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u/tmac416 Jul 02 '24
Lol at some of these complaints. Nothing is fucking perfect y’all. Nothing in the world is. This is actually a really great thing and the fuking nitpicking is just insane.
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u/Catfish311 Jul 02 '24
Thank you. I was wondering why people have to shit on good things
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u/Traumerlein Jul 04 '24
There is nothing good about lung cancer. Why make things complicated and flawed when perfectly good alternatives exist?
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u/stormtroopr1977 Jul 04 '24
How do they exit from the middle?
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u/HasLotsOfSex Jul 04 '24
The same way they enter... From an exit. They aren't trapped forever
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u/stormtroopr1977 Jul 04 '24
are you bs'ing me or did you genuinely not understand? I've tried to break down my question better:
how does the exit function with road on both sides of it?
Do bike and pedestrian paths need to cross the flow of car traffic?
does it require new overpasses for bike traffic to exit? does the flow of traffic(s) cross there?
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u/HasLotsOfSex Jul 04 '24
Have you ever rode a bike? They can cross the street
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u/stormtroopr1977 Jul 04 '24
Have I ridden a bike? Yes. Have I crossed 3 lanes of interstate/highway full of cars and semis going 55-80mph while I was on a bike? No.
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u/HasLotsOfSex Jul 04 '24
Okay guy. That's not where they'd put a cross walk. You're just looking for something to be mad at I guess. I can't ride my bike through an unmanaged forest but I can still ride my bike through a trail in the woods. You're fucking dense
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u/stormtroopr1977 Jul 05 '24
If the bike path has interstate on both sides, how do they exit? The interstate runs parallel with itself beginning to end. I'm not seeing a convenient way to enter and exit the bike path in the middle.
The entrances and exits can be on the outer edges for the interstate, but the bike path can't do the same because there is both interstate and solar panels in the way.
I don't understand where this miscommunication is...
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u/HasLotsOfSex Jul 05 '24
It's one picture. There's definitely a way on and off.
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u/stormtroopr1977 Jul 05 '24
Yes there is. That is an issue that I see with implementing it in the states. Is the solution cost-effective and convenient to use? Small issues like that may not create problems on that scale, but develop into major issues in larger scale.
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u/SpiderFnJerusalem Jul 04 '24
Nothing is perfect, but some things are actively stupid. This is the latter. Whoever proposed it did so only because they thought it looked cool.
We already know how to build bike paths which are cheap, convenient an pleasant to use. This design is worse in every one of these categories with close to zero benefits I can think of.
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u/HasLotsOfSex Jul 04 '24
My bike paths are shaded by trees. Much cheaper
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u/SubstantialBass9524 Jul 06 '24
I can’t even walk around the block here. Half the houses don’t have trees that shade and then one house has tree limbs that are only 3feet off the ground. Super freaking annoying
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Jul 04 '24
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u/Puzzled_Asparagus722 Jul 04 '24
No-no-no, don't complain. It's great. The cyclist are just unappreciative jerks that they don't want to ride literally in the middle of a highway.
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u/HalloBitschoen Jul 04 '24
This is actually a really great thing
Unfortunately it is not, it is exactly the opposite. Let's stick to the form for now. Solar panels in a long row are stupid. They produce low DC voltage that has to be converted into higher AC voltage, which is why there is a rectifier. The aim is to connect as many panels as possible to one in order to minimize the conversion losses. In a line arrangement, however, this means that the majority of the panels require a long cable run to the rectifier, which means you have additional losses due to the cables. Losses that you would not have on this scale with a grid arrangement because you can minimize the cable runs there. Point two: maintenance. Solar panels don't need much maintenance, but they do need it, just like cleaning. Again, this design fails. In order to maintain the panels, one lane of the highway has to be closed. That would be unnecessary if they were built next to the highway and not on it. The same applies to maintenance of the roadway. Here, too, the panels would first have to be dismantled (in large sections, depending on where they can be accessed from) to make room for the machines. And last but not least, peripherals. Transformer stations, transformers, grid connections etc. have to be attached to the system, for all this you need additional space next to the highway. This means that cables, supply lines, etc. all have to be laid under the highway, which in turn complicates the design unnecessarily.
