The Most Beautiful Bike Path on the Planet Has Come to the Netherlands

The news: The most beautiful bike path on the planet has come to the Netherlands.

The bike path, measuring 1 kilometer, uses solar-powered LEDs and glow-in-the-dark paint to invoke Vincent Van Gogh's famed masterpiece "Starry Night."

Dubbed the Van Gogh Bicycle Path, it was unveiled by social design firm Studio Roosegaarde Thursday. The path, which sits in the artist's hometown of Nuenen, is meant to showcase the firm's "Smart Highways" which, according to its website, "are interactive and sustainable roads of tomorrow" that "make smart roads by using light, energy and road signs that interact with the traffic situation."

You may not have heard about this bike path, though, because another solar-powered path opened in the Dutch province of Krommenie earlier this week. While the Krommenie path, called SolaRoad, is designed to put electricity into the national grid and even charge electric bikes in the future, the Van Gogh path is more artistic than practical.

But the Van Gogh Bicycle Path proves that sustainable and practical architecture isn't limited to environmental applications: It can be aesthetically pleasing as well.