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Futuristic Highway Will Glow In the Dark For Icy Conditions
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Will Oremus reports that a glow-in-the-dark highway will be installed in the Netherlands that will replace standard road markings with photoluminescent powder that charges in the daylight and glows through the night for up to 10 hours. But the new highway's most interesting feature is when the temperature drops below freezing, the road will automatically light up with snowflake indicators to warn drivers of icy conditions (video). 'One day I was sitting in my car in the Netherlands, and I was amazed by these roads we spend millions on but no one seems to care what they look like and how they behave,' says designer Daan Roosegaarde. 'I started imagining this Route 66 of the future where technology jumps out of the computer screen and becomes part of us.' The first few hundred meters of glow-in-the-dark, weather-indicating road will be installed in the province of Branbant 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. 'Research on smart transportation systems and smart roads has existed for over 30 years — call any transportation and infrastructure specialist and you'll find out yourself,' adds Emina Sendijarevick. 'What's lacking is the implementation of those innovations and making those innovations intuitive and valuable to the end-consumers — drivers.'"
I had gloves that did that back in the 1970's.
Glad to finally see a more practical use for this 50 year old technology.
How is this going to be more visible than the highly reflective paint that is already used?
Many cars already notify you if icy conditions are likely to exist, snowflakes seem redundant.
Neither will be very visible when covered with snow and ice.
Or my car could sense tire traction, temperature and a few other sensor conditions to tell me this on the
big display. Oh wait, it does that now!
You're absolutely useless, aren't you Slashdot?
.com and the first is .co.uk. They were even published on the same day.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/10/30/2055259/glow-in-the-dark-smart-highways-coming-to-the-netherlands-in-2013
You even link to articles on the same site, just one is
That day being October 30th. Over 2 months ago. I think that would be considered "old" by any standard.
In the U.S. state of Virginia, Interstate 64 runs east–west through the middle of the state from West Virginia to the Hampton Roads region, a total of 298 miles (480 km). It is notable for crossing the mouth of the harbor of Hampton Roads on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, the first bridge-tunnel to incorporate man-made islands. Also noteworthy is a section through Rockfish Gap, a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which was equipped with an innovative system of airport-style runway lighting embedded into the pavement to aid motorists during periods of poor visibility due to fog or other conditions.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_64_in_Virginia
A lighting system within the pavement to help designate lanes automatically activated by fog sensors was installed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to improve safety during such weather conditions.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockfish_Gap
your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Guys, I am disappoint .I know you can do better. I've seen articles that are years old posted as news on Slashdot over the years
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/30/smart-highway-glows-in-the-dark
... but wouldn't honking great images of snowflakes on the ground rushing towards you (and then underneath your car) not be rather distracting?
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I'm going to guess you're in the U.S. ... road management in the Netherlands is done a bit differently.
I have a great ice indicator at home; They're called eyes. If I have to defrost my car in the morning, the roads could be icy. If there was recently slow or heavy rain, the roads could be very icy. In both conditions, I will drive slower and in a higher gear than normal, will use the brakes very sparingly and start decelerating earlier, and will leave a much longer gap between my car and the car in front.
Queue cries of "The ice indicator didn't show that there was ice on the road, so I did 60MPH around that blind bend. I'm not liable!" and a hefty hike in insurance premiums.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
TFA claims that government is not involved and the " Heijmans" company would build the road. That said, the Dutch road authority is actually quite innovative. They probably beat even then Germans when it comes to quality, e.g. see their use of low-noise/high drainage "ZOAB" road surfaces. Now, if only they'd actually bother with quantity...
What potential health impacts?
This is not ionizing, nor are you going to generate a lethal current in a human body. Go away nutter.
Unfortunately... if they had this feature in the US on any roadway... instantly, I could see people crashing their cars... and suing the state because they "couldn't see the snow flakes." :-|
It looks like all that has been approved is a short experimental section. If the paint has not been proven to be able to hold up under real conditions I doubt very much that anyone would approve a full scale implementation on all roads. How do the markings hold up to wear, salt, plows, etc? It appears that this testing is what is approved.
It would also seem that one would get many false positives. From the article the markings glow when the roads are cold. Slippery roads are not necessarily caused by cold alone. It needs to be cold and wet or humid to get slippery conditions. Cold and dry conditions do not cause slippery roads. Another point is that if the temperature is always below the threshold the road will always glow and people will ignore it.
1. The wind powered lights will require power lines for backup for when the wind isn't enough. You could add batteries into the mix but you will have still need the power lines and then have to maintain the batteries.
