Glow in the Dark Freeways Bring the Rave to the Road

By Laura Beck  |  January 10, 2013 | 3:00pm
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In the Netherlands, a Dutch design firm has been working with an infrastructure management group to design glow-in-the-dark roads that would make any party promoter proud.

Boring, traditional paint is stripped away and replaced with magical photo-luminescent powder. Even better, they powder is applied in the shake of adorable giant snowflakes! Adorable giant snowflakes that gather energy from the Sun during the day, and use that power to light the roads in the evening. Science!

According to Digital Journal:

During the dark days and long nights of winter road safety can be a problem. Traditional signs can be hard to see. Temperatures can suddenly nosedive, without drivers being aware. Black ice which is invisible to the naked eye is the cause of many car crashes in cold weather. As temperatures dip roads can become death traps.

The glow-in-the-dark designs theoretically eliminate this danger by making everything easier to see when temperatures decline.

It sounds really cool, but my brother in law, who is a highway engineer, sees some potential issues with it. It can offer a distraction to a driver’s concentration because you’re looking at the surface as you drive, and you might miss hazards and non-motorized road users. I can definitely see that being an issue for me, because you’re basically in the club and having so much fun and then bam, you miss grandma crossing the road with her little old dogs and foster kids and ugh, this is where my mind goes.

Anyway, I’m sure all this has been studied, because these people are experts in living in the cold and not seeing roads. Everyone else, bust out your giant Mickey Mouse hands and glow sticks — these temperature-activated photo-luminescent decals debut in mid-2013. Road trip to the Netherlands!

[Digital Journal]

 
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