Rumble strips are facilities used to alert drivers to road conditions and can be seen on highways around the world. However, on a “Music Highway” in the eastern part of the United Arab Emirates (also known as the United Arab Emirates), they can play the world-renowned song “Ode to Joy” while vehicles pass through, providing a refreshing experience.
According to a report by the Associated Press on July 4th, on the entrance section of the E84 highway in Fujairah, there is a nearly 1-kilometer-long music highway. As long as vehicles travel in the rightmost lane, the road will resonate with the famous segment of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, known as “Ode to Joy,” which is the official anthem of the European Union.
This artistic project, named the “Street of Music,” was completed through cooperation between the Fujairah Fine Arts Academy and local government, aiming to integrate art into daily life and promote artistic culture in this unique way.
Director of the academy, Ali Obaid Al Hefaiti, mentioned that if drivers pass through at a speed of approximately 100 kilometers per hour, the melody of “Ode to Joy” will be most precisely heard.
The Music Highway has already gained popularity on social media, attracting tourists to visit this place overlooking the Gulf of Oman to take photos and check-in.
People have observed that drivers slow down when entering the city to experience this musical road. Even pedestrians standing on the side of the road can feel the same effect, regardless of the vehicle’s speed.
While the concept of a musical road isn’t unique globally, Hefaiti believes that this is the first musical road in the Arab world and it brings classical music into daily life, raising awareness of the importance of art and culture among the people.
As for why the UAE’s fine arts school chose an 18th-century European composer to represent Fujairah, Hefaiti mentioned that he always encourages students to explore different cultures.
According to a report by the Bahraini media outlet “Gulf Insider,” the spacing and depth of the road rumble strips determine the pitch and rhythm, enabling the road to “play” a recognizable melody, such as “Ode to Joy” in this case.
This technology is based on vibration physics, where the frequency generated by the tires corresponds to musical notes, depending on the distance between the rumble strips.
Besides promoting artistic culture, the Music Highway serves several purposes, including being a tourist attraction to attract visitors, enhancing traffic safety, and asserting identity. In some countries, the design of such roads aims to encourage drivers to maintain a safe and steady speed to achieve the best musical effect, thereby reducing accidents caused by speeding or driver fatigue.
Reports by the Epoch Times have previously covered that the concept of singing roads was first designed by Danish artist in 1995, known as Asphaltophone. It involves setting a series of raised dots on the road surface, creating vibrations as vehicles pass over them to produce sounds at specific frequencies.
Subsequently, Japanese engineers developed another method to create sounds. They dug transverse grooves of varying depths and spacing on the road surface, arranged them appropriately so that when vehicles pass at a fixed speed, the friction between the tires and grooves generates vibrations, producing a musical tune with both high and low notes.