Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

City streets are usually paved with asphalt concrete because this material gives good service and is relatively inexpensive to construct and maintain. We show that making asphalt pavements cooler, by increasing their reflection of sunlight, may lead to longer lifetime of the pavement, lower initial costs of the asphalt binder, and savings on street lighting and signs. Excessive glare due to the whiter surface is not likely to be a problem.