Musical Roads

Written By: Sahana Gokul

A musical road is a section of the road where, when a car drives over it, the vibrations, an “audible rumbling”, makes tunes that can be heard from inside the car alerting the driver. Many accidents have happened because a driver would doze off or get distracted while driving in a certain part of the road. Using statistical evidence of the number of deaths and accidents on a section of the road, people laid musical roads in places with the most number of accidents. When the car drove over a musical road at a certain speed limit, the music would alert the driver, hopefully, making them pay attention to where they are on the road. 

How do they work?

A musical road has many grooves spaced out in different lengths and depths. When a car drives over them, the movements cause vibrations. Since sound is created by certain vibrations, a combination of vibrations from different grooves gives you a certain sound. With many of these grooves which play different frequencies of sound, it creates a musical “composition”.  This only works if the car goes at a certain speed allowing the grooves the correct amount of time to let out the right amount of air and sound.

How are they helpful?

A musical road helps drivers drive safely. On sharp turns and dangerous highways where many road accidents happen, these musical roads would make the driver focus on the road. Since these roads are only in parts of the highway, musical roads may even help the driver know where exactly they are. Also, musical roads help drivers keep their speed limit so that they can listen to the tunes while they drive! Overall musical roads are a great way to keep safe and have fun on the road at the same time!

1. Meier, A. (2014, April 28). Safety through Singing with Musical Roads. Retrieved July 31, 2020, from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/musical-roads-of-the-world
2. Musical Roads: 5 Places Where the Streets Sing. (2016, January 06). Retrieved July 31, 2020, from https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/73142/musical-roads-5-places-where-streets-sing