Rest Stop
Rest Stop
On Fridays, Rest Stop is a space to hit the brakes on current news cycles and test tracks for inspiration.
Welcome Center
Welcome, Passengers!
This is Rest Stop. On Fridays, it’s a space to hit the brakes on current news cycles and test tracks for inspiration.
As America’s roadways were built at record pace in the twentieth century, roadside parks were the first places to stop. Why? As the distances between destinations grew with better road construction, so did demand for spaces to rest along rural routes. According to an article excerpt from the American Road Builder Association’s newsletter from 1957, Allan Williams, then engineer-manager with the Ionia County (Michigan) Road Commission, frequently observed travelers in need of a parking place to have a roadside picnic. Calling for the county to construct picnic tables out of recycled lumber, the first roadside picnic areas were placed along Route 16 near Saranac and later adopted widely by the Michigan State Highway Department. Today, America’s interstate system houses upwards of 1,840 rest stops.
Night Vision
If you’ve ever visited a rest stop at night, you’ll find most are well-lit. The science behind why is fascinating.
According to Karen Kwan in Scientific American, the switch from sodium lamps to light emitting diodes (LEDs) across American roadways keeps roads safe for night driving. Streetlights vary in hue, ranging from yellow to bright white and, on occasion, purple. The reason? Light emits at different wavelengths, which affects how the light presents to the human eye. This happens in two primary ways: either tiny red, blue, and green LEDs are placed in one lamp device to emit the illusion of a bright white light or a blue LED is coated with phosphor to produce a similar effect. What might appear to be a purple light, is, in fact, the result of the peeling back of the phosphor-coating on blue LEDs, creating the purple-hued illusion.
Given that photoreceptors in the eyes affect vision performance under certain light conditions, purple-hued streetlights hold implications for public safety. That’s because rod-shaped photoreceptors in the peripheral part of the retina respond to low-wavelength light settings and the retina’s cone-shaped photoreceptors respond to high-wavelength light settings, which process color. This makes it easier for night drivers to see a moving object in their peripheral vision under blue-hued light but harder to see the moving object in their central vision due to cone receptor blue-light photosensitivity. Though likely the result of a rare manufacturing glitch, a purple-hued streetlight makes it harder for night drivers to see details and distinguish between different colors.
Arcade Alley
To understand the basic idea of turn-based storytelling, think of the last time you played Hopscotch in a driveway or Passengers on a road trip. In Hopscotch, players take turns hopping across a certain number of squares until someone lands out-of-bounds or reaches the highest number. In Passengers, players take turns envisioning what motivates other drivers on the road, crafting a backstory about a passenger’s journey.
In the gaming world, coin-operated arcade games serve as some of the earliest adopters of turn-based storytelling. The basic mechanics of an arcade game are simple: player input is processed by computer which displays output to an external monitor. In the 1970's, Galaxy Game and Pong were among the first commercially successful arcade games.
Building on those approaches to turn-based storytelling, Probable Cause players make decisions as characters who overcome detours and roadblocks to progress and complete a final goal. To rev up our fundraising engines to present Probable Cause to the public this October, Rest Stop gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the gaming features and design approaches that have informed our creative process.
Service Area
In case you missed our media release this Tuesday, Route 24 is hosting its first community event on Zoom with Force Multiplier, a grassroots initiative helping to elect Democrats to the House, Senate, and White House. Join us on Tuesday, September 17th at 4:30PM PT/7:30PM ET for an informational session. To participate, RSVP here.
is an independent newsletter for those who feel out of gas with current news cycles and elect stories that drive public trust. However you’re able to support Route 24, thank you for coming along for the ride!
Stay the course,
Sam