Smart Highways

Smart highways implement recent technology to provide features that improve driving. A broad category, the “smart highway” has been used to refer to automated highway systems and other intelligent transportation systems, as well as the Netherlands' recent safer highway design.

The Dutch smart highway was designed by Daan Roosegaarde and Hejimans Infrastructure, whose designs were awarded the 2012 Best Future Concept award in the Dutch Design Awards. The designs will be implemented in the Netherlands in phases from 2012 through 2018.

The first stage, adopted in North Brabant in the southern Netherlands, consists of glow-in-the-dark lane markers that charge up with sunlight during daylight hours and glow for up to 10 hours at night, brightly enough to provide a glow along the contours of the road. Used in areas without pedestrians, where further illumination is not needed, this eliminates the need for energy-intensive electric streetlights. Other concepts submitted by Roosegaarde include streetlights powered by the wind of passing cars, which could be used for illuminating street signage.

Future features include dynamic paint, which responds to temperature changes in order to warn drivers of slippery or icy driving conditions by displaying warning signals on the road surface. For example, in the concept design portfolio, freezing temperatures cause a snowflake pattern to become visible on the road surface. A similar warning system triggered by wind conditions is expected to be implemented in 2018.

One of the most talked-about features of the Dutch smart highway is the priority induction lane. Inspired by the third rail of railway systems, which provides electricity to trains capable of drawing from it, the induction lane is a traffic lane reserved for electric vehicles and capable of charging them via magnetic induction as they pass across it. Similar induction methods are already in use to power vehicles elsewhere, including vehicles developed in South Korea by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as part of Seoul's efforts to become the world's leading city in green technology design and implementation.

Many of Roosegarde's innovations are energy conscious, which is a common theme in smart highway discussions. Just as the”smart grid” of electricity delivery infrastructure improves efficiency and shortens repair time to save on energy costs, smart highway designs often focus on both fuel efficiency (as with the induction lane of Roosegarde's) and the electricity use of roadside infrastructure.

Since the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, streetlight usage has been an area where some local [Page 1235]communities have sought to reduce their expenditures. Jacksonville, Florida, and Highland Park, Michigan, have both turned off substantial numbers of streetlights, or limited their use to certain hours, in an attempt to cut costs.

In addition to Roosegarde's wind-powered streetlight, there is the possibility of using the vibrations of cars to produce electricity (called piezoelectricity) to power lights and other roadside infrastructure. The California Energy Commission has approved a plan to explore the use of piezoelectric materials in this context. Such energy-gathering methods can be used for purposes other than illumination as well, such as automated bridge deicing in response to temperature changes.

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