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TechCrunch reports on a new bicycle path built in the Polish city of Pruszków. The surface of the path is phosphorescent: after a sunny day, it will glow through the nightime.
According to BBC News, there was a similar project in the Netherlands in 2014: phosphorescent paint was applied to 500 m (547 yards) of a highway. The hope was that the markings could replace electric lights.
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Phosphorescent Bicycle Path Built in Poland
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When I met th'POPE back in '58, I scrubbed him with a MILD SOAP or
DETERGENT for 15 minutes. He seemed to enjoy it ...
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Sunday October 09 2016, @03:20PM
Does anybody have an idea of how much phosphorescent paths should theoretically contribute to light polution? It seems like a lot of light pointing generally upwards to me, but I could be missing something. The pedestrian path in TFA is only illuminated on the edges, which should help mitigate the problem (if there even is a problem), but the bike path is solid -- I assume to make obstacles like rocks more apparent. Most of the stars are pretty well hidden from city-dwellers already, and I doubt that making bike paths glow will hide very many more. But if the entire US Interstate Highway System started glowing I could see there being a significant loss of star visibility across the country. I'd love to know whether or not this is a reasonable fear.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 09 2016, @03:27PM
Welp. I suggest moving to the White Mountains of Arizona. [wikipedia.org]
The night sky looks like this [pixabay.com] to the naked eye. Plus, property is cheap and you can have lots of guns and smoke weed.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday October 09 2016, @04:40PM
Light is already going upwards, it just generally bounces off the path. If we're concerned with light pollution, it would probably make sense to use less intense lights more frequently and try to keep the blacktop regularly replaced so that it absorbs as much of the light as possible. And in that respect, this is likely to help a lot as you'll have smaller, weaker light sources all along the road.
In terms of something like this, it is being directed directly upwards, but I doubt it's anywhere near as bright and it's not covering as much area. Those lights they used to light up streets and bike paths are usually focused more widely so you can see what's going on adjacent to the path as well as in the path. This looks to light the path well, but I doubt it gives a good look at the sides.
I doubt this is going to work for that reason. When crime rates spike along these paths because an attacker was able to hide next to the path, there's likely to be discussions and the experiment will probably be terminated.
There's also the possibility of negative health effects from the chemicals they're using. I didn't see a mention of what they're using, but a lot of the things we've used for phosphorescence in the past have been radioactive or otherwise toxic.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday October 09 2016, @05:18PM
We're told it's "a light-emitting material that charges in the sun." I don't know what the material is, but if it were radioluminescent it would be self-contained.
The bitumen used in plain old tarmac emits a variety of hydrocarbons, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons--which are carcinogenic, especially when it's being laid.
http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/vol103/mono103-001.pdf [monographs.iarc.fr]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday October 10 2016, @02:12AM
Presumably it wouldn't be radioactive, but, given the history of these substances and ones used for road markings, I'd personally like to know what it is if I were going to be living near it. The lead compound they used to use for those yellow lines on the road isn't exactly something that you'd want to be inhaling if you can help it.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Sunday October 09 2016, @05:31PM
This is similar to the glow-in-the-dark stars you would stick on your bedroom ceiling. Not as bright as source lighting every couple hundred feet. And, additionally the sidewalk will taper in intensity with time, so by the wee hours of the morning there is no light coming off them.
However I think neither of these are replacing major sources of light pollution, such as road way lighting or parking lot lighting. Those security lights are bright enough to read by, and really drive the light pollution of a city.