Roads

Traffic control centers like this one in Boston—a room cluttered with computer terminals and live video feeds of urban intersections—represent the brain of a traffic system.

Will We Ever Be Able to Make Traffic Disappear?

City engineers make changes in the timing of signals to keep cars moving, but cell phone data and vehicle-to-vehicle communication could ease the task

Changes in California’s Roadkill Linked to State’s Drought

The California Roadkill Observation System studies wildlife by mapping out crowd-sourced roadkill sightings

More than half of the drivers queried in a 2014 insurance industry survey said their cars had been damaged by potholes.

The War on Potholes Has a New Weapon

Researchers at Northeastern University have outfitted a van with sensors, microphones and cameras that can spot the early stages of potholes

This is how you build the world's first solar bike path.

A Bike Path Near Amsterdam Is Now Generating Solar Power

As cyclists ride above, solar panels embedded in the pathway pump energy into the power grid

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

A hot spring in Yellowstone National Park

Yes, Yellowstone's Roads Just Melted. No, There's No Reason to Panic

Yellowstone's melting roads, while neat, aren't as unusual as you'd think

Promotional photo provided by Cruise

With A $10,000 Kit Your Car Could (Kind of) Drive Itself

Instead of waiting to buy a self-driving car, why not give the car you already own an update?

Forget the Fastest Route. Why Not Use Digital Maps to Plan the Most Beautiful Instead?

Yahoo is developing an algorithm that will allow you to choose the scenic route

How to Make Hitchhiking Safe Again

A new system of background checks could make catching a ride safer and easier

For Twain, the “magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide” was the stuff of dreams (the St. Louis waterfront today).

How the Mississippi River Made Mark Twain… And Vice Versa

No novelist captured the muddy waterway and its people like the creator of Huckleberry Finn, as a journey along the river makes clear

Kerouac Alley in San Francisco

This Minimalist Travel Guide Gives Detailed Directions for Recreating Kerouac's On the Road

As mapped out by Google, the trip would take about 272 hours and 15 minutes

Sri Lanka's First Expressway Is Making the Country Feel Tiny

The E01 gives this island nation its first taste of the open road

Icelanders still hold strong to their belief in fairies

Icelanders Protest a Road That Would Disturb Fairies

Nepal has the Yeti. The South has Bigfoot. Iceland has fairies

What Happens to All the Salt We Dump On the Roads?

In the U.S., road crews scatter about 137 pounds of salt per person annually to melt ice. Where does it go after that?

Makana Mountain, Honolulu

Flower Children on the North Shore of Kauai

In the late 1960s, a gorgeous stretch of beach in Ha’ena State Park was the site of a hippy haven called Taylor Camp

The Druid Arch in Canyonlands National Park

Travelers’ Tales in Utah’s Canyonlands

The trail is rough and hard to follow, marked chiefly by cairns; water is intermittent; and if something bad happens help is not at hand

A European tour via Volvo

Take a Vacation on Volvo

Once you get your car you’re free to hit the road along the west coast of Sweden with its fishing villages, traditional folkways and islands

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A Medieval Castle in the Making

The construction of a medieval fortress in France is answering important questions about 13th-century building techniques

A freakishly cold winter coated Rome's Colosseum in snow

The Snows of…Tenerife?

The white stuff can fall at any time and almost anywhere, from the streets of Rome to the subtropical Canary Islands

Gone but not forgotten, the French franc

Plus Ça Change in France

The nation says au revoir to the franc and to "mademoiselle" and bonjourto a proposed new theme park—Napoleonland

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