'Smart' Highways Reinvent the Wheel
Highways in the Netherlands will be marginally safer thanks to some inventive thinking by a Dutch designer.
Branchild of Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde, the plan involves marking roads with differently-treated paint that will react differently according to outside conditions. For example, big snowflake graphics would appear on the roads during cold weather. Road outlines and lanes will also be redone with glow-in-the-dark paint to reduce the number of streetlights needed.
All that sounds great, and there are probably benefits, but it’s hard to look past the obvious problems with the plan which will take effect next year.
Roads are already often painted to be reflective, meaning anyone with their headlights turned on already benefit from a similar effect.
Paint designed to show when the pavement is cold enough for tires to lose grip, on the other hand, might actually be a very useful safety feature. While it wouldn’t do much once snow covers the roads, it could serve to offer an instant alert to drivers that it’s probably time to slow down and drive carefully.
[Source: Visual News]
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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