Solar Roadways installs energy harvesting parking lot
Solar Roadways installs energy harvesting parking lot. Roanoke’s Transportation Division has been in touch with the Brusaws since 2010 regarding their exciting R&D.
http://ht.ly/x6dtj
About 8 years ago, an electrical engineer and his counselor wife started throwing around an idea to replace asphalt on highways and byways throughout the US with electricity-producing solar panels that were tough enough to be driven upon. The idea blossomed into a project, where the panels featured built-in LEDs that could “paint the road” with markings and warnings, and could be heated to prevent snow and ice build up. The US Federal Highway Administration paid for the couple to produce a working prototype, which they did, and then again to expand the concept into an operational parking lot setup. As the latter contract comes to an end, the Solar Roadways project has released photos of the (almost) completed installation at its Idaho electronics lab. Now the team is dipping into crowd-funding waters with a campaign to raise funds for the move into commercial production.
the Solar Roadways project has hit Indiegogo (starting, appropriately enough, on Earth Day) to help raise enough money to hire a team of engineers and other professionals, streamline the production process and move into manufacturing proper.
A lofty funding target of $1 million has been set, and the project will receive all funding, even if the campaign goal is not met. Rewards include t-shirts, coffee mugs, a backer’s name engraved on one of the prototype’s 396 mounting hole covers, and samples of the toughened glass.
New STRAVA Metro feature shows City Planners how cyclists are using City streets
New STRAVA Metro feature shows CIty Planners how cyclists are using City streets
http://ht.ly/wH97f
Strava Metro is a new service that pulls from their database of activities, which they say is over 300 billion GPS points and growing, to give cycling advocacy groups and government organizations better insight into where people are biking in their cities. The goal is to help them make better informed decisions about alternative transportation infrastructure like bike lanes.
Perfect timing since next week is Bike To Work Week, which should provide a bit more data on how less avid cyclists might contribute to the load. The link shows “heatmap” visualizations of Metro data for SF, NYC and London, illustrating the available data for some of the largest cities in the world.
6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever
6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever by:Alissa Walker
It seems counter-intuitive, right? Rip out eight lanes of freeway through the middle of your metropolis and you’ll be rewarded with not only less traffic, but safer, more efficient cities? But it’s true, and it’s happening in places all over the world.
Many freeway systems were overbuilt in an auto-obsessed era, only to realize later that cities are actually healthier, greener, and safer without them. Like freeway cap parks, which hope to bridge the chasms through severed neighborhoods—Boston’s Big Dig is a great example—freeway removal projects try to eradicate and undo the damage wrought from highways, while creating new, multifunctional shared streets that can be utilized by transit, bikes, walkers and yes, even cars.
Okay, you’re thinking, but where do all the cars go? It turns out that when you take out a high-occupancy freeway it doesn’t turn the surface streets into the equivalent of the Autobahn. A theory called “induced demand” proves that if you make streets bigger, more people will use them. When you make them smaller, drivers discover and use other routes, and traffic turns out to be about the same. Don’t believe it? Check out http://ht.ly/vdhTe to see freeway removals that have occured in cities all over the world.
ODOT Evaluates Winter Pothole Patching Methods – Infrared Repairs Most Effective
ODOT Evaluates Winter Pothole Patching Methods
The Ohio Department of Transportation has released a report that evaluates the performance and cost-effectiveness of the tow-behind combination infrared asphalt heater/reclaimer patching method and compares it to the throw and roll and spray injection methods.
The results of the cost analyses showed that the infrared method can be more cost-effective than the spray injection method when used for winter pothole patching. For short term repairs, the throw and roll method was found to cost less than the infrared method if the user cost were not considered.
Bottom line results:
- The infrared patches had significantly better performance than those installed using the two other patching methods.
- The results of survivability analyses also indicated that the patches installed using infrared had much longer expected life than those installed using the other two considered methods.
- The results of the cost analyses showed that the infrared method can be more cost-effective than the spray injection method when used for winter pothole patching.
- For short term repairs, the throw and roll method was found to cost less than the infrared method if the user cost were not considered. However, for permanent repairs, the infrared method can be more cost effective than throw and roll method.
- In summary, the tow-behind infrared heater/reclaimer was found to be an efficient and cost effective method for patching certain types of potholes as well as performing other pavement repairs.
- There are several infrared asphalt heaters/reclaimer systems available in the market. Based on the comparison that was conducted in this study between the three main infrared asphalt heaters/reclaimer systems, the KASI Minuteman was found to be most suitable
No question that IR costs more upfront. On page 83, however, this report quantifies City of Roanoke’s in-house anecdotal experience regarding IR patch longevity: “the results of the statistical survivability analysis showed that the infrared patches are expected to survive at least 14 times the expected life of throw and roll and spray injection patches.”
