Ever notice how in some parts of town, there is a lack of street lighting along pathways? I enjoy evening strolls but avoid certain areas because I can’t see jack and I would prefer not to be raped by a bear hiding in the bushes. I suppose I could walk with a super torch flashlight but the Starpath system created by ProTeq Surfacing is pretty cool. The Starpath is a new spray-on glowing surface coating which absorbs UV light during the daytime and glows once the sun sets and it’s dark. The goal of the system is to help reduce energy costs for city councils who are strapped for cash and are turning off street lights as a cost cutting measure.
During the day, it looks like any standard pathway but the magic occurs during the evening thanks to the spray-on system. They start off with cleaning the pathway and applying a polyurethane base and covering that with their aggregate to create the foundation of the pathway. The pathway is then swept clean and the final step of the process is to spray on a sealant which takes approximately 30 minutes to dry. The ProTeq Lighting team can do a 140-meter pathway from start to finish in only four hours causing minimal disruption to the public.
This method is pretty cool looking but not intended to replace street lights since it could never provide the illumination that your standard street light can provide. In the city, I would definitely walk on a Starpath but one leading into a forested area would have to be traveled by bicycle only for me. Yes, I don’t like the dark!
I’d be interested to know how long the Starpath coating will last and whether continuous rain would shorten its lifespan. And of course, it won’t be of any use when it snows. I do know that this would be a photographer’s dream for evening shots. If the illumination was available in different colors, think of the artistic creations one could come up with? As you land at an airport in a new city in the evening, you see a nice welcome writing in illumination from the air. How cool would that be?
