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Roads

Topmix Permeable

This Concrete Can Absorb a Flood

A UK company has developed a permeable pavement that can drink 1,000 liters of water per square meter in a minute

Take a Historic Ride Along California’s Famous Route 1

Here are seven of the most interesting historic stops along California’s scenic highway

A mock-up of an electric road

England Is Going to Test Roads That Actually Charge Electric Cars

Highways of the future may have special lanes that recharge the batteries of electric cars as they go

A map of nitric oxide pollution in Denver's Highlands neighborhood

Google Street View Cars Are Mapping City Air Pollution

Google, Aclima and the EPA team up to add sensors to cars, first in Denver and then in the Bay Area, that monitor air quality throughout the day

America’s Road Trip: Route 66’s Most Fascinating Museums

Take a drive on Route 66 and encounter the wonders of the road

Hiram Bingham called Machu Picchu “the most important ruin discovered in South America since the Spanish conquest.”

What It’s Like to Travel the Inca Road Today

A rocky rollicking journey to Machu Picchu along one of the greatest engineering feats in the Americas

Cyclists won't have to look away from the road with head-up display.

Five Tech Ideas That Could Improve City Bike Commuting

A group of London designers imagines Google Glass-like visors and buses that project outlines of their blind spots on the road

Here you see the tweeting pothole device in place.

The Tweeting Potholes of Panama

In Panama City, potholes have taken to Twitter to ask for repairs

A monarch feasting on milkweed.

Migrating Monarch Butterflies Might Actually Take to the Highway

Threatened pollinators get a trans-continental right of way

Traffic control centers like this one in Boston—a room cluttered with computer terminals and live video feeds of urban intersections—represent the brain of a traffic system.

Will We Ever Be Able to Make Traffic Disappear?

City engineers make changes in the timing of signals to keep cars moving, but cell phone data and vehicle-to-vehicle communication could ease the task

New Research

Changes in California’s Roadkill Linked to State’s Drought

The California Roadkill Observation System studies wildlife by mapping out crowd-sourced roadkill sightings

More than half of the drivers queried in a 2014 insurance industry survey said their cars had been damaged by potholes.

The War on Potholes Has a New Weapon

Researchers at Northeastern University have outfitted a van with sensors, microphones and cameras that can spot the early stages of potholes

This is how you build the world's first solar bike path.

A Bike Path Near Amsterdam Is Now Generating Solar Power

As cyclists ride above, solar panels embedded in the pathway pump energy into the power grid

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Tech Watch

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

A hot spring in Yellowstone National Park

Cool Finds

Yes, Yellowstone’s Roads Just Melted. No, There’s No Reason to Panic

Yellowstone’s melting roads, while neat, aren’t as unusual as you’d think

Promotional photo provided by Cruise

Cool Finds

With A $10,000 Kit Your Car Could (Kind of) Drive Itself

Instead of waiting to buy a self-driving car, why not give the car you already own an update?

New Research

Forget the Fastest Route. Why Not Use Digital Maps to Plan the Most Beautiful Instead?

Yahoo is developing an algorithm that will allow you to choose the scenic route

Cool Finds

How to Make Hitchhiking Safe Again

A new system of background checks could make catching a ride safer and easier

For Twain, the “magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide” was the stuff of dreams (the St. Louis waterfront today).

American South

How the Mississippi River Made Mark Twain—and Vice Versa

No novelist captured the muddy waterway and its people like the creator of Huckleberry Finn, as a journey along the river makes clear

Kerouac Alley in San Francisco

Trending Today

This Minimalist Travel Guide Gives Detailed Directions for Recreating Kerouac’s On the Road

As mapped out by Google, the trip would take about 272 hours and 15 minutes

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