Dutch glowing bike path

This item appears on page 76 of the January 2015 issue.

In the Dutch town of Eindhoven, 123 kilometers south of Amsterdam, cyclists may ride on a bike path patterned with glow-in-the-dark swirls inspired by one-time resident of the city Vincent van Gogh. 

Opened in November 2014 as part of a pilot project for smart highways incorporating the technology, the designs are created using gravel, coated in road-grade luminescent paint, embedded in the asphalt. The paint stores light during the day and glows at night for up to eight hours.

The mile-long path is part of the van Gogh cycling route through areas in the Brabant region in which the artist lived and painted.