Illuminated roads

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Soldato
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I know these have existed for a while but last night was the first time I've actually encountered them.

7-8 miles of winding country lane with no overhead street lighting. This road is part of a new route for me at work and I was dreading driving it at night because unfamiliar road & bus headlights are crap.

However when I got to the section, because these marked the road so beautifully my fears just melted away.

So I'm hear to ask, because they're obviously very sporadic in their use, should they actually become a standard part of road infrastructure, at least in sections of road that aren't street-lit?
 
Am I right in thinking they're basically just self illuminated road studs? Don't see why not.

I remember driving along an unlit road in southern France and realising just how much I missed cat's eyes...wouldn't usually have been a problem but this was on a fairly windy dual carriageway road with a high speed limit and it was quite unnerving not know where the road was going past the throw of the headlights.
 
Conscript said:
Am I right in thinking they're basically just self illuminated road studs? Don't see why not.
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Yeah. Solar if I remember rightly

lordrobs said:
A great idea until a year later they become



and never get repaired or replaced.
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I suppose that's the draw back.

The particular road I was going down is known for accidents so I assume these were fitted for mitigation
 
GravyMonster said:
Are these what you're referring to - https://www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk/highways-england-installs-4500-new-solar-road-studs/4271?

I don't really see the benefit over traditional cat's eyes. Adding solar/batteries to these just sounds like additional complication and planned obsolescence.
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Visibility distance. From what I can find they're usually only used on unlit NSL roads (non-motorway)

Taking from your link, traditional cat's eyes have a visibility distance of 90metres. At 60mph that's 3 second lead time ahead of the vehicle. SIRS (Self Illuminated Road Studs) are visible for upto 900 giving much longer lead times.

I assume costs of maintainence vs costs of cleaning up RTCs, the SIRS are cheaper.
 
Yea they have a small solar panel and battery in them, so of course they don't last long and the council can't afford to just keep replacing them.

A stretch in MK was where they did one of the first installs as a test. They slowly died and now there are none left working. So now there are no cats eyes at all because they don't reflect either.

Why would anyone think that a million small batteries and solar panels, dug in to the road was a good idea lol. It's worse and more expensive than something from 100 years ago.
 
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What is wrong with cats eyes? They work perfectly well enough. It is only when they are missing due to roadworks at night that you really appreciate them.
 
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I like them because theyre pretty - they had them on the A3 just past guildford for a while but they just fell into disrepair. It felt like you were driving at warp speed or something it was awesome.
 
yes ethereal - Have them on both sides of several cycle/combo paths in Cambridge - like histon out to cottenham at edge of road, they're cool in dark winter time when you are running and there is no adjacent traffic.
 
uber soldat said:
The council should stop being cheap and just put standard street lights in.
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Local roads around us have quite a few of the street lights inactive, every other light on the main road local to us is out, presume it is some sort of cost saving excercise?
 
Seems like someone found a problem looking to replace a much better solution we’ve had since the middle of last century. Those need upgrading to cat eyes ASAP.
 
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