Solar FREAKING Roadways

[Kulaf]

http://solarroadways.com/faq.shtml#index

[Ddrak]

Seems ambitious, but nice out of the box thinking. That's one hell of a lot of solar panels!

Dd

[Kulaf]

Yeah and I question some of the uses mentioned such as lighting roads. Now I am sure this will work nicely at night, but it would be miserable during the day. The LED's would never be able to put out enough light to show lanes. Just like a basketball court would never be able to show its configuration, or a parking lot be able to show stripes for parking spaces.

I am also wondering how they would deal with glare off the glass during the day.

[Ddrak]

Using LEDs during the day is madness. You'd be better with eInk type of technology - it's not like you change lane configuration that often.

As with most innovations in the road space though, the real key to any of this is the liability and insurance. "The road malfunctioned" makes one hell of a law suit.

Dd

[Minute]

Using LEDs during the day is madness. You'd be better with eInk type of technology - it's not like you change lane configuration that often.

As with most innovations in the road space though, the real key to any of this is the liability and insurance. "The road malfunctioned" makes one hell of a law suit.

Dd

Less so than normal roads? If I hit a pot hole or something & it blows out my tire/flips my car am I able to sue the city? I don't even know.

[Ddrak]

In general, you're supposed to drive to existing conditions, which means avoiding pot holes and the like. If the lane markings drove cars into each other though, it's a whole different question.

Dd

[Minute]

I suppose you're right. I remember once this city tried to control traffic at different times by opening up certain lanes going east at certain times, and west at other times. The idea was sound, when people leave work you open up more lanes going east, more going west in the mornings, but as you can guess it was a monstrous disaster.

We still use LED street lights & signs that serve a similar function with the same possibility for problems.

The potential for these seems enormous. Only thing I wonder is why they aren't using piezoelectricity tech in these too. Seems like it would be a given to me.

[Kulaf]

Chicago does that with their express lanes. In the morning they are open for traffic going in the city, then they close. They reopen for traffic going out of the city. I have never heard of any problem, but that is probably because they are gated and patrolled to make sure all cars are clear.

[Ddrak]

You need great big barriers for it to work properly. Just changing which way unbarricaded lanes go pretty much always ends in disaster.

Dd