MUSICAL ROADS

What is a Musical Road?

“A musical road is 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.

“On this quarter-mile section of the highway, the rumble strips have been engineered to sound like the song “America the Beautiful.” But they won’t croon their patriotic tune for anyone with a lead foot. Drivers have to be going exactly 45 miles per hour (the speed limit) to hear the vibrations in action.”
Atlas Obscura.

HOW IT WORKS

A Musical Road works by the simplest bit of science. All sounds we hear in day-to-day life, including music, are just vibrations through the air. For instance anything that vibrates 330 times in one second will produce an E note. A guitar string, a tuning fork, even a car wheel.

To produce an E note with a car, we space rumble strips such that if driven at 20m/s (about 45 mph) for 1 second the car will hit 330 strips. Ie, 330 strips in 20m.

A bit of mathematics tells us this is 61mm, or 2.4″ between each rumble strip. After that we break down the music into exact segments of time and apply the same technique to each piece, depending on what note is needed and for how long.

The actual process of breaking a piece of music down and calculating each individual spacing is laborious and difficult, but the science behind it is wonderfully simple.

PREVIOUS INSTALLATION

Our same team installed a Musical Road for ‘New Mexico DOT’ as a traffic calming measure at an accident black spot on Route 66, just east of Albuquerque. Signs encouraged drivers to slow to 45mph to hear the tune.

The road was sponsored by Nationwide Insurance and featured as a segment for a National Geographic Channel show ‘Crowd Control’.

It was widely covered including a national spot on ‘The Today Show’.

The installation is permanent so a suitable installation method was devised that would survive the harsh hot and cold climate of the New Mexico location.

Press for the New Mexico installation

Popular mechanics loved it.

People didn’t believe it so Snopes had to confirm it.

ROUTE 66 CENTENNIAL PROJECT

We are thrilled to be developing multiple installations across all 8 Route 66 states, from Illinois to California.

U.S. Route 66 centennial commission launches call for ideas to celebrate iconic road’s 100th anniversary. The commission has been established by Congress to oversee the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the U.S. Route 66 in 2026, invites submissions for national, multi-state, or single-state activities, projects, events, or programs.

Have a look at the other planned Route 66 Centennial Certified projects.

For more information visit www.route66-centennial.com

PODCAST

We chatted to Jim Hinckley on his weekly podcast. It was great to catch up with Jim and talk about our plans for the Route 66 installations.

Check out Jim Hinckley’s America page. Packed with Route 66 goodness.

www.jimhinckleysamerica.com/

BREAKING NEWS

Currently in discussions to install multiple Musical Roads to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026. Watch this space for more details as that project develops.