Better Ideas From Japan: Musical Roads

"Japan Turns Roads Into Musical Instruments"
InventorSpot (November 13th, 2007)

"From the "only in Japan" file comes the Melody Road, an ingenious project that has transformed stretches of three Japanese highways into mobile music boxes!"

Here in America, we use the the same principle to make rumble strips along the edges of highways, to let drivers know when they stray off the traffic lanes.

"It took a certain Mr. Shinoda, working with the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute, to apply the sonic resonance theory in a unique way. Shinoda discovered that by varying the spacing between the cut grooves, the pitch of the sound would vary. ..."

Hats off to Mr. Shinoda, and other Japanese artist-scientists, for creating these three singing roads.

I doubt that this beautiful fusion of art, transportation, and science could be done in America. We've become remarkably risk-averse. Not an entirely bad thing, but it does tend to introduce a certain bland nervousness into a culture.

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