I came across something last night on the Amusing Planet website that I thought you might enjoy reading about … musical roads!
A Japanese engineer by the name of Shizuo Shinoda was digging with a bulldozer when he accidentally scraped some markings into a road with its claw. Later when he drove over the markings, he realized that the vibration produced in his car can be heard as a tune. In 2007, a team of engineers from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute refined Shinoda’s designs and built a number of “melody roads” in Japan. These roads have grooves cut at very specific intervals along the road surface. Depending on how far apart the grooves are and how deep they are, a car moving over them will produce a series of high or low notes, enabling designers to create a distinct tune. The closer the grooves are, the higher the pitch of the sound. The critical ingredient in the mix is the speed of the car.
There are four melody roads in Japan, one each in Hokkaido, Wakayama, Shizuoka and Gunma. They all play different tunes. They stretch between 175 to 250 meters, and are carved with thousands of groves. Aside from street signs, the roads are marked by colored musical notes painted on the surface of the road which alert motorists of the incoming musical interlude. The grooves are laid down on the side of the road near the curb and not in the middle, so drivers have the option to either go over them or avoid them. In order to hear the tunes, they need to keep the car windows closed and drive at 28mph keeping one wheel over the grooves . Drive too fast and it will sound like a tape on fast forward. Drive too slow and it will have the opposite effect.
The first musical road, however, was not Japanese. It was created in Gylling, Denmark, by two Danish artists Steen Krarup Jensen and Jakob Freud-Magnus, in October 1995. Called the Asphaltophone, the street is made from a series of raised pavement markers, spaced out at intermittent intervals so that as a vehicle drives over the markers, the vibrations caused by the wheels can be heard inside the car.
The idea of musical roads has caught engineers in several other countries. There is one “Singing Road” in South Korea close to Anyang in Gyeonggi. It plays the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. Unlike other melody roads, it was designed not to draw tourists but to help motorists stay alert and awake. The Singing Road is located on a particularly treacherous section of a highway where lots of accidents occur due to dozing and speeding. 68% of traffic accidents in South Korea are due to inattentive, sleeping or speeding drivers.
The U.S. got its first melody road in 2008. It was originally built on Avenue K in Lancaster, California, for a Honda commercial. The Civic Musical Road, named after Honda Civic, stretches for a quarter-mile and plays back a part of the Finale of the ‘William Tell Overture’. But the intervals are so far off that the melody bears only a slight resemblance to the original tune. Later, when residents complained that the grooves produced too much noise from nocturnal drivers, they relocated the strip to Avenue G.
Another musical road is located in the village of Tijeras, in New Mexico. Driving over the grooves at 45mph causes the car to play the famous song “America the Beautiful”. The project was funded by the National Geographic Society, and overseen by the New Mexico Department of Transportation who said that the real motive behind the musical road is to get drivers to slow down.
I guess you have to have better hearing than I do to hear the tunes, but even so, I think it’s a rather cool idea!
I hope you all have a wonderful, sunny weekend!
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Well SH__!! I wanted to listen but about the time I could pick up the sounds, the stupid guy would exclaim things like “Isn’t that beautiful? Can you hear that?” Well, no, buddy. But if you would SHUT UP! I might get a better idea of what it sounds like.
In any case, interesting find, Jill. 🙂
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Ahhh … so it wasn’t just me! I thought it was just my poor hearing that didn’t allow me to hear the sounds, and yes, that guy was annoying as heck!
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
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Thank you, Ned!!!
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A clever idea to help speed regulation, though attracting tourists strikes me as potentially dangerous! I wonder what use they could make of Flight Of The Bumblebee?
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Hmmmm … now that’s a thought! ‘Twould keep people awake, for sure!
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Great idea. We have grooves along the highway’s edge to warn drivers if they are going to run off the road. I’ll have to try one and see if I can get a song.
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Yes, we have those grooves on some of the interstates, and also on certain exit ramps that tend to be taken too fast. Let me know if you get a song from them!
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Very cool!
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Definitely creative!
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What a cool concept!
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I thought so too!
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Good morning, now that’s a groovy kind of post. 😂. What a brilliant idea 🤗🐝
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It is unique, isn’t it? I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Hugs, Sweet Bee! ❤
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Absolutely crazy in my eyes but in a good way. You too have a lovely weekend 🤗🐝
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Wow! Thats great, but dont tell it to loud. They also would use it in any way for advertising. 😉 Have a beautiful weekend, Jill! xx
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Oh, I hadn’t thought of that! But yeah, if there’s any way to turn it into a marketing ploy, they would! You too, Michael! xx
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Thank you, Jill! Lets hope we will only hear great songs, or we will need a road roller to get rid of the advertising. xx
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I suspect this is an idea that will have very limited use, for it is costly … more of a gimmick, I think. xx
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Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Since when has mere cost been a barrier to advertising?
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That’s true, but I think that there are other venues where marketers would get more targeted ‘bang for the buck’. But then, I am told that I don’t have much imagination when it comes to trends of the future, so … who knows?
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Think so too, Jill! At least we only can hope the car integrated music systems will overcome. 😉 Happy Mother’s Day! Enjoy your Sunday, Jill! xx
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Thank you, my friend! I did, indeed, have a lovely Mother’s Day. My granddaughter, Natasha (age 26) cooked supper for my daughter and me, and it was a peaceful, relaxing, family day. xx
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Wow! Yes, let the yougster surprise the rest. Congrats, Jill! xx
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