Heated floors are pretty much the height of luxury. It is incredibly decadent to have the very floor you walk on warmed to the perfect temperature for your feet. So it just goes to show how much Dutch people treasure their bikes that they want to heat the ground their precious wheels touch. That’s right — towns in the Netherlands are thinking of creating heated bike lanes.
Of course, these towns are less worried about the feel of the icy road on the bike’s worn, sensitive tires than the danger it poses to the bike’s rider. The idea isn’t to make the bike lanes toasty so much as not icy, because non-icy roads mean fewer accidents.
Given that the systems would run on geothermal energy, the idea’s not entirely wasteful. And unlike having a heated floor installed in your living room, it’s also cheaper than the alternative — laying down salt or straw on the ground. (Salt’s not exactly an environmentally neutral solution either, since it can create gross runoff.) As usual, the Dutch have it all figured out.
