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Japan's Melody Roads Play Music as You Drive
Krishna Dagli writes "The road works by using grooves, which are cut at very specific intervals in the surface. Just as traveling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes."
An oversized viynal? But what if you dont like the song?
Make SELinux enforcing again!
I have to say that after just getting back from Japan that they do have a certain affection for the whimsy even on large scale publicly funded projects that is just awesome. One of the things I saw was a huge platform with a glass top and water on top that served nothing more than a spaceship like cover for a courtyard down below and an attraction. Pics here .
I would have loved to have traveled on these roads while I was there...
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If you drive up that road in reverse it says, "Paul is dead."
-Peter
See & hear it in action: Video here
What is the motive for playing songs? Maybe the Japanese, with their radically different sense of aesthetics, will play songs. But Americans will have advertising:
rummmble...rumbble..Today's...screee...special...rummble...at..Wal-Mart...rummble...voice...suppression...rummble...tires!
Years ago the Walt Disney World was looking for additional magical things to add to the roads for their upcoming Millennium Celebration. On a desolate piece of road on property speed warning indicators were tested (the kind you encounter on the side of the road or before a toll road) that played a song. That song was "Zip A Dee Do Dah", and for years it stayed there. There were problems with it. First, was the fact in order for it to work, you would have to be driving a VERY specific speed, not faster, not slower, or it would seem like a random assortment of rumbles. And when someone would go the wrong speed, they'd think there was something wrong (veering of the road, toll soon, etc), and would try to break, get the car back on the road, etc, that it became dangerous. Since it was dangerous, no one would drive the correct speed, and the fact they'd need to tear up the roads just to install it, Disney mothballed the idea.
Forget tire wear. What about the uneven coefficient of friction? That can get you killed. Predictability of your vehicle's reaction in all situations -- especial in emergencies -- is important.
Fight Spammers!
I remember an interview with the chief engineer of a road construction company. He claimed that if the state was willing to pay about twice as much, he could build them a road which could last 100 years. But if he did that he'd be underbid for every contract and would go out of business. So the state ends up with roads which need to be resurfaced after 5 years and rebuilt after 15-25. Essentially the longevity is enough to span one politician's career in that office. After that it'll be someone else's problem, so why spend extra money on it?
While it looks like these were done just for fun, one idea I have heard is to place them only in the passing lane, at regular intervals. This would discorage people from staying in that lane any longer than they need to, else be forced to listen to "It's a Small World" at increasingly annoying pitch the faster they drive :)
you mean like:
Space Station
Space Shuttle
or
Las Vegas
or
Lincoln Financial Field
and... yeah, it is cool that the good old USA can muster up a few of these bad boys:
F-22
So I guess we're just totally broke?
This is my sig.
In Montreal a generation of Metro subway cars electric motors were tuned to perfect fifths, coincidentally the first three notes of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man". The tones were even part of a TV ad campaign when the line was opened.
Technical Explanation PDF (in French.)
However the Montreal Metro offers another treat to the senses: Smell.
The train brakes are two part, electromagnetic over ~10km/h and birch wood injected with peanut oil slower. Thus when a train comes to a hard stop the station smells faintly of burnt popcorn. If you have to smell your public transit this is about as good as it gets!I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I'm afraid this is what happens when there just isn't enough cash to go around. The amount the States get from the Federal taxes in various forms is reduced and so local infrastructure expenditures drop. However, it's not like the Federal government is spending more than it takes in on something that benefits only a select few and has quietly hidden the true costs here and there. There is a war going on; how can we complain about the state of our roads when on the other side of the world there are roads actually getting blown up daily? We have to rebuild those first, along with the electrical distribution, water supplies, schools and hospitals...the list goes on and we haven't even started. Once we have rebuilt Iraq in our image, then and only then can we talk about fixing things here with a clean conscience.
I've thought of using the grooves along the road to make a menacing voice for years. 'Get your ass back on the road stupid!' or some such thing. I think it's more American than playing music.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Boy: Daddy, why are we driving on gravel road?
Dad: I don't know, Watusabi. It was tar sealed road yesterday.
(500 metres later)
Boy: What's that sign say, Daddy?
Dad (slowing down and reading sign): "This melody road contains copyrighted music. Under the DMCA, and Japan's copyright treaty obligations, this road has been dug up to remove the infringing notes"
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
Numbers are still growing; but recently--it is impossible to know exactly when--an inflection point seems to have been reached. The rate of population increase began to slow. In more and more countries, women started having fewer children than the number required to keep populations stable. Four out of nine people already live in countries in which the fertility rate has dipped below the replacement rate. Last year the United Nations said it thought the world's average fertility would fall below replacement by 2025. Demographers expect the global population to peak at around 10 billion (it is now 6.5 billion) by mid-century.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9545933