From Holland, Bright Ideas for Highways

[cpzilliacus]

New York Times: Street Smarts: From Holland, Bright Ideas for Highways

If cars, traffic and navigation can be "smart,"  is there any reason for roads to remain as dumb as bricks?

Not according to the unlikely combination of Daan Roosegaarde, a Dutch art-school bohemian, and Heijmans, a conventionally minded infrastructure developer, who are teaming up on an array of quirky, interactive designs that could change the way streets look and even act.

[pctech]

Neat idea, but the two questions would be cost and durability.

[hotdogPi]

Does this mean that you can have a segment of pavement tilt downward if you want to go on the lower level and stay straight if you want to go on the upper level? Is it anything like that?

[Duke87]

The idea of having pavement markings that are photoluminescent, reflective, or even lit by LEDs is an awesome one and it needs to happen. Overhead lighting is largely unhelpful for driving at night unless you are driving somewhere where there is also pedestrian traffic. Otherwise, it does nothing that headlights do not already do, and indeed can be detrimental - having a lot of bright sources of light when there are still dim spots prevents your pupils from dilating and makes the dim spots harder to see. I sometimes avoid driving in the left lane on the highway at night because it's easier to see in the right lane where oncoming headlights aren't shining directly in my face. If the pavement markings were better contrasted to the pavement by lighting them and only them up, that would make driving at night a lot easier.

[Jardine]

While creative, a ramp that could move up or down, or side to side, depending on where you and your car are headed isn't really practical.  The throughput of the device would be low as the motors that move the ramp would take time to reset to another position for the next car.  If the device could handle one change in position per minute it would really be pushing things.  There would need to be a gate to keep cars and trucks off it while in motion, and all that would take time.

It might be practical for roads that reconfigure morning and afternoon however. Maybe for instance, a ramp connecting to the Dan Ryan in Chicago at some times during the day would merge onto the express lanes, and at other times would connect to the slow lanes.  Might be something to look into.

Exits might change too, a side street might be one  way in the AM and the other in the afternoon, the ramp from the expressway could connect appropriately, but it would only have to move a few times a day.

I can see maybe something moving up and down, or side to side, I'm not sure a ramp could 'telescope' and change length though.  Dirt and debris would jam the slide and it wouldn't be practical.

[aswnl]

A lot of media-attention, but it just doesn't work.
Worst of all, normal road marking is also badly visible.

Thread on SSC in English...
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=413067&p=113316837