If you know how to drive, then for sure you’ll know that road and lane markings are important. They are effective in relaying information to a driver, and they can mean the difference between safety and driving off a cliff in both the figurative and literal sense.
Road markings are crucial for road safety [Photo: Honda USA]
Road markings as they are right now are mostly made out of paint, specifically Acetone Road Paint. While this type of paint can last for long periods of time, there will be sections of roads at any given time that will have blurry or poorly maintained road markings.
That’s just the reality of it, as the concerned agencies even for the most developed countries cannot cover, maintain, and monitor the condition of all the road markings on public roads in a timely manner.
As a solution to this conundrum, Honda USA’s Honda Research Institute is working with the Ohio Department of Transportation to provide a way to monitor the condition of road markers.
Honda Road Condition Monitoring System
Currently, this system is in development, and it works in conjunction with a Honda vehicle’s Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). Specifically, the Honda ADAS’s sensors and cameras installed on private cars in the near future will be able to record the condition of road markers. The said information is then tied up to the appropriate GPS coordinates. The collated data is then sent to the concerned road maintenance entity to be acted upon.
That said, the midwestern state of Ohio sees rough weather like snow annually. Do note however that tropical regions like the Philippines also have some rough weather conditions that can negatively affect the condition of road markings.
To this end, this kind of technology might also be a big help for the local government once it is available. The only question now is, is the Philippine Department of Public Roads and Highways interested in working with private entities like Honda to produce safer public roads? Can it develop the capacity to receive and collect road condition data and act on it?
This system can help in maintaining the condition of road markers more efficiently
Well, hopefully the pilot run of this technology in the United States turns out positive. And hopefully it can reach the local market in the future as well.
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