2. The glow in the dark road markings will wear off. Is the safe for the eviroment?
3.The glow in the dark road markings will be more expensive than the paint we use now. BTW current paint reflect a lot of light. Since cars have lights why make the roads markings glow?
4. Inductive charging roads? How much copper will that take?
All that money would be better spent on making sure all roads have reflective markings and maybe an AM radio based system of road condition warnings, digital data of course.
I have become convinced people come up with engineering scams. You come up with some really cool sounding or looking idea that has a lot of issues and extremely high costs. You then make nice presentations, you then get people saying, "this is cool", and then you get money to study the "problems" and build nothing or a small useless test system. Kind of like a cool picture of a bridge that had windmills under the roadway. It would have been expensive, a bad bridge, and a bad windmill.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Let's look at this simply. New system in road = new system cost * miles of road. Paid by government. Smarter cars and driver education work regardless of whether the road is smart and the cost (and as mentioned above the liability) rest on the car owner not the government.
Silence is a state of mime.
I'm not trying to insert a discussion of the pros and cons of the government making and maintaining roads, but simply trying to state that governments have very little, if any, incentive to improve roads, improve the safety of roads...
Emergency responders (police, fire rescue, etc.) for an accident cost county and state governments a lot. As does rebuilding damaged signs, light poles, and other road structures. Road closures due to accidents and constructions impact the local economy; if they're frequent enough, they'll generate political pressure. Particularly in rural areas, the state of the roads is one of the primary things that drives voters to choose one lizard over the other.
or use new innovative techniques. It usually takes a crisis before new things get implemented. Under normal circumstances they have very little incentive to continually raise the bar and wow the user (all of us) of the roads.
As well it should be. My first thought was, "Interesting, but sounds kind of half-baked." I'm glad the Netherlands is taking the lead on studying this, and I'm sure the rest of the world will gladly watch to see if the results justify the cost.
While this might hold true in the USA, it is not universal.
This is why Americans should travel more. For one I think all Americans should try driving on some nice German roads. Maybe we could start building them here.
More real-time webcams of roads there, they're all similar, with entire road surface covered in snow: http://www2.liikennevirasto.fi/alk/english/kelikamerat/kelikamerat_5.html
Looks like much of the USA in winter. Maybe not everyday, but at least several times a week.
Surely not. In such conditions they will neither collect enough light nor shine *that* brightly. Then again, you don't need an indicator to tell you it's cold when there is snow on the road. In Netherlands the problem is usually with temperatures that keep jumping up and down just over and under melting/freezing temperature, sometimes making roads treacherous. Winter temperatures here are a bit higher than in northern Finland of course.
As for the lanes, it's an improvement over normal paint... but nothing magic.
I so miss seeing stars...
So, get better headlights, stupid. If you're lucky, the bulbs are just growing dim, and you can replace them easily and cheaply. If you're unlucky, the reflective layer inside the bulb housings are oxidized and flaking. You can replace those for ~$75 to ~$125 each. If it were just YOUR life at risk, I wouldn't care. But, when you crash due to poor visibility, you're likely to take a pedestrian out.
I just double checked with my son. A set of Depo Performance Lights for a Camry runs right at $200. He also bought a pair of newfangled reflector bulbs to put into those light housings - his total bill was ~$300.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I live in Wisconsin. We have a nickname for anyone whose car goes in the ditch on the highway during a big snowstorm: morons. It's always some piece of crap minivan or Saturn Ion or Pontiac of some sort. The driver is always in a hurry or forgot that 4 wheel drive doesn't do anything for stopping and tada, ditch. Last major snowstorm there was approx 1 car in the ditch every 1.5 miles. No amount of sparkly snowflakes on the road will keep people that stupid from driving that stupidly, trust me. They're just idiots who will never learn their lesson. They're all Wisconsin plates too so don't go thinking it's someone from Texas or something who's never seen snow because those people are smart enough to stay home.
This idea would be a giant waste of time and money and not benefit anyone.
In the Netherlands, highways are more than cost-effective; taxes on cars generate more income than the highways cost. On top of that, their economic benefits far outweigh their costs as well. Traffic jams cost about 1% of the total budget of the dutch government in productivity losses. Add to that the prevented medical costs due to safe, modern, well maintained roads and I see more than enough incentive to properly maintain roads. Which is exactly what happens.
