These roads have groves cut at very specific intervals along the road surface.
The closer the grooves are, the higher the pitch of the sound.
The critical ingredient in the mix is the speed of the car.
The Civic Musical Road in Lancaster, California.
They all play different tunes.
They stretch between 175 to 250 meters, and are carved with thousands of groves.
Drive too fast and it will sound like a tape on fast forward.
Drive too slow and it will have the opposite effect.
The first musical road, however, was not Japanese.
Grooves on a melody road in Japan.
Photo credit:Yusuke Japan Blog
The idea of musical roads has caught engineers in several other countries.
There is one Singing Road in South Korea close to Anyang in Gyeonggi.
It plays the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.
68% of traffic accidents in South Korea are due to inattentive, sleeping or speeding drivers.
America got its first melody road in 2008.
It was originally built on Avenue K in Lancaster, California, for a Honda commercial.
But the intervals are so far off that the melody bears only a slight resemblance to the original tune.
Driving over the grooves at 45mph causes the car to play the famous song “America the Beautiful”.
Grooves on the musical road in Tijeras, in New Mexico.
Photo credit:drivenfordrives.wordpress.com
A sign ahead of the Civic Musical Road in Lancaster, California.
Photo credit:roadtrippers.com
Photo credit:Yusuke Japan Blog
The musical road in New Mexico.
The Singing Road of Anyang, South Korea
The Melody Road in Japan.
Sources:Wikipedia/The Guardian/ABC News
