else.
If you'd written "dike" instead of "dyke", maybe your joke would have been amusingly relevant instead of offensive.
Either way, you still have to stick your finger in 'em.
If you'd written "dike" instead of "dyke", maybe your joke would have been amusingly relevant instead of offensive.
Either way, you still have to stick your finger in 'em.
But then your finger would glow!
If you'd written "dike" instead of "dyke", maybe your joke would have been amusingly relevant instead of offensive.
dyke (plural dykes)
low dry-stone wall
hedge
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dyke
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
There's a stretch of highway by my place that has these really cool LED lights countersunk into the centre line that I'm sure were marketed as a great way to increase safety. The stretch of highway is a narrow 2 lane non-divided temporary by pass around a construction zone (major interchange being built to no where).
The problem with these fancy LEDs is they are so dim that I actually find myself quite distracted trying to determine if they are in fact glowing. Had they gone with a much lower tech solution of putting countersunk reflectors, my headlights would have gladly lit up the centre line.
Glow in the dark stickers, etc. only work when the surrounding area is really dark, otherwise there just isn't enough contrast.
I hope this tech provides a significant visual contrast or else it will just be a distracting and annoying waste of money.
I'm in my right mind and I have the answer to everything!
Now coming to a road near you!
Germany already has glowing lines and signs. The stripes on the major roads are highly reflective, so you need no glowing paint, as long as you have good lights. Some signs are also luminescent, but do not glow as much as it was proposed in the pictures of this design. German car manufacturers have been thinking about inductive charging too. The Electricity in here is expensive, so the proposal with inefficient charging was not welcomed by reality. I believe that the city of Dresden was thinking about inductive charging for trams and buses. Not sure what became of that, but they probably will do it after the state financed university will figure out how to do it cheaper than gasoline, diesel and gas.
~ Best man at your service.
If you'd written "dike" instead of "dyke", maybe your joke would have been amusingly relevant instead of offensive.
If you're really that easily offended .. what the hell are you DOING on the internet?!
What are the "priority induction lanes for electric vehicles"? Do they inductively charge electric vehicles? Are they toll lanes to pay for the electricity?
If you'd written "dike" instead of "dyke", maybe your joke would have been amusingly relevant instead of offensive.
Easily offended types like you already neutered TV, newspapers, radio, and made USA the laughing stock of the world over one breast during a half-time show.
Do you guys ever get together and say "yep, maybe we've done enough damage?" Do you ever say "hey maybe I should control myself and what I choose to expose myself and my family to, man that sure would be easier than trying to censor and guilt-trip-control the whole rest of the world!"
The first few hundred meters of glow in the dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Brabant in mid-2013
They do realize .. you had to be outside to either get in the car or at least to pull out of the garage, right? Might notice things like "shit it's below freezing" or "shit it's snowy, roads might be slick". Just sayin'.
I don't know if you've ever driving in winter conditions... but you do realize that road surface temperature differs from air temperature, and varies over time and distance? It might be 5 degrees when you leave your office, but by the time you reach your home outside of the city, it may have dropped to below freezing.
interactive lights that switch on as cars pass
That sounds impressively unhelpful and annoying.
Why?
I'm going to assume that it leads your vehicle by some distance, so that you are driving into lit road. If no cars pass for a short time, it turns off. I doubt it will literally come on as your car passes the particular light in question.
The first few hundred meters of glow in the dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Brabant in mid-2013
They do realize .. you had to be outside to either get in the car or at least to pull out of the garage, right? Might notice things like "shit it's below freezing" or "shit it's snowy, roads might be slick". Just sayin'.
I don't know if you've ever driving in winter conditions... but you do realize that road surface temperature differs from air temperature, and varies over time and distance? It might be 5 degrees when you leave your office, but by the time you reach your home outside of the city, it may have dropped to below freezing.
I'm one of those weird guys who believes in fixing a problem at the source of the problem.
Anyone who doesn't understand that and think it's bleedin' obvious is not qualified to drive a car and should never receive a license until they get a clue.
Unlike this proposal, it would SAVE money, not cost money.
I don't know if you've ever driving in winter conditions... but you do realize that road surface temperature differs from air temperature, and varies over time and distance? It might be 5 degrees when you leave your office, but by the time you reach your home outside of the city, it may have dropped to below freezing.
I drive in "winter conditions" 5-7 months every year. And I see no use for warnings built into the road. Yes - road surface temperature vary over time and vary from air temperature. But everybody knows that very well, so no warning needed. Winter conditions hold no surprises . . .
I drive in "winter conditions" 5-7 months every year...
So you're familiar with it. This kind of system would be entirely appropriate for somewhere that gets frozen-road conditions only a few days of the year, or areas that experience high amounts of traffic from out-of-towners.
This is for the visitors - the kind of idiot who follows his GPS into a lake - not the locals.
I've driven from Dallas to Fargo in one day. Dallas was warm. Fargo was less so. If it passed below freezing, I wouldn't know. Yes, I got out to fill up, and it was colder than TX, but no idea on what the temperature was. Though many cars have temperature, which seems a better way to gauge, unless the air temp is significantly different than the road temperature.
