Glow-in-the-dark roads as a way to minimize traffic crashes?

The Netherlands tests sci-fi-like safety feature on a stretch of highway

It sounds more like the movie Tron than reality, but  light-absorbing, glow-in-the-dark roads have replaced streetlight on a 500m stretch of highway in the Netherlands.

The road markings were created using photo-luminescent powder that’s mixed into the road paint and they have an almost radioactive-looking effect.

Dan Roosegaarde, the lead designer, got the idea as he was sitting in his car, thinking about the millions spent on roads – yet the fact that not many people seem to care what they look like and how they function, according to a recent story on wired.co.uk, “Glow-in-the-dark roads make debut in Netherlands.”

Part of Roosegaarde’s vision includes weather markings, such as snow drops, that would appear when the temperature reaches freezing. These new glow in the dark roads aim to reduce traffic accidents, especially at night, that can be caused by “lane drift” and driver fatigue.

As an attorney who has litigated cases caused by both lane drift and driver fatigue, I think this is a promising new idea (aside from being fascinated by how it looks and my own childhood memories of the Tron movie and video game). If glow-in-the-dark roads reduce traffic accidents, then truly, who cares how they look?

It also helps that it would reduce reliance on electricity costs if we no longer need street lights for cash-strapped municipalities like Detroit. It sounds like we finally have a way to keep the street lights on.

I’d like to know what our readers think of glow-in-the-dark roads. Would you like to drive on them? Do you think they would help prevent crashes?

Let us know by making a comment below or on our Michigan Auto Law Facebook page.

– Photo, Studio Roosegaarde