[Note: with the long power outage in the New York area due to the storm Sandy and the US elections, my blogging time has been limited, so here’s a short post …]
There has been lots of interesting work on making cars smarter, including self-driving cars for the future, cars that can follow a leader creating a sort of train of cars, all sorts of technology built into cars that are sold today, etc.
But a Dutch designer, Daan Roosegaarde, is instead focusing on increasing the intelligence and technology built into the highway itself. His concepts include:
- A Glow-in-the-Dark Road that provides extra illumination
- Dynamic Paint that portrays the true condition of the road surface by showing an image of the danger, for example ice crystals
- Interactive Light, Induction Priority Lane and Wind Light which provide sustainable solutions to lighting and other roadway needs.
You can learn more at http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/project/smart-highway/info/ 
© 2012 Norman Jacknis
[http://njacknis.tumblr.com/post/35269958259/smart-highways]