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Radiant road markings and battery-charging lanes are driving the roads of tomorrow

Drivers on a Dutch road are no longer having to squint to make out the road markings on one of th...
Newstalk
Newstalk

16.44 23 Oct 2014


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Radiant road markings and batt...

Radiant road markings and battery-charging lanes are driving the roads of tomorrow

Newstalk
Newstalk

16.44 23 Oct 2014


Share this article


Drivers on a Dutch road are no longer having to squint to make out the road markings on one of the country’s motorways. The Smart Highway, a project running along the N329 in Oss, is a pilot scheme to see how well glow-in-the-dark lane markers affect driver safety.

The concept was first proposed two years ago by a construction firm and a design company, and aims to use different technologies to pave the way for the roads of the future. Sustainability and interactivity are, so say Heijmans and Studio Roosegaarde, are as important to building roads as any other piece of technology today.

This glowing lines phase of the project is only the first step, using luminescent paint that charges during the day, storing up solar energy, and glowing for up to 10 hours when the sun goes down. It makes the road marking immediately more visible than the standard paint, while not drawing on an electrical power source.

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But these road markings are not the only concept that the Smart Highway project hopes to develop; engineers are working on a form of dynamic paint that is temperature sensitive. This will be applied to the surface of the road and appear transparent, provided the temperature doesn't dip below 0°c, when it appears as snowflakes to warn drivers to slow down.

(Image: Smart Highway)

Interactive lights will be able to detect where a vehicle is on the road, and then illuminate only the parts of the road around and in front of them. The rest of the time, the lights will be turned down low, in an effort to reduce energy consumption.

(Image: Smart Highway)

Perhaps the most radical idea for the roads of tomorrow is inductive charging. The Smart Highway project plans to embed vehicle charging technology just below the surface of the asphalt, allowing drivers of electric cars to essentially recharge their vehicle’s power supply while on the road, literally and figuratively.

(Image: Smart Highway)

For now, the glowing markings are just a pilot scheme, but if they prove successful, the two firms plan to start pitching them to road networks worldwide. You can see a video below explaining the project here:


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