Learn to love Alaska
You say that like "guilt-trip-control" is a means to an end. It's not.
The first few hundred meters of glow in the dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Brabant in mid-2013
They do realize .. you had to be outside to either get in the car or at least to pull out of the garage, right? Might notice things like "shit it's below freezing" or "shit it's snowy, roads might be slick". Just sayin'.
I don't know if you've ever driving in winter conditions... but you do realize that road surface temperature differs from air temperature, and varies over time and distance? It might be 5 degrees when you leave your office, but by the time you reach your home outside of the city, it may have dropped to below freezing.
I'm one of those weird guys who believes in fixing a problem at the source of the problem.
Anyone who doesn't understand that and think it's bleedin' obvious is not qualified to drive a car and should never receive a license until they get a clue.
Unlike this proposal, it would SAVE money, not cost money.
How do you know it would SAVE money to not have freeze warning indicators painted on the roads? They didn't give any price for the indicators in the article, nor did they give any estimate of how many accidents it could prevent.
If it costs $1000/mile to paint the indicators on the roads, and prevents one $10,000 accident per 10 miles, then it would break even.
I don't know about the drivers in the Netherlands, but I can say with some certainty that many of the licensed drivers in the USA indeed do not have a clue. This is especially evident when driving to the mountains on ski weekends and seeing the reckless driving and accidents from out-of-area drivers that really have no clue about how to drive safely in winter conditions since they only drive in snow 3 weekends a year in a rented SUV. I think drivers like this would definitely benefit from freeze warning indicators.
temperature to make sure you don't burn the baby
Learn to love Alaska
There's baby food which contains an image which gets visible when its surface becomes slippery? WTFBBQ.
I think a better example is the beer bottle labels that change color to tell you when the beer is at optimal drinking temperature. No need to actually touch the bottle to see if the beer is cold enough to drink.
Though I suppose with some beers, this label actually is useful to make sure the beer is ice cold before drinking to make it more palatable.
I'd like some of that here, to reduce light pollution.
I hope they're not going to try to patent this.
Fukushima and Pripyat already have glow in the dark roads!
Thanks. I'll be here all week. Or at least until management kicks me out.....
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
I drive in massive snow, and a "glow in the dark" road will be useless as it will be under 1 foot of snow.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Buick and BMW cars have had freeze warning sensors in them cince 1979. Why is this not stock in all cars made?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Those socialist hell-holes get all the good stuff.
But we'll have the last laugh when the US becomes one big Foxconn dormitory, because we'll still have our liberty.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I also drive in horrible winter conditions for almost half of the year and have had to deal with icy roads in almost every month of the year at some point. I've actually never been in an accident as a result. But my first thought in response to "no warning needed" is "screw you, I'll take every warning or indicator I can get if reasonably priced." Shit happens, not everyone is in perfect mental condition when driving, even seasoned drivers make misjudgements. Experience can at times almost be a risk at times, as people become complacent and cut corners. I've also seen enough drivers claim to be good or amazing drivers who actually aren't, and thought maybe I shouldn't assume I am above average either. I also realize the road shouldn't be built for what the good drivers can handle anyways, it should be built for what the bad drivers can handle, as they can take you out with them. Besides, you can chose to ignore the indicators, but you can't chose to pay attention to them if there not there.
This not to say I think they should be installed everywhere... I would need to see the costs and effectiveness before supporting it. It is not like I am the type that thinks everyone should be driving 5 mph, as people still need to get from point A to B in a reasonable time.
So someone invents an alien shape-shifting (OK I exaggerate, color-shifting) technology, and the first use we think of is to put it in babyfood?
time.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
I drive in massive snow, and a "glow in the dark" road will be useless as it will be under 1 foot of snow.
If you can't tell from the 12 inches of snow on the road that the road may be slippery, perhaps you're not cut out for driving.
But if you're in an area that doesn't get a lot of permanent snow, yet temperatures hover around freezing, you might find this more useful.
If it's got a foot of snow on it, it's likely not very slippery. It's the thin sheen of ice that's dangerous. You can go from good traction to no traction in a fraction of a second.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Trippy dude
It depends on the climate, I think. In some places, the snow is very dry. In other places, there is a thick solid layer of ice underneath.
I'm so surprised that so many people seem opposed to this.
In the parts of Canada that I've been to, we get thick layers of ice on the road, and it can be covered up by snow. Even in a story that I read, it was common for the characters to skate to school. When I was in college in Alberta, I would go about in a skating motion from building to building, when it was slippery enough. They could put salt on the walkways, but the bottom line is that life happens.
testing out my trending skills
Because the warning light might as well say "UFO overhead." A freezing warning means nothing to someone who has no idea how to drive in such weather. As a former Calgarian (Alberta), suddenly finding yourself on a stretch of ice that not even ABS can handle requires a steady hand and a calm head. Experience has taught me what to do and how, and fortunately without a single dent in the process, but to an inexperienced driver it's plain panic, pumping the pedal pointlessly.
End result: those people would still be in the ditch.
