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First Glow-In-the-Dark Road Debuts In Netherlands
An anonymous reader writes "A 500 meter (0.3 mile) stretch of road in the Netherlands has opened without the standard crop of streetlights lining its perimeter. The streetlights are believed to be unnecessary since the road markings were painted on with a mix of photo-luminescent powder, which absorbs sunlight during the day and radiates a portion of that energy back at night. Whether the modified road paint can withstand harsh weather or even provide sufficient lighting given insufficient exposure to sunlight during the day remains to be seen. The project was orchestrated by Studio Roosegaarde, which in the future plans to implement weather-sensitive road markings that would inform drivers when outside temperatures drop or rise above certain levels."
You took too much, man...
We already have retroreflective paints. Road markings and signs illuminated by headlights are clearly visible. On the other hand, some things (like animals and pedestrians) require some means of illumination at night. Streetlights are OK, but headlights are better. An animal or other obstruction will only appear as a shadow against a glowing roadway.
Have gnu, will travel.
These aren't the first, they've had glowing roads in Fukushima for nye on 3 years now!
*ducks
Most animals and plants who live alongside the roads will love this. Finally they can sleep in the dark!
-- Cheers!
On the other hand, some things (like animals and pedestrians) require some means of illumination at night.
Right. Also, this cant work on overcast days . I really don't see the point of it . I'd say they'd rather invest that effort on headlight technology
All the "pictures" in TFA are computer renderings. For a road that, apparently, has already been painted you'd think they could have taken at least 1 photo of it.
I used to live in the Netherlands, and I can confirm winters are cold and dark. Days are not very bright either. So an eight hour life (yes, I RTFA) for these very cool glowing roads is not going to cut it - nights comprise 16 hours of darkness in midwinter.
It should work well in the summer, when days are brighter and nights shorter.
But I think a backup is required, destroying the whole point.
But it does look very cool, doesn't it?
"Cats like plain crisps"
Just found a video on dutch TV
http://nos.nl/video/634091-eerste-autoweg-met-glowing-lines.html
Those of us who don't live in cities have been driving fine at night without streetlights forever. No special paint needed. Cars have headlights.
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I'm reminded of the Road Runner cartoon where the Coyote paints a stripe that leads off the roadway and into a rock face. Let's hope no one in the Netherlands both enjoys our cartoons and has a mischievous streak.
there is a video of the road on dutch television. video of the road
It does look quite nice!
...but the "Autobahn" in Germany never had any kind of electrical lighting (besides retroreflecting paint for the road markings) and even at night large parts of it are considered save enough to not have speed limits - even at night!
bickerdyke
Here in the southern UK we've had solar LED road studs for years - they are used on some A roads and mark line dividers, road edges and turn-offs in place of the usual cats-eyes. Work pretty well too (though I find them a bit 'stroby', like some vehicle brake lights).
All your ghosts are just false positives.
I guess that with this paint one is able to see the edges of the road more clearly, but I don't think that was ever a big problem with "just" retroreflective markings.
I think, that the light from these new markings will only blind you from things just beside the road (think pedestrians, cyclists and animals) which you would probably see better with just the headlights without something shining in your face. I mean try to see what's behind someone holding a flashlight in the dark. More light from the road surface will just prevent you from seeing the darker contrasts. That's why street lighting is installed above, not on the sides of the road, or on the road itself!
Some people also insist they see better when driving in the dark with their fog lights on... Yeah, you'll see the road surface right in front of the car better, but the extra light from the road just in front will only blind you from things further away, taking away your chance to react to something unexpected further down the road.
I think these markings are no replacement for street lighting and will simply just cause more accidents. For savings, it would be better just to turn off the street lighting and leave the existing markings as they were.
The Dutch article (http://nos.nl/audio/634119-het-lijkt-alsof-je-door-een-sprookjesbos-rijdt.html) has a low-res picture of it. The thing looks like a video, but is actually an audio fragment, but the picture is an actual picture of the 500m stretch of road.
Oh, wait, humans can actually see by starlight alone.
Not if you have headlights on, are you supposed to turn them off when you hit this stretch of road? And park for about fifteen minutes to dark adapt?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Keep in mind that this guy is an artist first and foremost. The point of the glowing stripes is as much about how cool it looks, as it is about road safety.
A simpler solution would be to just let all the genetically engineered, glow-in-the-dark lab animals out in the wild. The roadkill will light up the roads.
"Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bk4mNfMIEAAkefo.jpg
I don't think it's actually in use yet. It's still being set up.
Forgive a potentially stupid question, but how is this going to work with snow on the ground?
Mainly because they don't work as well as is claimed. Having a couple of dots of light every few metres isn't nearly as clear as having glowing road lines. I suppose however in their favour the eyes last much longer.
Another issue however with cats eyes is the effect they have on tyres. Its conveniently never mentioned by the govn but driving over hard lumps of metal in the road - even if they do squash down a bit - at high speed over the years when changing lanes will wear out your tyres faster and can I suspect even cause failures if the tyre is already on the verge of going.