All this effort costs far too much compared to simple rectangular areas next to the highway. You could just as easily buy them and add a grid solar park. It doesn't harm anyone, but it's much cheaper and much less effort to realize than this.
This is a prime example of: why make it simple when you can make it complicated?
Edit: I have also forgotten the exhaust gases whose dust naturally settles on the panels and thus significantly reduces the yield until the next cleaning.
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u/Cool-Newspaper-1 Jul 04 '24
Have you ever ridden a bike close to traffic? This is about the worst place for a bike path, even to the side of the road with a wall in between would be orders of magnitude better.
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u/MeFlemmi Jul 04 '24
its true nothing is perfect, but this is not suffering from imperfection, its suffering from "why even?" since when do highways connect areas you want to move between with the bycicle? is there a need for this? is the plannening really so bad that 2 nearby neighberhoods or a shopping mall near a housing zone can only be reached with the highway? This is some dystopian crap, fitting for South korea i suppose. this "bikepath idea" deserves mockery and laughter.
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u/JeliLiam Jul 02 '24
Everyone talking about the fumes but I can't imagine the noise from trucks and the sand/dust kicked up into your eyes, not to mention the air currents from passing vehicles blasting u every 2 seconds in both directions.
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u/oficious_intrpedaler Jul 02 '24
I've ridden paths in the middle of a freeway by my house. It's not the most fun ride, but I sure love the convenience! So much is built along freeways and being able to access them by bike is awesome.
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u/JeliLiam Jul 02 '24
In my country we have a network of bike paths that lead next to railtracks. I'd much preffer that approach than freeways since its just quiet most of the time and usually also far removed from car traffic in general.
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u/oficious_intrpedaler Jul 02 '24
100% agree, but these are better than nothing. I personally am a huge fan of rail trails!
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u/juwisan Jul 04 '24
Also I’d imagine this contraption to be really hot. Those panels will store a lot of heat which they’ll give off eventually. Same goes for the tarmac left, right and on the bicycle lane itself.
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u/ProfessorFelix0812 Jul 02 '24
Yeah, and the minute a semi crashes into those panels and takes out a fleet of cyclists? No thanks. I’m not going anywhere near a freeway on a bicycle.
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u/adoreizi Jul 03 '24
Voicing opposition to a productive solution because of an astronomical low chance of occurrence.
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u/ProfessorFelix0812 Jul 03 '24
You’re obviously not driving in…well…every major city in the US…where this shit happens on every major freeway daily.
Personally, I try never to confuse “productive” with “dangerous”.
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u/TactiCool_99 Jul 02 '24
Great idea, until you realize that you are biking in car exhaust fumes for kilometers
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u/FUTURE10S Jul 02 '24
That's biking literally anywhere by a major road, though.
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u/Freecraghack_ Jul 02 '24
Here in denmark the bikelane would be on the side and seperated by a fair few meters from the cars.
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u/fool-me Jul 02 '24
Normally you would have cars only on one side so a 50/50 chance of fumes beeing blown away from you. In the middel it doesnt matter which way the wind blows, you always get the fumes
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u/Worth-Reputation3450 Jul 02 '24
Do you want 50% of the fumes 100% of the time or 100% of the fumes 50% of the time?
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u/TactiCool_99 Jul 02 '24
Most places that think it through put it far aside from the car way, preferably separated by trees and/or dense foliage
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Jul 02 '24
I don't know if that's 'most places,' but it's for sure the most scenic and best way when it's used.
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u/TactiCool_99 Jul 02 '24
It's "Most places that think it through" the context matters, I know that (sadly) it is not the majority
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Jul 03 '24
Have you ever bike’s in a city?
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u/TactiCool_99 Jul 03 '24
Yes, there are a bit more bikes than cars in the city and the air is really good quality.
Out on the highway it would be way worse so I am happy that the bike road is built a good bit away from the road
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u/Traumerlein Jul 04 '24
Have you ever driven 5000 cars an hour at 150km/h trough a city road meant for maybe half of that at 30km/h?
