Road builders have found an innovative new way of keeping drivers awake and at the correct speed in the United Arab Emirates by making the highway play Beethoven when users drive over it.
Rumble strips are often used along the sides of highways to alert people they’re going too far over to the side. They act as a little alarm to wake people up if they’re getting inattentive. They can also be used in the lead-up to junctions, or slipways, to ensure people are aware of their speed.
But, on the E84 highway in Fujaira, they play a Beethoven classic when they are driven over. The rumble strips are spaced exactly right to make any car riding over them perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Driving at the recommended speed of 60 mph, the tone and tempo are spot on.
Beethoven Performed By Highway Cars
The musical road isn’t intended as a traffic calming measure; it is simply a celebration of music and the arts. The project is part of the larger ‘Street of Music’ idea. Speaking of this music highway, Ali Obaid Al Hefaiti, director of the Fujairah Fine Arts Academy in the UAM, said, “I think that the project is focused on spreading the art culture,” Al Hefaiti told the Associated Press. “The combination of music in our lives and our normal lives.”
Beethoven certainly brings a little more joy to dull highway driving. 750 meters of highway play the final section of Beethoven’s Ninth. This is a well-known section, called the ‘Ode to Joy.’
The musical highway playing Beethoven is not the first of its kind in the world. These musical rumble strips have been featured in other locations, too. However, this is the first in the Arab world. As a result, it has garnered quite a lot of social media attention in the area.
For anyone looking for a music highway in the US, there are a few to choose from. However, the better-known ones are Route 66 near Albuquerque, New Mexico, where rumble strips play America the Beautiful at the designated speed. Another is in Lancaster, California, where a musical road plays The William Tell Overture.