Despite our behavior, I think people are getting smarter in a lot of ways, but I’m sure our tools and environments are getting exponentially brighter. From Design Boom, a piece about the first smart highway, coming to the Netherlands:

“Instead of focusing on the car to innovate the driving experience, roosegaarde and heijmans found it about time to innovate the highways. With smarter transportation research already disposable for use for decades, an implementation plan capable of updating the highway with new designs such as a ‘glow-in-the-dark road,’ ‘dynamic paints,’ ‘interactive lights,’ ‘induction priority lanes’ and ‘wind lights.’ The system essentially creates roads that are more socially conscious and interactive through the inclusion of light, energy and road signs which automatically adapt to various traffic situations.”