However, the Netherlands is one of the more densely populated western countries with relatively little highway per capitae; the US has more than 3 times as much kilometers of highway per capita as the Netherlands does. Therefore possibly the current level of maintenance on US highways actually is the most cost effective. The more roads you have, the less well maintained they will be.
0x or or snor perron?!
It is the mechanical engineers who have fallen so short of their assigned task. The other things they talked about constantly, video-phone and TV that hangs like a picture on the wall have been delivered by the electronic engineers. Even the hand held communicator that will put all the knowledge of the human race at the finger tips have been delivered. Though it is a big let down to realize that a huge percentage of knowledge of human race consists of cat videos and spoofed sub-titles of the Hitler movie.
Come on, Mech engineers. Step up to the plate. I am putting "Violate the Second law of thermodynamics" on the Kanban board. Deliverable as a beta feature for the preview release this quarter. And quantum mechanics. You are next. When are we getting the worm-hole to Andremeda? You guys keep going in circles. Just like your particles in that superconducting super-collider ring.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Some governments consider roads as critical for their competitive position. Without a good road-network, the Netherlands would loose their position as transport country and the work generated by the Rotterdam Harbor would dry up.
Accidents cause road-blocks which cause traffic jams. Hundreds of people in traffic jams idling costs enormous amounts of lost productivity and is bad for GDP.
With a social system ensuring everybody for health-case and a decent life standard when not able to work, avoiding accidents becomes an economical question.
I'm not stating the government does take all this into account, but at least the importance of a good and safe road-network for the whole country is understood.
Note, roads are not only there for those driving a car. Even if you do your groceries walking, ask yourself how your food ended up at the store. Ask yourself how the Ambulance managed to come to you when you need it.
My car has this rather advanced system. Once it becomes dark outside, I simply pull a little knob on the dashboard and an integral lighting system is activated, illuminating the road, pedestrians and other obstacles ahead of me.
Have gnu, will travel.
the road will automatically light up with snowflake indicators to warn drivers of icy conditions (computer-generated video)
FTFY.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Well, the problem is that on average, it's dark for about 12 hours. And in the season when it becomes cold enough for it to trigger, it's dark even longer.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
For $300 you should get this instead. They give A LOT more light than any stock lights, no matter how shiny your reflector is. Of course, you should have decent low beams for when you meet traffic, but when you're talking high beams, go for some nice leds that you'll never have to replace. (I'm not affiliated with linked product, I just like them.)
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
Get outside the city, the roads are nearly flat as glass compared to my usual haunts.
We could build German roads in the U.S. but the cost to then ship those roads to Germany would be prohibitive.
YMMV
No brain, no pain.
I get what he's saying but that phrase isn't really apt since Route 66 was replaced by the modern Interstate 40 decades ago. Ironically there are sections of Route 66 that are impassable by most vehicles when it snows due to steep hill grades (in Oklahoma at least where I lived off it years ago).
that will do a lot of good when the road is covered in hard-pack snow (non northerners think ice but opaque white)
LED lights are great for a lot of uses, but headlights aren't yet on of the best uses. It's best to use LED's as a supplement to your headlights, not as a replacement. Maybe in a few more years, they'll be up to snuff. Complaints I've heard are that they just don't reach down the road.
Auxiliary lights, like these AngelEyes http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-headlight-accent-lights/ make you a lot more visible to other drivers, they tend to light up unlit areas close to you, but they do almost nothing to illuminate the road more than 30 feet in front of you.
At present, HID lights are the best you can do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp
And, I'm not solely voicing my own opinion here - as a member of a couple of motorcycle forums, I've found this to be the consensus. As I say, two, five, maybe ten years from now, LED will be ready to replace all of our halogen and xenon lights. They are not ready today.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I've found the autobahns outside of Munich to be comparable to most US Interstates, though I actually preferred the Interstates in regards to maintenance and road quality. The autobahn had a bunch of patches to fill potholes and obviously hadn't been repaved in years, though that may well have been an exception rather than the norm.
I proposed this technology way back in 3rd grade in response to an assignment about saving energy. Note that the year was 1973. I expect royalty checks.
Self awareness - try it!
I would say that is better than the roads I normally travel on. They have just a bunch of potholes. When they do repave they just scrape up the old and lay new down. Never fixing the underlying problems that caused the potholes so they can do it all again very soon.
Is autobahn maintenance done by the states or the federal government? I haven't driven around Germany a great deal, but I've noticed some variation in the road quality which seems regional. It wouldn't be surprising if, say, Bavaria and Schwabia, took different approaches to road maintenance.
