Flowell: luminous marking to ensure the safety of pedestrians and cyclists

Pedestrian crossings, bike lanes, give way… What if these ground markings lit up to enhance road user safety, especially cyclists and pedestrians?

This is the idea behind Colas, a subsidiary of Bouygues specializing in public works, with its Flowell solution, still in the experimental stage. A new trial launched in mid-December allows us to discover or rediscover this system that encourages better road sharing.

After a century of urban planning focused on cars, it’s not always easy to adapt existing public space for the development of soft mobility options like walking or cycling. In this context, luminous and dynamic ground markings help better structure these spaces.

Redundant with traffic lights

In Lyon, for example, the metropolis is reconfiguring the roads on the Doua university campus to make more space for soft mobility. At the intersection between a bike lane and a tram line, Colas has installed luminous and dynamic yield lines. As a tram approaches, the ground marking flashes, illuminates, then turns off after it passes.

Other experiments are already underway in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, Cahors, and Nantes. In the 15th arrondissement, Flowell is installed on a pedestrian crossing that intersects an on-ramp to the ring road. Here, the white stripes of the crosswalk light up when the pedestrian signal is green, while a red line lights up when it’s red. Impossible to miss them.

In all these experiments, the ground markings are synchronized with an existing traffic light. Therefore, it is regrettable that innovation is needed to enforce existing signage. According to initial feedback, the system is effective—that is, it indeed improves safety—but one might wonder if it will remain effective once the novelty effect wears off. That is probably the purpose of these trials.

But Colas envisions other uses, such as the dynamic allocation of traffic lanes, which could also have benefits in terms of pollution.