Glow-in-the-Dark Road Debuts in the Netherlands

By Samba Lampich

The Netherlands is unveiling and testing a unique plan to save electricity by eliminating street lights, but still lighting a motorist’s way home. Dutch engineers unveiled glow-in-the-dark road markings along a 500-meter (0.3 mile) stretch of the N329 in Oss, a town about 100km south east of Amsterdam.

The road markings are made using paint that contains a photo-luminizing powder absorbs daylight and slowly releases a green glow for about eight hours at night.

The idea was the brainchild of interactive artist Daan Roosegaarde, who teamed up with the Dutch civil engineer firm Heijmans. Last year, Roosegaard told the BBC that: “The government is shutting down streetlights at night to save money. Energy is becoming much more important than we could have imagined 50 years ago. This road is about safety and envisioning a more self-sustainable and more interactive world.”

The Glow Begins To Fade

The pilot program was launched in early April 2014, but two weeks later the paint was beginning to fade due to moisture from rainfall.

In a statement released by Heijmans, the firm said: “As expected, the ‘real life’ trial enables us to learn from the environment and users, like humidity and user experience. We will use these insights to introduce an update to the Glowing Lines 2.0 version. In the meantime, we have temporarily faded out the lining to prevent any confusing situations for road users.”