That is what happens in the US, so in some states the Interstates are much better-maintained than in others. The US federal government provides some funding for Interstate maintenance, but much of it comes from the states, and the states do all of the actual work (or contract it out).
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Another way to pander to idiot drivers, teaching them nothing except that they don't need to be observant or thoughtful drivers.
Back up cameras, back up sensors, blind-spot detectors, cruise control all help to create a less aware driver. Now they'll learn that they don't need to pay attention to the road condition. (Slippery slope argument? Maybe)
I almost ran over my 2 year old nephew one time in my truck (Dodge Ram). I didn't see him, he was behind me where there is NO visibility, sure a back up camera or sensor would have worked, but instead he has a responsible mother who saw and came out screaming and waving her hands to get me to stop (I drive an older diesel so it's a bit noisy). That's all it takes, responsibility. So there goes anyone's "what-if" argument; yes, it did happen to me.
Pay attention to what's around you, if you can't, have others do it. Turn your head to look in your blind spot. Lean to maintain your own steady speed. Learn to identify road conditions, and be able to control your vehicle if it slides that the speed you are going. If you can't control that slide, slow down to a speed that you can control the slide; then, if you do slide, you're OK.
Why do we keep pandering to mediocrity?
Now of course, this is all in general, I'm sure there's some with disabilities that don't allow them to turn their head properly, or maintain even pressure with their foot and whathaveyou.
Round here they solved the problem by making the surface of the road rough enough so that even when its icy you still get some traction.
The best thing is it doesn't cost anything, you just don't resurface the road during the road construction season.
And the rough roads encourage slower driving all year round.
"interactive lights that switch on as cars pass"
The wild life crossing the road would suddenly become blind and wouldn't be able to get out of the way when hearing a car approaching. Don't think small critters, think deers or bigger. You really don't want to crash into one of these.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I would say a government has more incentive than any private entity in maintaining roads. What incentive would a private contractor have in maintining it right? If it gets paid a fixed rate for "operation" then the more skimping on quality means more profit. If it gets paid per "calls" to fix things then the more it gets called the better ensuring poor quality worksmanship. Only government has any incentive in proper maintenance as a well maintained road means less costs in the long term to fix it, and less liability is someone is injured because of improper maintenance.
I like my dinosaurs feathery, and my pterosaurs hairy (or is it pycnofibery?)
Better visibility will be featured in new highway designs. As day dims into night, electric eyes automatically illuminate the road ahead.
The 1958 video doesn't show anything I would call an "electric eye," but the highway appears to glow in the dark. We have had "electric eyes" on streetlights for a while, with sensors that turn the lights on when it gets dark, but it always stuck with me that they didn't show any street lights in the video... the road itself seemed to be the light source.
Looks like much of the USA in winter. Maybe not everyday, but at least several times a week.
I'm sure there're places in the USA where you have such conditions for months on end just like in Lappland, in Wyoming or Minnesota, say, and Alaska is of course even worse. Looks like USA has lots more sunshine though:
http://imgur.com/vYpbh
This is a neat idea but maybe overkill. It amazes me how much easier it is to drive when the painted lines and reflectors are maintained on a road (especially on a dark night when it is raining). I would be willing to bet that allowing the painted lines to wear away and not replacing the reflectors causes a LOT of traffic accidents (and fatalities). I don't think we have to go crazy with the markings, just install them and maintain them properly. I now travel roads that lack reflectors (they have broken off and haven't been replaced) and lack proper painted lines (worn off) that I now consider dangerous.
Let's see, glare from the ice blinding you and everyone else, can't see the lanes, oh, that's right: all of this needs power... and when the power's out, it's useless. Let's see, when does power go out... oh, right, in bad weather!
reflectors in the road, in the lines, as they have in some states, are a far better and cheaper solution, and they're "powered" by your headlights (unless you're one of those idiots with misaligned headlights, in states that don't have a safety inspection which includes that, every year).
mark
And what are they going to do for the remaining 6 hours of the night during winter?
cp /dev/zero ~/signature.txt
Well, if you want the same kind of roads, just vote the guy into office who promises to build you those roads like they did in Germany.
(what? Too soon? And yes, he was elected.)
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
"I would say a government has more incentive than any private entity in maintaining roads. What incentive would a private contractor have in maintining it right? If it gets paid a fixed rate for "operation" then the more skimping on quality means more profit."