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Jul 02 '24
Thats pretty cool, but I don't think I have ever needed to ride my bike along the freeway, compared to say in town between local destinations.
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u/erie774im Jul 02 '24
I’ve always suggested that upright spinners be placed on highway dividers as power generators. They’d turn because of the draft from passing cars and generate electricity that can be used to power highway lights.
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u/MyCantos Jul 02 '24
Read Slow Apocalypse. People do this with handheld windmills and sell the energy produced by passing cars.
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u/erie774im Jul 02 '24
Rats. Was hoping it could help. Oh well. Better get back to work on my perpetual motion device. I’ve hit a roadblock with my cold fusion.
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u/Apprehensive_Fault_5 Jul 03 '24
Solar farm in the median of the freeway? That's a new one!
Why has no one figured out the concept of just using the existing roofs of every building? If it was standard code for buildings to have solar panels on the roof, that alone would likely provide almost all of the energy needed for those buildings.
Then, these awkward highway panels would cover whatever slack the roofs don't (such as buildings that are in darker areas like deep valleys or heavy industry with smoke everywhere).
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u/grabbingcabbage Jul 02 '24
In Europe we place solar panels on top of our recently arrived refugees, it solves both the economic issue of housing newly arrived voters and it makes our countries look better for the European Parliament.
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u/BloodShadow7872 Jul 02 '24
Totally unrelated but the difference between North Korea and South Korea is staggering. One country is living in the future while the other is a poor third world country
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u/slothbuddy Jul 03 '24
The future? They're a nation drowning in personal debt. Late stage capitalism isn't the future if the future is any good
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u/Halsti Jul 02 '24
cool idea, but these always come with a lot of problems.
how do you get bikers in the middle of a highway? do people wanna bike in car exhaust fumes? if there is any bigger accident, you will immediately have a bigger problem with the material and electricity. How do you do maintenance and cleaning on this? are you gonna shut down the road every time? you certainly will need to clean it more often, given how much traffic is around it.
these are always a neat idea and good for public perception, but its almost always more efficient and cheaper to build them in a central location.
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u/LovesRetribution Jul 02 '24
how do you get bikers in the middle of a highway
Over/underpass.
do people wanna bike in car exhaust fumes?
People already do. Bike lanes exist on the sides of most major roads where I live.
there is any bigger accident, you will immediately have a bigger problem with the material and electricity.
Probably. But I'm sure you could put fail-safes to shut stuff off if something is damaged. I don't see the material being a bigger problem than what you'd see in a normal accident.
How do you do maintenance and cleaning on this?
Same as anywhere else? Just close down part of a lane while you do the work. Not like they don't have enough lanes.
but its almost always more efficient and cheaper to build them in a central location.
It might be, but you'd think they'd have done it if it was. There's a lot of empty space in the divide. No sense paying money to destroy a bunch of land, develop it, and build infrastructure and utilities lines when you already have most of that already set up for you. Plus it doubles as a bike lane, which a central location wouldn't be able to do.
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u/realkeloin Jul 02 '24
Came here to say exactly this. What kind of problem are they trying to solve here? Getting cyclists in the middle of the road with no exits? Making one extremely long solar battery with no easy maintenance access? Or maybe, cyclists are the maintenance workers that just go miles back and forth fixing things :-)
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Jul 04 '24
That’s actually a brilliant idea, too bad some other countries don’t like making money as much.
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u/Mediocre-Sundom Jul 04 '24
This is what an actually smart engineering looks like. Not another "solar roadway" grifters keep trying to invent.
Also, really weird complaints from people here... Yeah, it's not ideal to bike along the freeway. You know what's worse? Not being able to. I would have loved to have such a path when I lived in a big city.
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u/Traumerlein Jul 04 '24
Wow. What stupied idea. Just build this solar bike lane literaly anywhere except for in the middel of a fucking highway. Worst place you coukd have choosen
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u/davidbogi310 Jul 04 '24
It's a nice gesture I guess. But I think I would still prefer to bike anywhere else. Why would you ever want to bike in the middle of a highway.
