Imagine a highway that can light itself up using foto-luminising paint, or a strip of road that can recharge your electric car. Believe it or not, these things are actually happening in the Netherlands.
Dubbed the ‘Route 66 of the Future’, designer and innovator Daan Roosegaarde has partnered with Heijmans Infrastructure to build some of the worlds first ‘smart’ highways. Presented as part of Dutch design week in October of 2012, the plan includes glow-in-the-dark roads marked with special paint that is charged by sunlight during the day, dynamic paint that responds to fluctuating temperatures, an induction priority lane that is able to recharge electric cars and light windmills that use the wind from passing cars to light the side of the road. It all sounds very Back to the Future but this is actually happening.
Check out the video below:
Though this isn’t the first crazy (but clever) idea to come from the design studio – they also invented clothing that becomes sheer as the wearer is aroused - this latest innovation may be just the thing to spark more tech-savvy travel to the northern Dutch city of Eindhoven where it’s being trialed.
For more information on the project, visit: www.studioroosegaarde.net/project/smart-highway/
