These tuneful trails on the map take advantage of the acoustical properties of the automobile and the playful mathematics of infrastructure engineers, but they also highlight the basic human desire to transform the mundane into the transcendent. The tech behind making a road sing is deceptively simple. Tuning those vibes to represent a cohesive, repeatable series of tones is the task given to grooves carved into the road surface itself. By varying the distance between each of these strips the closer together they are, the higher pitch the vibrations, while wider spacing drops the pitch , order can be culled from chaos. A road can also be made to belt out a melody by way of raised — rather than cut — pavement, but the effect is considerably more jarring to vehicle occupants bumping their way through verse-chorus-verse although the very first musical road, located in Gylling, Denmark, was created in this fashion. There are caveats, of course. Drivers also need to hit the grooves head-on to get the full volume effect and not miss out on any grace notes that might have eroded over time at the edges of the highway symphony. Orchestrating the construction techniques required for these musical roads requires precision, too, as even the smallest mistakes can become exaggerated when repeatedly run over at by the tires of a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed. The effect was so jarring that local residents convinced the town to move the road farther from their homes, where it was promptly rebuilt using the same flawed methods.
Navigation menu
Route 66 News search
Skip to main content. Log in to get trip updates and message other travellers. Singing Road Reviews. Scenic Drives. Sorry, there are no tours or activities available to book online for the date s you selected. Please choose a different date. Would you send a friend who is visiting for the first time to this place or activity? Yes No Unsure.
They literally sing to you through your car and then fade off into the rearview
The so-called Musical Road or Singing Road along Route 66 in Tijeras, New Mexico, is fading away with no plans from the state to restore or maintain it. The cost is outrageous, and they have since restored portions of the roadway and removed all of the signs. Unfortunately, this was part of a previous administration and never set in stone to keep up with the maintenance of this singing highway. RETRO Relive the Route, a Route 66 advocacy group based in that area, lobbied the state to take over the upkeep of that section, to no avail. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Skip to content. Share this: Click to email this to a friend Opens in new window Click to share on Facebook Opens in new window Click to share on Twitter Opens in new window Click to print Opens in new window Click to share on Reddit Opens in new window. Like this: Like Loading Previous Previous post: Permits to city of Monrovia indicate Aztec Hotel may reopen in coming months.
A musical road is a road , or section of a road, which when driven over causes a tactile vibration and audible rumbling that can be felt through the wheels and body of the vehicle. This rumbling is heard within the car as well as the surrounding area, in the form of a musical tune. The song played is the first six notes of " Happy Birthday To You ," but the fifth note is off-key by a half-step. It was installed to reduce the number of traffic accidents, and the song was chosen because it is familiar to the community.
