A prototype will be built in Holland next year and will power street lights, maybe even houses.
Via the Freeway Blogger who emails:
Cool idea, though I’m not sure how riding on glass will work, especially if it rains.
Or what happens if a car drives over it or vandals try to smash it.
My thoughts are “Yeah, cool idea, but you know what’d be even cooler here in the U.S.? Just regular bike paths.” Thinking about the current widening of the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass [In Los Angeles between the Westside and the San Fernando Valley]: one billion dollars for an extra lane or two on ten miles of freeway – same money could’ve built bike paths (the regular, non-solar kind) between every major city in California.
I’ll let you know if I decide to blog [hang protest signs on] the Sepulveda Pass (construction sites are easy and fun!)
It will almost certainly end up costing much more than one billion, this so even more cars can travel on an already traffic-choked main artery. Any improvement in the traffic flow will be transitory, as more people will use the 405 rather than taking alternate routes. The problem is that part of the 405 goes over a small mountain that separates two major areas of L.A. There is and never will be enough freeway in Sepulveda Pass. What L.A. really needs along with bike paths everywhere is genuinely useful mass transit.