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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/
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.
Our roads turn white to signal that it is snowing.
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!
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?
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 #