Glow-In-The-Dark Cycle Path - "Starry Night," one of the most well-known paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, is now the main inspiration for a bike cycling path that glows in the dark.
On Nov. 13, the bike cycling path that glows in the dark opened. It's 1-kilometer-long, CNN noted, and it was a tribute to Van Gogh from the artist Daan Roosegaarde.
This incredible infrastructure opened the Van Gogh 2015, which is a year of cultural events held in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. It's meant to honor the 125th anniversary of Van Gogh's death.
Roosegaarde teamed up with Heijmans infrastructure to do this glow-in-the-dark bike cycling path a reality. It's made of twinkling stones that feature glow-in-the-dark technology and solar-powered LED lights.
"I wanted to create a place that people will experience in a special way, the technical combined with experience, that's what techno-poetry means to me," Roosegaarde shared.
A more detailed explanation of the functionality of these LED lights is provided by Digital Trends. The glow-in-the-dark effect is achieved by the technique of combining paint and a "photo-luminising" powder.
This combination provides a substance that has the possibility of charging up during the daytime, when daylight hours can "feed" the lights and then, during the night, the same lights can work for up to eight hours.
By calculations, there would probably be a time during the night when the path would no longer be illuminated. But, it would also be a short period of time.
Apparently, the idea has already attraction for other places, such as the UK and Qatar. It would be no surprise to see in a couple of years several glow-in-the-dark cycling bike paths.
Netherlands is one of the countries where most people ride bikes. The calculation is of five million cyclists.
So, although the glow-in-the-dark cycling path is of 1 kilometer so far, a "starry night" will be visible in most paths probably, some years from now.