Transportation Infrastructure
No one can say our roads are perfect. They are far from it and funding cuts haven't been helping anyone. Our roads and bridges continue to age and deteriorate and the government is struggling to pay for the upkeep. Without any changes, the funding gap is estimated to be 2.3 trillion through 2035. What doesn't help is that cars are expected to quintuple by 2050. According to the writers of Future US Highway Use;A Fifty Year Perspective, the dramatic increase in vehicles would require an equal growth in manufacturing and significant use of capital toward infrastructure. Many countries face similar predictions yet the US still refuses to explore new solutions. We need a change and there is no room to be picky.
Our problems in transportation infrastructure stem into more than just the roads themselves. Those on and around the streets are also in danger. Thousands of people each year die in car related incidents whether its by dangerous driving conditions, drunk, inexperienced, or unaware drivers. These problems will never go away but they can be reduced. Just because these problems exist and aren't easily fixed doesn't give us the right to ignore them.
Our problems in transportation infrastructure stem into more than just the roads themselves. Those on and around the streets are also in danger. Thousands of people each year die in car related incidents whether its by dangerous driving conditions, drunk, inexperienced, or unaware drivers. These problems will never go away but they can be reduced. Just because these problems exist and aren't easily fixed doesn't give us the right to ignore them.
Solar Roadways solve for a laundry list of problems
![Picture](/uploads/2/4/8/6/24863550/752939276.jpg?543)
Solar Roadways is the best transportation infrastructure system that the US can invest in. We already know that the transportation industry is key to jobs and the economy. 11% of the GDP is the transportation sector and one in nine US workers is employed in transportation industries. So the addition of a brand new infrastructure could only help us economically. Along with that, Solar Roadways will in itself make more jobs. It is estimated that 5 billion Solar Roadway Panels is what we need to over all the roads, parking lots, and driveways in the US. This will very well be the New Deal of the 21st century! Solar Roadways retains works from unnecessary jobs like coal miners and asphalt workers and gives them this new Green Collar job. Scott Brusaw the creator of Solar Roadways states that "Unemployment rates will
plummet. Vast sums of money will be injected back into our economy. This could
create the biggest mobilization this country has seen since WWII..
Each Solar Road Panel™ measures 12 feet (about 4 meters) by 12 feet. Each panel
contains solar collectors, circuit boards, electronics parts, etc. All of these
have to be assembled. Let's say it take a minimum of 10 hours to completely
assemble one Solar Road Panel™. Ten hours is probably a conservative estimate,
but it's a nice round number. Five billion panels requiring 10 hours to
assemble means 50 billion assembly hours. Let's give ourselves ten years to
accomplish this monumental task, leaving us 5 billion assembly hours per year.
A typical U.S. worker spends 40 hours per week at work. Let's give our worker
two weeks vacation and say he never misses a day of work otherwise. That's 50
weeks at 40 hours per week comes to 2000 work hours per year. Divide that into
five billion assembly hours and you'd
put 2,500,000 people to work full-time for ten years. This is just the final
assembly! We haven't yet taken
into account the increased jobs at the suppliers end. For instance, the glass
maker has to create five billion sheets of special textured glass for the top
layer. Someone has to create all of the circuit boards and what about all of
increased jobs at the parts manufacturers? Each Solar Road Panel™ contains 6192
LEDs alone. Who will make all of these parts? Then we must take into account installation, maintenance, system
monitoring, panel refurbishing, distribution, etc. Every aspect of our economy could flourish."
![Picture](/uploads/2/4/8/6/24863550/918401111.jpg?487)
Solar Roadways is also promising the possibility of a large reduction in car accidents and incidents. Dark and unclear roads are one of the major causes of automobile accidents. With Solar Roadways, that problem is virtually removed. The panels are covered with non-glare inducing LEDs that only light up as the panels sense an incoming care. The lights work for cars coming in either direction. So not only are you warned ahead of time for dangerous dark turns but also incoming cars that may have their headlights off.
According to Brusaw "The LEDs can also be programmed to move along with cars at the speed limit, warning drivers instantly when they are driving too fast. The LEDs will also be used to paint words right into the road, warning drivers of an animal on the road, a detour ahead, an accident, or construction work. Central control stations will be able to instantly customize the lines and words in real time, alleviating traffic congestion and making the roads more efficient as well as safer.[.....]Crosswalk panels can alert drivers when pedestrians are on the crosswalk. Once the crosswalk panels detect a pedestrian, the LEDs within the crosswalk begin flashing and a warning is displayed in front of oncoming vehicles.[....]If a vehicle crosses the center line too many times within a given distance, a ring of LEDs can be drawn around the vehicle, which will travel with it indefinitely. This will warn other drivers of a potential danger and will alert law enforcement officials of a potential problem. It may just be someone tuning their radio, eating a Big Mac, reading a map, or applying makeup (we've seen all of these), but it may also be an impaired driver on his/her way to taking out a family of four. The Solar Roadways could drastically reduce the number of deaths/injuries caused by impaired driving. This too, ought to result in lowered insurance rates for all of us."
Many that live in the northern regions experience snow and ice which is also one of the main causes for accidents. Removing the snow and ice is extremely expensive and labor intensive. The Department of Transportation's budget is normally expended even before the snow has stopped falling. The developers of Solar Roadways foresaw this problem and added a heating element to the panels. This allows the the road to be ice free even before the snow stops. Any problems caused by snow are completely eliminated!
Last edit: 5/11/2014 8:41PM
According to Brusaw "The LEDs can also be programmed to move along with cars at the speed limit, warning drivers instantly when they are driving too fast. The LEDs will also be used to paint words right into the road, warning drivers of an animal on the road, a detour ahead, an accident, or construction work. Central control stations will be able to instantly customize the lines and words in real time, alleviating traffic congestion and making the roads more efficient as well as safer.[.....]Crosswalk panels can alert drivers when pedestrians are on the crosswalk. Once the crosswalk panels detect a pedestrian, the LEDs within the crosswalk begin flashing and a warning is displayed in front of oncoming vehicles.[....]If a vehicle crosses the center line too many times within a given distance, a ring of LEDs can be drawn around the vehicle, which will travel with it indefinitely. This will warn other drivers of a potential danger and will alert law enforcement officials of a potential problem. It may just be someone tuning their radio, eating a Big Mac, reading a map, or applying makeup (we've seen all of these), but it may also be an impaired driver on his/her way to taking out a family of four. The Solar Roadways could drastically reduce the number of deaths/injuries caused by impaired driving. This too, ought to result in lowered insurance rates for all of us."
Many that live in the northern regions experience snow and ice which is also one of the main causes for accidents. Removing the snow and ice is extremely expensive and labor intensive. The Department of Transportation's budget is normally expended even before the snow has stopped falling. The developers of Solar Roadways foresaw this problem and added a heating element to the panels. This allows the the road to be ice free even before the snow stops. Any problems caused by snow are completely eliminated!
Last edit: 5/11/2014 8:41PM