I wasn't necessarily comparing to private road operators, but you clearly don't understand the concept of competition. Of course a company who would have zero other competition would be horrible at road maintenance (just like the government operator). But that scenario does not and would not exist. If private road operators were able to properly pay for and acquire the right of way to build new parallel roads, people could choose the best route to get somewhere. So of course it's a bit more complex than that, but you get my point. Also, different modes of transportation provide incentives to maintain the roads well by private entities. This is not true of a government. If people prefer the local trains because the roads have too many potholes and feel dangerous, it won't just go fix the roads. There are so many political wills to take into account, plus lobbying, labor unions, regulations, and the personal feelings of the legislators. It's much simpler and more straightforward for a private company compared to a government.
-> Sometimes, you just gotta break free from the shackles of proprietary code.
you are on a glow I dark, ice warning, lots of warning for bends road and get used to it; then you hit one without expecting then to be there.
I for one support building our own NeurburgRing like race track out of formerly public roads.
And like the Italians building a race track in a 'Royal Park' (Monza IIRC) I support building a 'Yosemite Ring' inside the valley. We might have to move and/or blow up the river and half-dome a little to get the corners to work, but that's the price you pay for progress.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
What you describe is normal road maintenance. They do it that way everywhere they use asphalt.
They will re-asphalt that stretch of road or 30 years until it is again up to the top of the curbs.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
In a unrelated story. I was ordering parts from Minnesota last week and complained about how cold the northern California winter was. We had frost!
They didn't find it amusing at all. Poor bastards.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
governments have very little, if any, incentive to improve roads, improve the safety of roads or use new innovative techniques.
The only motivation needed to want that is for the voters to want it. If the voters don't care about potholes and missing guard rails, the politicians have no reason to.
It depends on where you are. Some US stares have shitty roads, some have good roads, some EU countries have excellent roads.
Free Martian Whores!
FLIR for vehicles. You don't actually need the image. Just a processor that looks at the data and recognizes a cold patch on the road ahead. Turn on a warning light, throttle back automatically, select an optimized anti-lock traction control algorithm, etc.
Have gnu, will travel.
http://solarroadways.com/intro.shtml ... ...
"Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to "paint" the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.
In 2009, we received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype. During the course of its construction, we learned many lessons and discovered new and better ways to approach this project. These methods and discoveries are discussed throughout this website. Please enjoy and send us any questions that you may have.
The Solar Roadway is a series of structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon. The idea is to replace all current petroleum-based asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road Panels that collect energy to be used by our homes and businesses. Our ultimate goal is to be able to store excess energy in or alongside the Solar Roadways. This renewable energy replaces the need for the current fossil fuels used for the generation of electricity. This, in turn, cuts greenhouse gases literally in half....
Each individual panel consists of three basic layers:
Road Surface Layer - translucent and high-strength, it is rough enough to provide great traction, yet still passes sunlight through to the solar collector cells embedded within, along with LEDs and a heating element. It is capable of handling today's heaviest loads under the worst of conditions. Weatherproof, it protects the electronics layer beneath it.
Electronics Layer - Contains a microprocessor board with support circuitry for sensing loads on the surface and controlling a heating element. No more snow/ice removal and no more school/business closings due to inclement weather. The on-board microprocessor controls lighting, communications, monitoring, etc. With a communications device every 12 feet, the Solar Roadway is an intelligent highway system.
Base Plate Layer - While the electronics layer collects energy from the sun, it is the base plate layer that distributes power (collected from the electronics layer) and data signals (phone, TV, internet, etc.) "downline" to all homes and businesses connected to the Solar Roadway. Weatherproof, it protects the electronics layer above it.
When multiple Solar Road Panels are interconnected, the intelligent Solar Roadway is formed. These panels replace current driveways, parking lots, and all road systems, be they interstate highways, state routes, downtown streets, residential streets, or even plain dirt or gravel country roads. Panels can also be used in amusement parks, raceways, bike paths, parking garage rooftops, remote military locations, etc. Any home or business connected to the Solar Roadway (via a Solar Road Panel driveway or parking lot) receives the power and data signals that the Solar Roadway provides. The Solar Roadway becomes an intelligent, self-healing, decentralized (secure) power grid. "
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Yes of course road quality varies, and who knows exactly why some jurisdictions have much better roads than others. It's definitely not as simple as "the voters to want it." In an ideal world, that would be true. But like I replied to another comment, there are all kinds of things standing in the way of true representation like that such as corruption, lobbying, lust for power, the legislators personally disagreeing, etc.
Take a look at this from economist Walter Block, it's pretty good: The privatization of roads
-> Sometimes, you just gotta break free from the shackles of proprietary code.