Poland builds a solar-powered bike path that glows a ghostly blue colour

Poland can do some cool stuff. To wit: this cool bike path in a town called Pruszków. The path is made of a light-emitting material that charges in the sun and can glow for up to 10 hours in the dark, bathing cyclists in a calming blue glow.

The company that made it, TPA sp. z o.o is an engineering firm focused on future tech. They expect this sort of road to be useful in larger projects — highways, say — but for now they’re limiting it to bike paths until they can test the material in the wild. They said that this type of path may be installed in Warsaw soon and that it can glow in multiple colors.

The lane uses luminophores — chemicals that “ingest” light — to keep the bike path nicely lit at night. They chose blue to “match the Mazurian landscape” where lakes abound. You can read a bit more at Gazeta Wyborcza if your Polish isn’t too rusty or you can just bask in the cold beauty of a glowing bike lane in deepest Poland.

Cycling enthusiasts in Lidzbark Warminski, a small town in Northern Poland, have recently received a unique, awesome present from the local authorities — a brand new sun-powered bicycle path that glows bright blue all night long. It chose the town of Olsztyn in the Masurian Lakes District of Poland to test it out, partly because the landscape created an attractive setting. “The glow is a very nice complement to the area’s lovely nature, lakes, small hills and countryside”.

He added: “Right now, it’s only about 100m”.

Asphalt as you’ve never seen it before …

Here’s how it works: The material used to create the lanes charges in the sunlight, collecting enough power to keep it shining at least 10 hours, plenty of time to guide night-riders safely to their destinations.

Waldemar Krolikowski, the director of the Board of Regional Roads in Olsztyn said the luminous bike path was meant to improve the safety of people biking at night.

The hope is that the environmentally friendly cycle route will help prevent accidents without the city having to resort to installing costlier street lamps. Cyclists in a small city in Poland are now pedaling along an wonderful blue sparkly lane built to improve safety for riders and pedestrians at night.

source:techcrunch