Seeing as how all of the light is directed upward, this adds to light pollution, which some people blame a lot of problems on: http://darkskyinitiative.org/
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
This blog extolling Dutch road design innovation is nonetheless quite dismissive of the "glowing paint" idea, and mentions the use of glass bead retroreflectors (as in the UK) as a much better idea. It makes a good case.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Instead of using luminescent paint for the lines, why can't we imbed piezoelectric crystals into the tarmac that would generate light from the mass of the vehicle. That way you'd see this glow where the cars are.
Also, where ever practible, around on- and off-ramps.
I personally don't see the point in having lights on most highways given that cars carry around their own illumination, and going straight and changing lanes doesn't need too much effort without lamps. But given the shuffling about just before, and just after, ramps, it's worth spending the resources to improve safety.
For the rest of the length of most highways (even those through urban areas): meh.
The purpose of lights is to improve safety on high speed roads. Hence lighted highways. Otherwise, night time driving would have to be slowed significantly to be safe, unless you're driving with high beams. The oncoming traffic or the guy in front of you may not like that much, and even then, it's probably significantly slower max safe speed as compared to a lighted road.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Someone posted a video link above. Not karma whoring, so I'm not repeating it here. If you want an actual image of the actual road, look a few comments further up.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The purpose of lights is to improve safety on high speed roads. Hence lighted highways. Otherwise, night time driving would have to be slowed significantly to be safe, unless you're driving with high beams.
Most of the UK's motorway network is not lit, and just about all of the dual carriageway network isn't either. In some places they're turned off after a certain time (usually about midnight). In quite a few places, they've got lights, but have stopped using them. You get used to it, and no one drives with full beams on. Technically you're allowed to use large A roads (not motorways) for all sorts of things because they're public rights of way, so you are allowed to walk down them, ride (either bike or horse) down them, even drive geese down them. The speed limit is 70mph, but generally people drive up to 80.
Note to self: When trying to sell a product, probably should not associate it with "radioactive".
> Roosegaarde told Wired.co.uk that Heijmans had managed to take its luminescence to the extreme—"it's almost radioactive", said Roosegaarde
"Whether the modified road paint can withstand harsh weather or even provide sufficient lighting given insufficient exposure to sunlight during the day remains to be seen"
So the standard US policy of making a 1 mile test strip didn't quote make it over to the Netherlands? They just threw it on 500 miles and said let's see if it works? Genius.
Technically you're allowed to use large A roads (not motorways) for all sorts of things because they're public rights of way, so you are allowed to walk down them, ride (either bike or horse) down them, even drive geese down them. The speed limit is 70mph, but generally people drive up to 80.
So I guess those that drive geese down them at midnight wind up with lots of pate if this is any guide to effective lighting distances?
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Streetlights are OK, but headlights are better. An animal or other obstruction will only appear as a shadow against a glowing roadway.
Headlights are not better. Of all the directions of illumination, that from below eye level, and especially from directly ahead (as oncoming traffic's headlights are), is the least effective. Why do you think that football stadiums are floodlit from high towers and not from knee level? Aside from the fact that fixed lighting from grid power is more efficient than car headlights (in the sense of lumens per energy input) where the traffic is continuous, as in towns.
As for obstrucions appearing "as a shadow" - that's bang on; it is how street lighting at one time worked by design. Sodium lighting was of a wavelength that was relected by "black" asphalt and roadside masonry, so the background was actually quite a bright yellow. Unlit objects, which generally reflected sodium light less than the road, then appeared clearly as black shapes against that background. Vehicles, in turn, formed a dark foil for their own side lights (ie running lights, not headlights).
Given that, in the UK headlights were once only used on country roads where there were no street lights. I remember driving back then in London and could even see cats or dogs crossing the road at night 800 yards ahead. Anyone with headlights on (perhaps after coming from an unlit road) would be angrily flashed at. That "system" was destroyed however in the UK by a period of patchy electrical power cuts when drivers just left their headlights on rather than bother to turn themon and off as they went in and out of lit areas. Not using headlights all the time became frowned on, and now there is no chance of seeing a pedestrian crossing the road from the opposite side behind a barrage on oncoming headlights, until they walk into your headlight beam right in front of you.
They did, but all the pictures were over-exposed.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I personally don't see the point in having lights on most highways given that cars carry around their own illumination
Street illumination is more efficient than headlamps both in the sense of lumens-per-energy-input and in the sense of effectiveness per lumen. In traffic, as in most towns most of the time, most of the headlamp lumens end up buried in the tailgate of the car 10 yards or less in front. The effect of most of what does not is to dazzle oncoming drivers. The most effective illumination is from above.
Of course there is a cross-over point. On roads with non-continuous traffic, lights on the car become more cost-efficient.
I collect glow-in-the-dark things. So excuse me as I book a flight there.
Hope my pickaxe can be considered carry on. Going to need a lot of KY for the TSA screening though.....
Yes, finally, my childhood come to life. Many an hour was spent making car sounds vroom, vroom, errrick (curve), vroom with my cousin with our Glow in the Dark Matchbox cities.
The idea of including weather info into the roadway (or perhaps a heads up display...) sounds interesting.
Just think it would be better in a heads up display than on the road.
Thanks for a great childhood memory.
To ebayers, sorry, my mom gave them away years ago, so you will have to shop elsewhere.
You useless peace of shit, quit spamming unrelated threads with hosts files, FFS!
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.