Driving could be on the way to a revolution of safety and innovation. According to reports, the Netherlands has replaced traditional streetlights with light-absorbing glow-in-the-dark markings on a small segment of highway in the country. While it is only currently on 500 meters of road (about 0.3 miles), the move is being seen as potentially changing infrastructure for highways that could lead to a massive reduction in costs for governments.
The brains behind the move is Studio Roosegaarde, which in 2012 first proposed the idea and design for the new markings. Although the process to get the markings into action took nearly two years, after an initial Dutch government rebuking the idea, it has come to fruition and has much of Europe abuzz over the potential for the new technology.
News reports suggest that the road is akin to driving "through a fairytale" as the company aims to extend its production and implementation of the project to a wider audience and more highways across the Netherlands and, it hopes, Europe and the world.
It could be a welcome addition to the deteriorating state of highways and roads in the United States, where infrastructure over the past few decades has become stale and unlit for drivers. The cheaper, more environmentally friendly markings, the company believes, could create better energy-efficient highway markings while also boosting safety for drivers and pedestrians.
In an interview in October 2012, Studio Roosegaarde founder and lead designer Daan Roosegaarde said that he was in his vehicle driving in his home country and realized that there was a need for the technology in order to make the roads better lit and energy forward.
"I started imagining this Route 66 of the future where technology jumps out of the computer screen and becomes part of us," he said.
The markings use photo-luminescent powder that is integrated into the road paint, which was developed in partnership with the construction company Heijmans.
On the downside, despite the media reports across the globe pointing to this new technology as a potentially cheaper solution to traditional lighting, the company said that it has not received any new contracts for further development in real situations, but hopes that through the success of the stretch of highway in the Netherlands, it can expand on the idea and push forward to helping to boost highway driving and safety.
The company also wants to do a project to remove smog from the air in Beijing, burying electrostatic copper coils underground to attract dirty elements in air and cleanse it.
"We want to do it safely, but just give us a park [for the smog project] and we'll prove it to you. Be more open," Roosegaarde added.