Because they provide no value.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
Here in The Netherlands winter doesn't automatically means snow or temperatures below zero. So you can't see that roads are slippery. More often than not it's just below zero. The problem starts if it drizzled during the night and you only have ground frost. Then you get black ice. Which you don't see. Of course, if you walk towards your car you might know roads are slippery, but that doesn't guarantee that all roads are (or aren't) slippery.
As a motorbike rider it may have been useful way back when I first began, though without the ability to also indicate oil and diesel spills it's kind of a novelty, just some road eye candy.
You learn real early where the slippery stuff is so you look for it as a matter of routine.
Is this special paint also slippery in the wet (just like regular line markings) for the crowd on two wheels?
I think drivers like this would definitely benefit from freeze warning indicators.
And I think you're wrong, since they
have no clue about how to drive safely in winter conditions
-- Braden's law of data: All data spends some of its lifetime in an excel spreadsheet.
Well, the average Dutch driver doesn't have much clue either, believe me.
It's because we see your anger and it is delicious to us. It's always a beautiful sight, the impotent frustration when a privileged ass realizes the world no longer revolves around them. Think about what our troll wrote. 'Dyke', an offensive term for lesbian (or, in a lot of immature spaces, 'any woman to whom I feel entitled but she disagrees'), from a probably-almost-certainly male poster, with overtones of sexual aggression. 'Stick your fingers in them'? Really?
I know in the good old days men could broadcast this kind of casual, misogynistic violence with impunity, but those days are (thankfully) coming to an end.
Reacting to violence is not being "overly sensitive".
Around here a much cheaper solution is implemented, signs that say "Bridge freezes before road surface".
Perhaps the answer is to put a laser pyrometer on the front of the vehicle, and illuminate a snowflake on the dash when the road is freezing, and could be iced up. Look ma, no repainting, and can be upgraded for each driver. Of course, flip side, it has to be upgraded for each driver. But they're mandating everything else these days, why not that
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Actually, my first thought was: Instead of indicating where the road was slippery, why don't they develop a paint that will become rougher or stickier when conditions would make normal pavement slippery.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Oh fuck off, you oversensitive dyke. Just because you happen to have a vagina, doesn't make you entitled to live in a politically correct dystopia. You are a bald monkey, who will live, die and rot away. Just like the rest of us.
Before you label me as a mysoginistic piece of straight, male scum, just out to denigrate you and tranform you into a sexual object, I have to tell you, you're wrong. I'm a gay, a sissy, a faggot, a fudgepacker, a queer. I'm light on my feet.
# touch universe # chmod +rwx universe #
This is for the visitors - the kind of idiot who follows his GPS into a lake - not the locals.
No that'd be the USA. No lakes in Brabant except for the mosquito/frog mud holes designed by environment politicians.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
As an average Dutch driver I have to agree even if I feel I do not fit that description.
German drivers know how to drive on a highway.
Left side is for driving FUCKING FAST!
If you see the dot in your backmirror growing larger, it means there is someone driving FUCKING FASTER!
And they.. move aside to the right lane.
On the dutch motorways, you just dump your car infront of the guy driving 160kmh even though you are driving 100
Because god forbid you have to slow down and wait for him to pass.
In other news, flashing your breaklights is really fun if there is a slow moving traffic-jam, because the one thing moving traffic-jams need is a wave of breaking cars because you can't handle the gas-throttle between "pressed through your car-floor" and "firmly pressed on the break".
Dutch are in general, assholes as soon as they get in their car.
So, what's the ETA on that car-robot google seems to play around with?
Like, nobody's suggested markers that light up when there are zombies ahead?
Or (good luck with this one), markers that respond to cars passing over them (like the in-pavement triggers for left-turn lights) by lighting up for the next 3 seconds to indicate to the next driver that he's driving too dang close to the car in front of him.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
It's likely cheaper to paint a road than upgrade millions of cars.
Learn to love Alaska
I'm sure it is, but people upgrade their cars anyway. We're forcing ABS, TC and yaw control on everyone in the USA through upgrades, not retrofits.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Then do both, and abandon the maintenance on the road paint once 100% thermometer adoption is complete. They paint the roads routinely, so I don't think the snowflake paint will be that costly or complex.
Learn to love Alaska
I haven't owned a car since a 1994 Ford Ranger that didn't have this kind of warning. I think it is fairly standard now. The article is talking about freeze warnings painted onto the road surface.
It would only be useful for few days of the year freezing conditions. Anywhere with more prolonged winter will have snow and ice buildup covering anything painted on the roads. The summary mentions a lot of other things that are unrelated to winter driving and would be beneficial anywhere.
I'd be more interested in them finding a way for the roads here to not lose an entire lane of traffic for 6 months. Once the lines get covered with snow and ice its a free for all that usually results in one less lane of travel.
"Dyke" is also an alternative spelling of a water control dam or levee. I believe there is a story about a Dutch kid that sticks his finger in a dyke to stop a leak. The original post could easily be taken for a joke about glow in the dark holes to make it easier to stop leaks, or you could take it as some kind of markings for Dutch lesbians angle like you did.
Save your anger for when someone actually does say something offensive. You will get a better response when people don't think you're overly critical about a joke.