#2499: Exhaustreet

Some stretches of roadway are well known for forming dangerous ice in cold weather.

This applies particularly to bridges and overpasses where the wind chill locally lowers the road surface temperature over the course of a few hours.

Today’s invention is a suggestion about how this may be alleviated.

Imagine if cars were fitted with exhaust pipes which could be blocked at the outlet, so that the hot exhaust gas could escape downwards instead. This would occur via a secondary pipe that could rotate from inside the car body so as to be close to the road surface, as shown.

This rotation could be triggered wirelessly by sensors in the section of road when the air temperature was beginning to fall. The movement of many vehicles would thus maintain the road temperature locally and avoid ice formation.

This has the added benefit that cars need not be as damaged by large amounts of grit and salt.

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