Cycling is one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel, and thanks to this solar-powered bike lane that glows in the dark, it just got even moreso. The luminous blue cycling strip, which can be found near Lidzbark Warminski in the north of Poland, was created by TPA Instytut Badań Technicznych Sp. z o.o. It's made from a synthetic material that can give out light for up to ten hours at a time once charged by the sun throughout the day.

What's it like to glide over a river of blue, bioluminescent algae? Ask a cyclist in the town of Lidzbark Warminski, Poland, which is experimenting with a night-glowing bike path.

The tech behind the fetching thoroughfare was created by TPA Instytut Badan Technicznych, a "materials technology competence center for asphalt, concrete, earthworks, and geotechnical engineering," and installed by contractor Strabag.

It's about 6 feet wide and 330 feet long and cost roughly $31,000. The inspiration was a similar glowing bike lane in the Netherlands designed by Daan Roosegaarde as a homage to van Gogh's "The Starry Night."

The solar-charged lane, which uses materials called phosphors, is meant not just to be easy on the eyes but on cyclists' joints and noggins, ostensibly raising the level of safety during night riding. Here's more on how it works from a Strabag press release (via Google Translate):

The material... is able to give light for more than 10 hours. This means that the path overnight emits light energy and re-gathers the next day. Importantly, the effect is due [to] aggregate properties used without ... additional sources of energy. For the construction of the path near Lidzbark Warminski [we] chose phosphors glowing blue, to be consistent with the [local] landscape.As for that last part, it's probably a reference to a lake that's nearby—the town itself does not glow entirely blue.