MUSICAL ROADS –
GEAR
MELODIES ON THE GO
JOE ON 19. FEBRUARY 2020 READING TIME: 3 MIN
ASPHALT / AUTOMOBILE / CAR / CARS / CONCRETE
Construction workers having fun? Engineers taking their jobs to the streets? Musicians
experimenting with asphalt? City planners caring for their drivers? Well, yes, all of the
above. We’re talking about “Musical Roads” a phenomena popping up in various
countries around the world. Bringing music to the mundane task of driving… ?
What on Earth are you talking about?
Well in the last twenty-five years, people have been building musical roads. “A musical road is
a road, or part of a road, which when driven over causes a tactile vibration and audible
rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the car body in the form of a musical tune.”
(Wikipedia). Sounds simple enough… and very groovy, literally. The different notes are
created by making small grooves in the asphalt and the note changes according to the width of
these grooves, between 5 to 10 cm wide. If a car drives at a constant speed, closer-spaced
grooves increase the pitch and wider-spaced grooves lower the pitch. Here is a closeup
photo of a small section of a musical road:
Where and when did this start?
The Musical Road was invented in Denmark in 1995 by two artists, Steen Krarup
Jensen and Jakob Freud-Magnus. They called this “road instrument” an Asphaltophone and
made it by laying down a series of raised pavement markers, similar to Botts’ dots, spaced out
at the right intervals to make an arpeggio in the key of F Major play when driven over them.
See below for a visual demonstration:
[Link]
Now they are known to exist in nearly a dozen countries other countries including China,
Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, the USA, San Marino, Taiwan
and the Ukraine.
Japan
Netherlands
USA
Lancaster, California:
[Link]
Netherlands:
[Link]
How do they produce different notes?
Marshal Chasin, a professional audiologist, developed a formula for measuring the
appropriate width between road grooves to attain every note, from middle C (262 Hz) to an
octave above (524 Hz), including all sharps:
f = v/wavelength
Where f is frequency (262 Hz or 262/second) and v is the rate that the car passes by each
groove (100 km/h). Here is a chart of his results using this formula, with the Groove
Width in inches (click to enlarge):
Marshall Chasin
Aren’t they a distraction to drivers?
On the contrary, actually! These musical roads are strategically placed in sections of road that
are straight and in areas where drivers are known to doze off, become inattentive or to
speed. The music, which is heard quite loudly, alerts the driver and reminds them to pay
attention to the road. Some of them even require a certain steady and moderate speed, such as
45 miles per hour, in order to get the most accurate notes of the melody. This has a double
function as it helps to prevent drivers from speeding in that section of road.
A great example of this is in New Mexico when the Department of Transportation and
the National Geographic Channel installed a “Musical Highway” in 2014. It was installed to
remind drivers to slow down and respect the speed limit in a stretch of road that is usually
used by old automobile collectors to test their cars’ speed capabilities. Check out this video for
more details:
[Link]
Where can we go from here?
Well, musical roads are now commercialised and this could turn into a lucrative marketing
technique in the near future for some top brands. Honda made the first commercial featuring a
musical road in 2009 where the road played an excerpt of the William Tell Overture. A
musical road is never quite accurate when it comes to pitch and some say that the Honda
team did a horrible job and that the melody was completely out of tune, even unrecognisable.
Judge for yourself in the result below:
[Link]
Conclusion
Next time you’re travelling in any of these countries and you have access to a car give them a
test drive. Hopefully one day every country will adopt this musical safety mechanism on their
roads and the number of accidents due to fatigue will decrease. Remember to always drive
sober and only when well rested. Bon voyage!
