14 DAY TRIAL // During this year's Dutch Design Week (20 – 28 October), a team of specialists from Daan Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure will be introducing the general public to the working principles behind the so-called “smart highways” they plan to build in the not so distant future.
Apparently, advancements made in the field of science and technology have allowed these designers and innovators to come up with a new concept for your run-off-the-mill roads, whose underlying idea is that highways can be made to be sustainable, safe and intuitive with the help of the latest techniques.
Tree Hugger informs us that, should Daan Roosegaarde and Heijmans have their way, the roads of the future will be fully capable of charging one's car with the help of induction coils hidden within the roads infrastructure.
As well as this, the presence of these induction coils could supposedly render drivers obsolete, as the vehicle could rely on them to tell it where it is supposed to go.
According to Archello, these highways are also to be covered in some sort of foto-luminizing powder whose sole purpose would be that of illuminating their contours during nighttime.
The same source informs us that, thanks to a so-called dynamic paint, these roads of the future will also provide drivers with useful information concerning outside weather conditions.
Thus, if temperatures are low and the road becomes slippery, ice-crystals will become visible on its surface.
Given all the aforementioned characteristics of these smart highways, it must not come as such a big surprise that these innovative roads snagged the award for the “Best Future Concept.”
Interestingly enough, it seems that as early as mid-2013, people living in the Netherlands will be able to take pride in having a few of these roads around.
“The goal is to make roads which are more sustainable and interactive by using light, energy and road signs that automatically adapt to the traffic situation,” the people behind this project explain.