View the full 118 page report here: http://ht.ly/udtUV
You Can’t Stop Urban Flooding – In 1942, Gilbert White said cities should accommodate floods
From The Rockefeller Foundation 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge: You Can’t Stop Urban Flooding – In 1942, Gilbert White said that cities should accommodate floods rather than try to stop them.
http://ht.ly/sZVN2
Boulder, Colorado, is no stranger to environmental shocks and stresses. Devastating flash floods have hit the city, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, half a dozen times since 1890. Each one resulted in needlessly high death tolls and severe property damage. Last fall, Boulder endured another extreme flood, but due to some new resilient infrastructure, things went a little differently this time.
After a sudden, massive 1976 flood in Big Thompson Canyon took the lives of 139 people, Boulder flood planner Gilbert White recognized that without major investment and planning, tragedy could strike again.
He led the charge to prepare for future flooding. Some of the mitigation efforts were significant innovations — like installing a bridge designed to swing out of the path of a rushing flood, instead of becoming dangerous debris. Others were small, such as lining streams with jagged rocks to redirect the energy of rushing water.
Last September, these measures were put to the test when Boulder was hit by another flash flood, the worst natural disaster in decades.
Did Boulder’s investment in infrastructure and resilience planning pay off? Watch the video to see for yourself.
How Bike Lanes Increase Small Business Revenue
How Bike Lanes Increase Small Business Revenue
http://ht.ly/sfWaI
Magnolia Street in Fort Worth is the sort of story that urban planners dream of.
In 2008, this mixed used street was re-striped. The street had featured two lanes in each direction, both of which had been mainly used by cars, plus a few fast and fearless cyclists.
In its new incarnation it still had four lanes, one in each direction for cars, and one for bicycles. “It was the first ‘road diet’ of its kind in Fort Worth, and has been a genuine success,” Kevin Buchanan, a local musician and author of the Fort Worthology blog, told me.
The best measure of this success was in the bottom line: after the road was rearranged, restaurant revenues along the street went up a combined total of 179 percent.
“Not to imply causality,” Buchanan added, “but clearly removing car lanes and replacing them with bike lanes had no ill effects on businesses, and of course it can be argued that the safer, slower street and better cycling/walking environment helped business.”
The effort to revitalize the street included adding lots of new parking. A 320 space car parking garage went up in the heart of the district; shortly afterward, bicycle parking staples were bolted into the concrete in front of every business, providing spaces for 160 bikes.
The total cost for the parking garage was over 5 million dollars. The total for buying and installing all the bicycle parking came to just over $12,000—less than the cost of a single space in the garage.
On the spring weekend I visited Magnolia Street in 2012, the garage was nearly empty, but bike racks outside neighborhood restaurants and bars were overflowing. A coffee shop on the street, needing yet more capacity, had built their own bike corral, a row of bike staples drilled into the public right of way. The new spaces more than doubled the shop’s previous parking capacity.
By all measures, these improvements were an excellent investment. So much so that other Fort Worth streets were slated to get the same treatment—replacing car capacity with bicycle capacity both on and off the road.
#Roanoke Paving Program early adopter of #Asphalt best practices that Nationwide saved $2.2B
#Asphalt best practices save 2.2B Tax Dollars – For several years, #Roanoke has used #RAP & #WarmMixAspahalt. According to a survey conducted by the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), about 66.7 million tons of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and 1.2 million tons of reclaimed asphalt shingles (RAS) were collected in the United States during 2011 for use in new pavements. Also, about 19 percent of all asphalt produced in the country that year was made using warm-mix asphalt (WMA) technologies http://ht.ly/kxULB
Different Colored #Streets Might Help Keep Our #Cities Cooler
Different Colored #Streets To Keep Our #Cities Cool – http://ht.ly/k1X74
No debate that there are wonderful benefits from #CoolPavements reflecting solar energy, but need more data on longevity/life cycle costs of cool pavement coatings. Experience tells me that coatings will simply mean additional long-term maintenance/life cycle costs. Most localities continue to struggle with how to balance reduced street maintenance budgets with continually rising asphalt costs – result has been and continues to be nationwide roadway ratings worse than they have been in decades. The upshot is that public works folks will likely not have funds for maintenance of cool pavement coatings. Ideally, research will identify/create asphalt design mixes that increase solar reflectivity for the life of the pavement without significantly increasing upfront costs…
#AsphaltPavementAlliance announces 2012 Perpetual Pavement Awards
#AsphaltPavementAlliance announces 2012 #PerpetualPavementAwards – PM & Surface Renewals = #Sustainability http://ht.ly/jL9KN
#Roanoke likely be the 4th US location trial #WinterPave
City of #Roanoke likely be the 4th US locality to trial #WinterPave #asphalt. Melts #snow down to 17 degrees. http://ht.ly/epxwY
GoProGreen.com 