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 melody. Musical roads are known to exist in Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Spain, India, the United States, China, Iran, Taiwan, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Belarus, Russia and Turkey. In the past, they could be found in France, Denmark and the Netherlands as well.
Each note is produced by varying the spacing of strips in, or on, the road. For example, an E note requires a frequency of around 330 vibrations a second. Therefore, strips apart will produce an E note in a vehicle travelling at .
History Long before musical roads were being constructed, an earlier concept known as a rumble strip, were used since the 1950s to warn inattentive drivers of potential danger. The earliest known rumble strips were built in 1952 on the north and south lanes of the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. They consisted of three-foot strips of corrugated concrete that would produce a distinct humming sound when driven over, and also serve as reflectors for increased visibility. Later on, rolled-in strips on asphalt shoulders and formed-in strips on concrete shoulders were two of the earlier designs used in installing shoulder rumble strips by a number of U.S. states. A major limitation was that they had to be installed with new pavement. There were also difficulties in consistently obtaining the desired shape. In the 1980s, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission developed a milled-in rumble strip design that could be installed on existing pavement. A series of trials led to a preferred design of ½ inch deep and 7 inches by 16 inches, producing tire vibration and noise with much greater alerting capacity than the rolled-in installation. Specified dimensions could also be produced more consistently. Subsequently, many other U.S. states began to use this milled-in design because of its effectiveness and ease of installation. In the 1990s, several U.S. state transportation agencies and toll road authorities installed the milled-in shoulder rumble design pioneered in Pennsylvania, mostly on rural freeways and expressways.
The first known musical road, the Asfaltofon (English: Asphaltophone), was created in October 1995 in Gylling, Denmark, by Steen Krarup Jensen and , two Danish artists.Thyrri, Irene (October 1995). , TV 2/Østjylland. Accessed 20 October 2008. . The Asphaltophone was made from a series of raised pavement markers, similar to Botts' dots, spaced out at intermittent intervals so that as a vehicle passed over the markers, the vibrations caused by the wheels could be heard inside the car. The song played was an arpeggio in the key of F major. The second musical road was constructed in 2000 in Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Allegedly, the road was paved over just two years later, but some assert that the musical tones can still be heard while driving on it. Japan gained momentum in the realm of musical roads when, in 2007, Shizuo Shinoda unintentionally etched markings into a road with a bulldozer, discovering that they could produce distinct musical tones when driven over. Engineers in Sapporo, who had previously explored the use of infra-red light for detecting hazardous road conditions, embarked on further research into the development of musical roads. Presently, Japan boasts at least thirty musical roads, featuring tunes like the theme from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and "Always with Me" from the film Spirited Away. These roads are predominantly created for tourism purposes.
Nevertheless, several countries, including Indonesia, South Korea, and China, have implemented musical roads with a focus on safety. The Indonesian road, intriguingly designed to reduce traffic accidents, plays the familiar Happy Birthday song. The auditory stimulation helps keep drivers alert. Often, the songs on these roads can be properly heard only when driving at the correct, consistent speed. Lin Zhong, the Chinese general manager of the architecture company responsible for many of these roads in China, noted that this characteristic encourages people to maintain a constant speed limit to enjoy the musical effect. Various musical roads in China play the national anthem, as well as the overture from "Carmen" and "Ode to Joy." In 2022, the most recent addition to musical roads played the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China." As previously mentioned, Lancaster's musical road, established in 2008, holds the distinction of being the first-ever musical road in the United States.
In October 2014, a musical road in Tijeras, New Mexico, was created, featuring "America the Beautiful" on a two-lane stretch of U.S. Route 66. Some time later the road had faded, and there are no plans by the Department of Transportation to restore it due to the associated high costs. The third musical road in the United States, located at Auburn University in Alabama, plays the first seven notes of their college's fight song, "War Eagle." The most recent addition to the world of musical roads was established in the United Arab Emirates in January 2023, with ongoing testing and development to play the country's national anthem.
8 new musical roads are being installed along U.S. Route 66 in the US in time for the centenary of the road in 2026. Route 66 Musical Roads LLC are a US company developing this project and other stretches of musical highway for America's 250th celebration, also in 2026.
The Route 66 Musical Road project has been certified by the Route 66 Centennial Commission as an official project to celebrate the 100th birthday of the historic road.
