Dutch Unveil Glow In The Dark Road

Although a novel application for these long-persistence phosphorescent materials, they can't hold a candle to plain old ordinary reflective highway paint.

The only way you would see these stripes glow that brightly is by turning off your headlights! Not recommended for night driving.

I've worked with these (strontium aluminate) phosphors for ten years now and, although they are much brighter than their conventional, zinc-sulfide-based counterparts, their brightness at even one hour after charging does not even come close to what that pic suggests. That is either a time exposure or the stripes were artificially charged only minutes prior (probably with UV light).

Strontium aluminate phosphors are very, very expensive compared to reflective highway paint. Magnitudes more expensive. Great idea, folks, but no cigar.

So the technology is mostly hype? That is easy to believe.

They might think of solar powered LEDs. That would be more expensive and you would need bulb changes. Solar powered billboard lights are popular in remote areas. The lights are dim by midnight but the traffic is light by then.

Naaaa just replace with radium paint.

Back when a box of Cracker Jacks contained a *real* Surprise Inside, one these was a self-contained magnifying thingie with a dot of radium paint inside. When you looked through the lens you could see the paint scintillating from the radioactive decay. Those were the days.

Also took the glow-in-the dark hands off mum & dad's c. 1950s alarm clock (for which I got The Belt, but it was worth it), and put one under my little microscope. Watching all those little sparkles from dying atoms was really cool!

Back in the good old days. Kids are denied those dangerous but formative learning experiences. Most of us actually did survive and are the wiser for it.