sustainable highway , yesterday ’ s way to go would be the ‘ hardware ’ approach . These hardware solutions might incorporate solar panels in street lights , increase the number of windmills , or offer an adventurous system to recover the energy stored in asphalt . Although these still are all valuable ideas , many consider them to be examples of common practice . In contrast , Venturi ’ s son would take a completely different approach and probably look for improvements in the driving behaviour of drivers . When design solutions start to persuade drivers to adjust their cruising speed or deal with congestion more effectively , the net effects of this behaviour can be really impressive because they are repeated every single day .
Designers who see themselves as ‘ information surface ‘ creators will want to make the road communicate . These designers will point their clients , usually in the business of boiling asphalt and spreading it around evenly , towards directions they should think about innovating . These clients also need to reinvent themselves , as their world has also changed dramatically . The redefined brief does not ask for a road , but a service to store , manage , assess , and communicate data .
It may initially seem expensive to develop a system that both reads a car ’ s GPS data , extracts engine-metrics from the in-car management system , and provides the driver with feedback and recommendations regarding their driving speed .
These costs , however , should be compared to the costs of milling sensor loops into the pavement , placing displays alongside the road , and maintaining all the traffic lights . Consider the savings resulting from sensible driving behaviour : these costs can be saved once roads collect and communicate information , and will benefit a much larger group of stakeholders than just the road building contractor . These stakeholders must first be persuaded to invest in the project . The people in charge of the asphalt boiler have little interest in these calculations ; this discussion will have to take place high up in the value chain .
Recalib our prof com
Gijs Ockeloen — 1957 gijs @ kvd . com
. Partner at KVD reframing . Design coach Eindhoven University
of Technology . Member CRISP project CASD
Social Driver , designed by KVD reframing for Ballast Nedam in the N329 project .