Cargo Business Newswire

Friday, April 18, 2014

Netherlands highway glows in the dark

Dutch engineers are testing glow-in-the-dark road markings along a 500-meter stretch of highway N329 to determine if glowing roads could replace traditional road lighting in the future.

The road markings are drawn with a photo-luminescent powder paint that charges in the daytime and releases a greenish radiance at night. Once the paint absorbs sunlight, it can light for up to eight hours in the dark. The N329 now features a triple-striped pattern of glowing lines on each side of the highway.

The experimental project is a partnership between interactive artist Daan Roosegaarde and Dutch civil engineers.

Roosegaarde has other ideas for "smart highways," including the development of giant road markings such as snowflakes that appear on the road when the temperature drops past a certain level. He and his team are also exploring road lanes that can charge electric vehicles, and dynamic lane markings that shift from dashed to solid lines depending on traffic levels.

For more of the Discover magazine story: blogs.discovermagazine.com