L.A. is Plasti-Dipping their streets.
 

They claim they are making their roads white--it goes on white, but dries grey, and they say it leaves the surface 10° cooler. It costs $40,000 per mile and lasts seven years. One complaint? Yes, it reflects the rising and setting sun. https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/cl...ainted-streets

Or, you could simply pave in concrete, which is a legitimate option in sunny California. :p

Sounds horrible to drive on due to the increased light, but hey, the road is 10 degrees cooler, so who cares that it costs a fortune and will cause more accidents.

I read somewhere that concrete roads are more cost effective in the long run than asphalt, but nobody wants to front the initial cost. It also reduces rolling resistance if I remember correctly.

:rolleyes:

Asphalt roads are 7dB quieter than concrete, so there is that. Turning the volume down | Asphalt magazine

Ten or fifteen years ago a radio host commented he was looking forward to driving on the newly-rubberized section of the 101, which made his car feel like a Mercedes.

I thought sunny CA would have roads made of solar cells by now. :confused:

Oh Oh! If that reduces the effectiveness of all that "Rolling Thunder's" muffler deletes and sub-woofers, what will they do to get the attention they crave? :eek:

If the roads are rubberized and squishy, do we still need tires? :confused:

Years ago, I asked my dad "Why don't they make roads out of rubber, and tires out of concrete?" thinking, we'd never have to replace tires. (Yeah, I was THAT young.) He just looked at me like I was the fool that I was.

What's the idea of rubberized roads. A place to get rid of worn out tires?

Twenty years ago I passed a crew resurfacing a road. A truck's tires were covered with asphalt.

How long do those tires last? Do they need to replace them when they have too much asphalt?

Big difference. There's a reason that NEDC "cheating" test facilities use trick asphalt... you get a mathematical bonus for using asphalt in the tests, because it is higher friction than concrete. Then you slick it down for lower friction and take advantage of the unfair multipliers.

Both tarmac and concrete trap heat as they have a thin film of stagnant hot air over them.

Our highway surfaces are mainly and increasingly paved with a kind of pervious concrete called ZOAB for Zeer Open Asfaltbeton (very open asphalt concrete).
The main goal is to prevent spray and standing water during rain, and that works really nice like this morning; medium rain, no spray, 100% visibility, wipers on short interval.
Over bridges there are small sections of 'regular' tarmac; so the cars throw up spray there and my auto wipers flick into high gear.

The very open structure prevents the air film to form like it does on regular road surfaces; it vents itself so it does not get as hot and the open structure creates small sunny and shaded areas, further increasing convection.
As a bonus, it reflects less than any other road surface.

Such a pity that it is relatively expensive and not very resilient.

Meanwhile in Duhmerica, DOTs are busy cutting rumble divots into every fog and centerline. :mad: Holds rain. And rocks. Both of which get thrown onto my windshield. :mad: Well Gee, how else are we gonna know where the middle and the sides of the roads are while texting? :rolleyes:

Wouldn't that crumble to bits during the first winter? Water seeps into the open spaces, freezes, expands, and there goes your road :-(

It takes almost twice as much road salt to prevent that. Twice as much as ordinary tarmac requires that is.
Yup, it is cumbersome. Still worth it.

So, cars rust twice as fast?

No, to the contrary. The salt does not get sprayed around as much as on regular concrete.

Must not get very cold there, then.

Not that often, but it does at times.
When it gets really cold it is usually due to dry Siberian wind.
If it does snow under those conditions then they'll mix sand with the salt or use pure sand.
I've seen them spray stuff I don't really know much about; polymers with orange or purple dye mixed in. Maybe as a gelling agent to prevent the salt from washing away too easily.

I did not want to jack the thread btw, I just wanted to point out one way of reducing excess heat in road surfaces.

Come to think of that, LA could mix white stones, sand, crushed glass, shells and/or chalk in with the tarmac to make it lighter in color, yet more durable than Plasti-Dip. What stuff do they use for road markings anyway?