Today, roads aren’t just conduits that connect one place to another, they can now be utilized for multiple applications, best expressed in the form of Smart Highways. The terms, smart highway and smart roads are expressed for the usage of smart technologies in road construction. This improves the maneuvering of autonomous cars, monitors traffic and pedestrians better and even, generates solar energy without the need for additional infrastructure.
Smart highway construction is a revolutionary concept that outlines solutions to promote sustainability in urban transportation by delivering easy and innovative mobility. The technologies integrated into the construction of smart highways are extremely expensive and require big investments that have rendered them a bit impractical. However, research is in full swing to make smart highways more efficient, durable and economical.
The following are the next-generation technologies that are likely to be implemented shortly, as part of the smart highway construction initiative –
Smart Lighting: Glow in the Dark
Generally, highway lights tend to be illuminated throughout the day, wasting precious electricity. Hence, concerned authorities are forever looking for mechanisms that could plug this wastage. Some of the noteworthy technological concepts devised by Studio Roosegaarde, a Netherlands-based tech company, to simulate smart lighting on the roads are as follows:
Glowing Paint: The glow in the dark paint gets charged by the sunlight and can glow in excess of ten hours. Glowing paint is implemented on the N329 highway, in the Netherlands, after Studio Roosegaarde received a contract from the Dutch government.
Temperature-sensitive paint: This method has been significantly developed and represents ‘smart’ paint that changes color during extremely low temperature.
Interactive road lights: Apart from glow in the dark paint, there is also the idea to implement motion-sensor lights. Herein, an interactive road light illuminates while a car passes by and dims off afterwards.
Solar Roadways: Harvesting the Power of the Sun
The innovative idea to transform roads into solar generation infrastructure has captured the popular scientific imagination in recent times. A further push is derived from the rising number of laws imposed by regulators from around the world to reduce carbon emissions. The primary intention of solar roads is to generate clean energy through the latter’s exposure to sunlight. This clean energy can then be used for a plethora of activities, including making energy contributions to the power grids from wherein the same could be piped to individual homes.
Intelligent transportation system: Connecting Vehicles with Infrastructure
The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is currently under implementation in the form of electronic toll booths and traffic monitor gantries among others. The next generation in intelligent transportation is likely to reinforce road safety is the form of pro-safety vehicle-to-infrastructure protocols that look out for trouble and actively avoid them.
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