Ever since there’s been paved roads, communities have constantly tried to upgrade the safety factor of driving. I imagine it started with painting the lines, so you stayed on your side of the road to prevent head on collisions. But lately I’ve noticed that in our neck of the woods there is an effort to keep you alert to the fact that your car is weaving into the other lane of traffic. As soon as you drive out of your lane, the whole car shakes and rumbles. At first you might think that you ran over something. In reality you did run over something. It is called a rumble strip. Depending on how fast you were driving and how quickly you responded to the alert it served a good purpose. It may have saved your life. 

What exactly is a rumble strip? They are strips that are engineered to be embedded or constructed into the surface of roadways. Of course, it’s easier to include the strips concept design when the road is constructed for the first time, But even modern-day roads have the surfaces that can be adaptable for a rumble strip. 

The strips themselves are made from several designs. The traverse rumble strips are embedded across the painted lane markers. They are typically used to alert drivers that they’re coming into a hazard, such as an intersection or a toll booth. They can even be used to warn drivers about changes to the road conditions. The traverse strip tends to be more transitional and not permanent. 

The rumble strip we come across more often is a longitudinal strip that runs along the direction of traffic. Most often placed at the side of the road or even the central line. They serve to alert drivers if the car is swerving out of their lane. 

To choose the choice of materials and methods for creating the rumble strip depends on many factors. The type of roads, the traffic volume and any local noise ordinances are all part of the equation. Imagine if your apartment or house was close to some rumble strips. You would quickly get sick and tired of hearing that noise all day and night. 

The safety benefits of rumble strips are well known. But some creative minds have come up with a way to really continue to serve and entertain drivers. Imagine you’re driving along a quiet stretch of highway. As your tires roll over the road engineered grooves in the pavement, a song begins to play. Clear, familiar and entirely produced. The melody is made by the interaction between your tires and the rumble strips. The strips having been adopted in some places by very inventive people to play music. They turned ordinary strips of roads into unexpected instruments. 

Creative minds realize that by changing and varying the spacing and depth of the grooves musical notes can be heard. Using that method it is possible to tum the roads into melodies. 

These short musical pieces entertain both drivers and nearby pedestrians. The creators of this music have begun calling it musical roads or melody roads. None of these innovators can be compared to Mozart. But they have found a way to use precise engineering to produce music notes. From the rumble strips they found that the pitch of the sound depends on the spacing between the grooves. 

Closer grooves create higher pitched tones while wider spacing lowers the pitch. In musical roads the speed of the vehicle is also very important. The intended melody only emerges when the vehicle travels at a specific speed, ensuring that the groove is struck at the correct integral to produce the desired notes. 

The United States already has one Musical Road. It is located on Route 66 in New Mexico. The stretch of road there has been engineered so that the rumble strips play “America the Beautiful” when driven over at exactly 45 mph. The project was partly a tourism effort and partly a speed control measure. Drivers must maintain the speed limit to hear the music play correctly, and most do. So you can get your kicks on Route 66.

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.