The Promise Of Solar Road Studs

adminr

4 years ago

Road accidents continue to injure and kill far too many people every year&period; In the effort to reduce these casualties, attention continues to be paid on ways to improve road safety design and make accidents less likely to happen&period;&NewLine;It just makes sense that individuals and companies would consider how advances in technology can be harnessed in this regard&period; One of the areas where these advances are being applied is with respect to road studs&period; These devices serve a number of important purposes on a nation&&num;8217&semi;s roads&period; They help to clarify where the edge of the road is, as well as the centre line&period; This helps drivers to remain in correct position, even whilst driving fast&period;&NewLine;The problem is that the previous design of road studs, such as cat&&num;8217&semi;s eyes, made use of reflective material in order to achieve visibility&period; In an ideal situation, a vehicle&&num;8217&semi;s headlights would hit the cat&&num;8217&semi;s eye, light would bounce off, and the driver would see the stud and react accordingly&period;&NewLine;<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1140" alt="The Promise Of Solar Road Studs" src="http&colon;//incrediblemag&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Promise-Of-Solar-Road-Studs&period;jpg" width="500" height="332" />&NewLine;However, there are many situations when this ideal scenario does not work out as planned&period; For example, when it is raining hard or when snow is falling heavily, the cat&&num;8217&semi;s eyes will tend to be less visible&period; These studs will also be less visible if there is a problem with a vehicle&&num;8217&semi;s headlights&period;&NewLine;In addition, even when these road studs can be seen, the distance before they become visible can still be relatively short&period; This gives drivers less time to react to the studs&period; The unfortunate reality is that a reflective surface can only provide a limited amount of visibility&period;&NewLine;This is why efforts were made to come up with studs that contain their own illumination, and this research resulted in various solar designs&period; The thing that these studs have in common is that they contain LED lighting as well as a solar panel and energy storage technology&period;&NewLine;These solar road studs allow for power to be collected during the day, which can then be used to illuminate the studs at night&period; The studs generally contain a sensor, which ensures that the LEDs remain off during the day and only come on in the evening&period; The LEDs in these studs have been found to be around ten times more visible compared to traditional cat&&num;8217&semi;s eye reflectors&period; This is a huge leap in terms of visibility, and it will mean that drivers will have more time to see and react to the studs&period;&NewLine;This could result in more predictable lane driving patterns, less potential swerving, and safer roads in general&period; Since these solar road studs remain visible even in inclement weather, they will help to make winter or thunderstorm driving safer&period; If these studs see wider use on a nation&&num;8217&semi;s roads, this could help to reduce accidents, injuries and fatalities&period;&NewLine;The primary issue with the more advanced form of road studs however is the cost&period; Although solar stud technology is more efficient in the long term as they are less likely to need replacing, they are more expensive to install in the short term&period; Other road stud types like click studs are inexpensive and easier to install&period;&NewLine;But what price can you put on road safety and the safe commuting of the millions who use our roadways each day&quest;&NewLine;Article courtesy of Ennis-Flint, the world leaders in road traffic safety solutions&period;&NewLine;