Braking Point
Braking Point
This is Route 24's Rest Stop. This week transportation infrastructure is on the test track.
Thank you for stopping by Route 24! This is Rest Stop. On Fridays, it’s a space to hit the brakes on current news cycles and test tracks for inspiration.
Information Kiosk
What does a smart highway look like? Drive along one lane in a three-mile stretch of Michigan’s I-94 and you’re on the road to the future of transportation infrastructure. According to Michigan Public, Cavnue is building a smart highway pilot program between Ann Arbor and Detroit to test physical and digital infrastructure solutions for improved road safety and explore the benefits of adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist technologies. Physical infrastructure would involve lighting, road surface, pavement markings, and guardrail improvements. Digital infrastructure would involve communications systems improvements, such as poles and sensors. Open to all vehicles except semi-trucks, the lane plans to run diagnostics during off-peak hours, collecting and collating safety and mobility data for a three-to-five year window.
Climate solutions offer another route to transportation innovation. According to PBS NewsHour, asphalt roadways buckle in extreme heat conditions caused by long-term greenhouse gas emissions, affecting road quality and transportation ease. Communities lacking access to green spaces, such as bus stops without covered waiting areas, also feel the impact of extreme heat more than those living near tree-lined streets. That’s because trees provide shade and circulate water vapor, which cools the temperature of the immediate vicinity.
Highway Hypnosis
What does a highway sound like? Your answer likely depends on lived experience. In their recent release, titled Indivisible, the band Concurrence reminds listeners of the forgotten history of highways in America and how their construction influenced the experiences of Black, Latine, and Native American communities.
President Eisenhower’s Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 forced local, minority-owned, small businesses and residents from the East Coast to the South and Southwest to relocate without fair compensation to facilitate a possible pathway for nuclear weapons transfer during the Cold War. The result was the erasure of generational wealth in communities of color.
Travel along Nashville’s I-40 with the despair in “I-40 Was A Razor”, or the ebullient vibes of Jefferson Street with "Groovin’ At The Del Morocco", or the social protest tones of “The Steering Committee Blues (Ain’t Lying Down)”.
Arcade Alley
To rev up our fundraising engines to present Probable Cause to the public this October, Arcade Alley gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the gaming features and design approaches that have informed our creative process.
If you’ve ever stood on either side of a state line, you have a basic understanding of mixed reality games. Players in a mixed reality game (also called hybrid reality games) play simultaneously in physical and digital environments as if they were in two places at once. Pervasive games, games that extend into the real world, offer commercial examples of mixed reality gaming. In Pac Manhattan, the 1980's arcade version of Pac-Man is recreated in Washington Square Park as players dressed up as characters from the game connect virtual dots along the street using mobile geolocation to track their progress in real-time. In Mixed Reality Pong, Pong is recreated using a virtual ball players hit over to the other end of the gaming zone using their hands to score a certain amount of goals.
Mixed reality games also have a practical application. At the Ford manufacturing plant in Dearborn, Michigan, mixed reality gameplay is leveraged in discovery exercises to test engine efficiency. Using the Microsoft Hololens headset, plant employees are trained with holographic instructions to perform quality audits on engines, checking electrical connections to test whether an engine will start.
Building upon the mixed reality techniques of pervasive games and their practical applications in training modules, Probable Cause passengers also interact with physical and digital elements in real-time.
Visitor Center
It’s been one week since the first issue of Route 24 launched!
Here are some ways to come along for the ride:
Take the Freeway: Restack this post, share your thoughts in the comments, or send Route 24 to a friend.
Pay A Toll: Help Probable Cause present to the public this October by becoming a paid subscriber.
Join the Caravan: RSVP to attend our House Party with Force Multiplier on Tuesday, September 17th at 4:30PM PT/7:30PM ET.
However you’re able to help fuel our work and mission, thank you for being here!
Stay the course,
Sam
is an independent newsletter for those who feel out of gas with current news cycles and elect stories that drive public trust. If you enjoyed this edition of Rest Stop, share it with a friend and consider becoming a paid subscriber to help present Probable Cause to the public this October.