By country
Argentina In 2021, Argentina installed a musical road along Kilometer 1449 of National Route 237, called "The piano of Kilometer 1449," in Piedra del Águila between Neuquén and Bariloche. It is the first musical road in South America. The song played is the first ten notes of "La Cucaracha," but the fourth, ninth and tenth notes are out-of-key. Like the musical road in Denmark, it is also called an "asphaltophone," or "asfaltófono" in Spanish. Similarly to the musical roads in Hungary and New Mexico in the United States, the musical segments are only on the side of the road as opposed to covering the entire width of the road. It was implemented both to avoid accidents caused by fatigue and to increase tourism.
Belarus In 2024, transverse red lines made of plastic intended to produce sounds resembling the melody of the song "Belarus" by the group "Pesnyary" were installed on the right side of a section of road leading from Babruysk to the Gomel Region of Belarus, at the entrance of the region. The lines were implemented on the road to prevent drivers from falling asleep and driving into ditches on the road.
China A 300-meter stretch of asphalt road in Beijing's south-western Fengtai District in the Qianlingshan Mountain Scenic Area has been made into a singing road playing the tune "Ode to the Motherland", as long as drivers follow the speed limit of 40 km/h. Construction was completed in 2016. "We have small grooves built into the road surface, positioned apart with different sizes of gap according to the melody of the song. These 'rumble strips' cause the car tires to play music and then make a singing road," said Lin Zhong, general manager of Beijing Luxin Dacheng landscape architecture company. "Our first idea is to get cars moving at a constant speed. Because only in that way can you enjoy good musical effect. We use it as a reminder of speed limit," added Lin.
Multiple other musical roads in China exist, including one at a nature reserve in Henan that plays the national anthem and "Mo Li Hua", and another near Yangma Dao in Yantai which plays the overture from Carmen and "Ode to Joy." One song is paved into each side of the road at both locations so drivers can experience a song both traveling one way and the other way.
In June 2021, a 587-meter portion of G108 in Xiayunling Township, Fangshan, Beijing, was made into a musical road which plays the tune of "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China". Xiayunling was the birthplace of this song.
Denmark
The first known musical road, the Asfaltofon (English: Asphaltophone), was created in October 1995 in Gylling, Denmark, by Steen Krarup Jensen and Jakob Freud-Magnus, two Danish artists.Thyrri, Irene (October 1995). , TV 2/Østjylland. Accessed 20 October 2008. . The Asphaltophone was made from a series of raised pavement markers, similar to Botts' dots, spaced out at intermittent intervals so that as a vehicle passed over the markers, the vibrations caused by the wheels could be heard inside the car. The song played was an arpeggio in the key of F major.
France In 2000, a musical road with a 28-note melody composed by Gaellic Guillerm was built in the suburb of Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It was located on Boulevard Laurent and Danielle Casanova and was supposedly paved over in 2002. However, as of 2006, subsequent visits to the site of this musical road claimed that the song could still be heard faintly.
Hungary
In 2019, Hungary installed a musical road in memoriam of László Bódi (better known by his stage name Cipő), lead singer from the band Republic. When going on the side of the road, an approximately 30-second snippet of their song 67-es út (Road 67) plays. It is located at on Road 67 between Mernyeszentmiklós and Mernye, in the southbound direction.
A second musical road was built in Hungary in 2022, this time on Road 37 in Szerencs. The project was completed in April 2023. This musical road is 513 meters long and plays a well-known Hungarian children's folk song called "The Grapes are Ripening."
In September 2024, a 550-meter-long musical road was completed on Highway 21. As drivers travel over it, they can hear the iconic song "Nélküled" by the band Ismerős Arcok. This installation serves as a cultural and auditory landmark for the region.
India On 11 February 2026, Mumbai got India's first musical road. A 500-metre stretch on the northbound lane of the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Coastal Road was fitted with 66 "music strips" that play tunes as vehicles drive over them at a specific speed of 80 km/h. For commuters travelling from Nariman Point to Worli, this 500-metre stretch hums with the notes of the song Jai Ho.
Indonesia In 2019, Indonesia installed a musical road along the Ngawi–Kertosono section of the Solo–Kertosono Toll Road in Java. 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.
Japan
In Japan, Shizuo Shinoda accidentally scraped some markings into a road with a bulldozer. When he drove over them, he realized that it was possible to create tunes depending on the depth and spacing of the grooves. In 2007, the Hokkaido National Industrial Research Institute, which had previously worked on a system using infra-red lights to detect dangerous road surfaces, refined Shinoda's designs to create the Melody Road. They used the same concept of cutting grooves into the concrete at specific intervals and found the closer the grooves are, the higher the pitch of the sound; while grooves which are spaced farther apart create lower pitched sounds.