Heated cycle lanes to warm Dutch winter cyclists
 

Infrastructure in Holland is pretty well adapted to cyclists; there is always room for improvement though. I thought we had a great improvement recently with the green lights for cyclists when it rains (see here) but this one is surely a winner:

Towns in the Netherlands are considering a proposal to heat cycle lanes to encourage greater use of bicycles in winter. In the near future a trial will start in the city Zutphen and the province Utrecht.

The scheme will use geo-thermal energy to prevent ice forming. This means the asphalt will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The prognosis is that these bike paths will hardly cost more than normal bike paths and very little energy is needed to keep the paths warm in the winter. The reduction in crashes due to iced over roads will most likely outweigh the additional costs of creating the paths.

I guess this is why you can be car-free in Holland without getting stares.


http://www.telegraaf.nl/reiskrant/fi...erwarmd__.html

And for those of you who want an English source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20041522

You Dutch are so spoiled. (And I'm very jealous!)

Yup, when you allow gas to get to $10 a gallon this is what you are forced to do. Be careful what you ask for...

Wouldn't this create issues with fog and condensation on the paving surface making it slippery?

Fog and condensation occur when you take warmer, humid air and cool it or have it come in contact with a cold surface. This would be the opposite - the cold and dry ambient air contacting a warmer surface of the heated pavement. Sounds reasonable for areas that have enough cycle traffic to justify the energy expenditure.

While the geothermal is obviously fairly low energy use; what mechanisms are being used to deliver that energy to the road surfaces and what is the source of the energy for that delivery?

A warm heated surface will warm the air and potentially cause condensation. But it will also cause additional convection currents. It will be interesting to see what unintended side effects this has.

And if the route already has enough traffic to justify the energy expenditure it would not likely have much ice accumulation, since the traffic would tend to melt/disappate the ice.