With so many vehicles hitting the road each year, road safety has become an issue of concern. The ever-increasing cases of road-kills make news every day. So, making the lives of the commuters and drivers a little simpler and safer becomes extremely important. Bringing ingenious ideas and creativity together, a few designers have tasted the flavor of success in conceptualizing interesting concepts that can help enhance road safety. Here we have some of them…
• Polymer Tufts:
Design: 3M, BMW Motorrad and Politechnio Di Milano students
The concept, which is part of the “Safer Streets” project, is based on the tufts made of polymer brushes, equipped with a lighting system LED on the head of the pile. These tufts trap and cushion motorcyclists, and prevent high speed collisions with the ground or against bridge supports, streetlamps, signs or any other obstacle. Read more.
• Zerokill:
Designers: Sungi Kim and Hozin Song
No one wants to be the cause of an innocent creature’s death while enjoying a great ride with the moon shining just above. To avoid those road-kills at nighttime, an animal warning system might be a good idea. The Zerokill are solar powered panels designed to line the highways in order to minimize animal road-kills while driving at night. Read more.
• Road Lights:
Designers: Sungi Kim and Hozin Song
Ever thought of utilizing the power of wind harnesses from moving cars to enhance road safety? Road Lights is a system of wind generated lane lights, which does just that. The system has a wind turbine attached to the light that captures energy to illuminate a series of pegs 50-100 meters in front of you to lead the way.
• Light Lane:
Designers: Evan Gant & Alex Tee
Bike lanes are an effective means of improving safety for motorists and cyclists. However, their practical availability is less due to the high cost of installation. The Light Lane is a unique economical system that projects a crisply crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid. With a wider margin of safety, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bike a more viable commuting alternative.
• Speed Bumps:
Designers: Jae-yun Kim & Jong-Su Lee
Retractable speed bumps react conversely to the speed of the coming vehicle. If the approaching car is running below 30km/h, the hump flattens to offer a comforting glide to the driver. On the contrary, if the speed is above the said limit, the retractors stay close to issue a sort of warning for over speed.
• Safe Hump:
Designers: Zhang Yakun, He Siqian, Zhu Ningning, Chen Chen and Mu Zhiwei
Safe Hump is a speed breaker that would not only be beneficial for both drivers and pedestrians, but could also help the road authorities to harness the mechanical energy as it is converted into electric energy. Energy, thus generated, powers the LEDs for a better night vision that is attributable to the gear mechanism structure. Moreover, an anti-pressure system and a neat hump design ensure maximum comfort to the night-riders as both systems come together to offer better shock absorption.
• Luna Signs:
Design: Luna Road Company
Luna sign is here to take road traffic signage to a different level altogether. Not only does it bring nighttime road safety, but also offers beautification to drivers. The Luna Signs offering a wide range of different sign designs and templates uses solar panels, which harnesses the energy of the sun during the daytime, in order to energize the Luna battery cells, which gives power to the LEDs for illumination.
• Transparentius:
Design: Art Lebedev
This new out of the box idea is an interesting new road safety concept. All you have to do is fix a camera onto the front of a truck, or lorry and then project that image onto the back of your massive carrier. This leaves the driver behind enriched with a lot more information about what lies on the road ahead.