Smart Highway — Waddinxveen
When we think about sustainable automobile transportation, we usually think about the vehicle. But what if you redesign the road? Designer Daan Roosegaarde created Smart Highway: a more sustainable road-marking system using technology that is built straight into the tarmac. An interactive lighting system tracks cars, illuminating only the part of the road in use. Dynamic paint enables the dividing lines to change according to traffic situations. The highway can also display up-to-date information such as dangerous weather conditions and traffic jams. Using glow-in-the-dark technology that is charged during the day, the graphics are visible at night for up to ten hours. The Smart Highway is not just a futuristic dream: Roosegaarde teamed up with Heijmans Infrastructure to begin implementation on selected Dutch highways in the summer of 2013.