Singing cars killed the radio star

Never mind the rise of the CD and the MP3, singing roads are the future and we've heard it.

In certain places, all over the planet, little bumps on top of the tarmac or grooves cut into the road play music as car tyres drive over them, but there is a problem though – some of the tunes aren’t very good.

Bump up the volume in Denmark
The Danes claim to have had the very first musical road. Created in October 1995, The Asphaltophone consists of thousands of little bumps stuck to a highway in Gylling, Østjylland, by two Danish artists Steen Krarup Jensen and Jakob Freud-Mangus.

We can’t tell you what the tune is, but the patterns are very pretty.








A little bit of Seoul music
When Korea decided that they wanted a musical road, in 2006, it was built in a Seoul suburb by the Korean Highway Corporation and they called it a Singing Road.

Located on a downhill slope, on which many accidents had occurred, it was meant to be a novel way to keep sleepy drivers awake. However, the gentle rhythms of Mary had a little lamb may not have been the best choice of song?



Karaoke cars
Japan, possibly spurred on by the success of their close neighbour Korea’s musical road, created three Melody Roads of their own in 2008.

The roads each play half a minute of different Japanese pop songs. There is one in Wakayama, one in Kyu and the last in Hokkaido and these were created by grooves in the tarmac, instead of raised bumps.

Drivers are warned that something’s afoot by large coloured musical notes which have been painted onto the road-surface.

Visitors to Mount Fuji are also in for a little bit of light entertainment. One of the roads leading up to Mount Fuji plays a song entitled Fuji no Yama – The Mountain of Fuji. Now, that’s a novel idea!.



Highway to Hell with William Tell
California used to have a musical road which played the William Tell Overture for a quarter of a mile as motorists drove along. The supposedly tuneful grooves were cut into a road in Lancaster, USA, by the car manufacturer Honda as an advertising gimmick.

However, locals living near the road got sick to the back teeth of constantly hearing the song every time someone drove past – even in the middle of the night! So, it was paved over only a few weeks after it had come into existence.

The groovy tune can now be heard on Avenue G, which is apparently in between 30th Street West, and 40th Street West. It doesn’t sound a lot like the William Tell Overture most of us would recognise, but it’s a bit of fun nonetheless. Rumour has it that the people who cut the grooves got the sizing all wrong. We think the comment made by the guy who shot this video is just right though.



Now, there's a road that needs a tune-up!