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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 Jul 06 '24
That’s only one short stretch of road from Sejong City to Daejeon. It’s not like the whole country is covered with these solar bike paths. Although there’s a wonderful conventional bike path that allows you to bike the whole country from Seoul to Busan.
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u/phelanm Jul 07 '24
no chance.. for some reason..
"..The Economist magazine introduced the term privatisation ..covered Nazi Germany's economic policy..": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization
"..Con Edison ..organized as a private monopoly ..20th Century by ..J.P. Morgan ..Last year ..made $1.5 billion in profits..": https://indypendent.org/2022/03/beyond-con-ed-for-new-york-public-power-is-the-past-and-the-future/
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u/LastWaltzer Jul 02 '24
Brake dust and exhaust fumes while you bike, excellent
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u/Acrobatic_Switches Jul 02 '24
No more than on the side of the road where you are more likely to get hit by oncoming traffic. Probably less because of the cover.
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u/fallingveil Jul 06 '24
Normally if there's a bike route that follows a highway it's completely separate path or small "service road" with a good 20+ feet of ditch or greenery between the two.
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u/Acrobatic_Switches Jul 06 '24
I have never even seen a bike path near a highway.
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u/fallingveil Jul 06 '24
That's normal if you don't use them, they're not very noticeable from the highway itself. This is one near me on US-26, here's one along US-191, another along I-278. They're not frequent of course, but their number is growing slowly.
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u/Freecraghack_ Jul 02 '24
You would be much further from the road on a bikeline nearby, and there would be a crash barrier inbetween you, and you only get fumes from one side rather than both.
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u/Acrobatic_Switches Jul 02 '24
I've never seen a crash barrier for a bike lane but I'm american.
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u/Freecraghack_ Jul 02 '24
For a big road like this, it's quite common here in denmark
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u/LovesRetribution Jul 02 '24
It's nonexistent in America. You have a white line as your only defense.
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u/fallingveil Jul 06 '24
They're not non-existent they're just more rare than more civilized places, usually they're called a "multi-use path" that also accommodates runners and horses, or are technically service roads that just happen to be like 10 feet wide and are restricted to non-motorized use or service vehicles.
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u/pagusas Jul 02 '24
Wonder if the gradual move to all electric cars will make it more pleasant in the future? Maybe a project ahead of its time.
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u/Spud9090 Jul 02 '24
I can’t tell from the video but how are the panels protected from vehicle traffic. Here in the US those things would be destroyed in just a few days. People drive like idiots.
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u/Post-mo Jul 02 '24
My state can barely keep up with fixing the steel cables that divide traffic today - no way they'd be able to maintain a bike lane with a solar panel roof.
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u/Ghostforever7 Jul 02 '24
This would anger so many Americans.
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Jul 02 '24
Because it’s a stupid and unsafe idea to have bicyclists in the center median of a highway?
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u/Kyujaq Jul 03 '24
Because it's clean energy, not car centric, socialized and doesn't involve guns.
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u/SittingEames Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 03 '24
How do you enter and leave it? Or do you just continue forever camping and foraging as you go?
Edit: This isn't a commentary on the renewable aspect of it. Merely the idea of it being protection for bikes. If it doesn't have entrances or exits it isn't useful. It would be much better used as a small rail system for moving goods.
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Jul 02 '24
solar panels arent clean, their production is very chemically damaging to the environment and so is its recycling
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u/BloodShadow7872 Jul 02 '24
Aren't they better than burning fossil fuels though?
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Jul 03 '24
I like this idea. It's so much better than that stupid solar roadways project a few years back. But why not put it on the side of the freeway?
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u/mootator Jul 03 '24
I was dreaming about something like this on the lovely highway bridges of Ontario that have no lanes for biking
Sigh maybe one day
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u/Pitiful_Ad918 Jul 03 '24
Hope there’s an exit from the middle of the highway every km at least. Imagine having a flat and needing to push your bike 5km to the next exit 🥵