Heated Bike Lanes To Be Tested In The Netherlands
Many people are, unfortunately, reluctant to bike for transportation purposes. And, during the winter, this is even worse. While winter cyclists have to encounter snow and frozen roads (black ice, for example, which is difficult to see and very dangerous), heated bike lanes are one potential solution.
The Dutch province of Utrecht and the town of Zutphen are actually considering heated bike lanes, which utilize heat passively absorbed during the summer (sorry, hardly any technical details were found at the news source).
According to a report from the Netherlands’ De Telegraaf website, heating bike lanes could save money by reducing the need for traditional de-icing methods such as salting roads; it could keep more cars off the bike lanes; and it could also save money on accidents by reducing their occurrence.
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The Dutch Cyclists Union hopes that the new “heated bike lane” concept would encourage more people to ride bicycles… for the obvious reasons noted above.
The cost to implement these passive bike heating systems ranges from $25,000 to $50,000 per km of heated road, and, according to Marcel Boerefijn from Tauw, the heating pipes would have to be up to 50 metres underground.
Source: TreeHugger
Photo Credit: studiozelden.nl
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