
If You Drive the Right Speed, This Musical Highway Will Play You a Song - jonbaer
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/take-drive-down-americas-musical-highway-180958449/?no-ist
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tantalor
Why does it only work "when cars are traveling at exactly 45 mph"? Wouldn't
any constant speed work? You would simply play the song in a different key
depending on the speed, like changing the speed of a record player.

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bnegreve
There are many variables that do not vary linearly with the speed (e.g.
rubber's stiffness) so it could be that the sound is indistinguishable at
higher speed.

The goal is clearly to slow people down, so that would be really surprising if
it would work the same way at higher speed, wouldn't it be? Maybe I'm just too
naive..

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petercooper
There's a J G Ballard short story where roads of the future are sponsored by
tire companies and if you don't have the right tires, you get an awful, noisy
resonance through your vehicle. So you have to buy the tires du jour. But then
another company gets the sponsorship, and so on..

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jvandonsel
If I drive at 90 mph, I'll still hear the song, but up an octave, correct?

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0xdeadbeefbabe
You can also hear a secret message if you go over it in the opposite
direction.

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junke
"Tuurnn arround"

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GigabyteCoin
This reminds me of a main street somewhere in France that rewards good drivers
by giving them a non-stop flow of green lights if they drive at exactly the
speed limit.

Speeding down that street is pointless, because you are guaranteed to hit a
red light if you do.

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koenigdavidmj
San Francisco has a few of these, but they're keyed to bicycle speeds (13 mph
or so).

On the other hand, there was an article here about something Portugal did
about speeding. Basically, they would put a useless stoplight in the middle of
nowhere. Normally it's green all the time, since it's not actually an
intersection. If you approach it while speeding, however, it turns red.

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syrrim
Couldn't people just run the red, especially if there's no intersection?

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uremog
Sounds like a perfect job for a red light camera though.

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kazinator
Only works at _exactly_ 45 mph?

How dumb/gullible do you think your readers are, Smithsonian Mag?

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KineticLensman
This is a minor plot point in "The Big Over Easy" by Jasper Fforde [0], which
features a road that plays Jerusalem if you drive along the rumble strips at
precisely twenty-nine miles per hour. Personally, I prefer the Stockhausen
symphonies of the potholes on the M25.

[0] [http://www.amazon.com/Big-Over-Easy-Nursery-
Crime/dp/0143037...](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Over-Easy-Nursery-
Crime/dp/0143037234/)

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djaychela
I was hoping for something a little more OK Go than this... Pity there's no
real substance to the article, it would be interesting to see how speed alters
the tune, I'm assuming that changing speed doesn't have a linear relationship,
otherwise as said elsewhere, 90mph would mean an octave up and twice the
tempo.

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TheOtherHobbes
Multiply the speed by the 12th root of 2 (1.059...) to transpose up a
semitone. Repeat for further semitones.

When you get to the 12/12 root of 2 you get a factor of 2, which gives you 12
semitones up at double the speed.

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gohrt
Drivers will drive 50,60,90 because playing it faster doesn't make it sound
worse, and since it already sounds awful, due to bad acoustics, drivers will
want to be off it ASAP

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dghughes
That would be terrifying at night if you weren't aware of it and say you were
a tourist lost and scared then your car starts making music.

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JoblessWonder
There is one in Lancaster, CA if you ever find yourself there. It was
originally built for a Honda commercial but was moved a few miles out of town
after nearby residents complained.

[1]
[http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122469915344259035](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122469915344259035)

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noipv4
I prefer the tune at 90bpm as opposed to 45bpm.

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grimmdude
Fun idea, but yea it seems like this could encourage some people to drive
faster just to hear what it sounds like sped up.

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largote
At least it'll discourage people from crawling at 45mph in a highway.

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jff
I'd hardly call it desolate, it's about 2 miles from the edge of Albuquerque
and pretty busy most times.

Neat, though.

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pyeng
If you speed, you will be forced to hear Justin Bieber at full blast.

That'll cut down speeding in no time.

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lovemenot
They don't mention why America the Beautiful was selected. I don't know that
particular song, but Route 66 would surely have been preferable. A classic.

Could it be that RIAA would have been wanting to collect royalties on every
"performance"?

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kbenson
From the video: "I'm tempted to go 80 miles-per-hour to see what it sounds
like... But I probably won't".

You know he totally did. Just saying that probably created an irresistible
urge, he might have even done it _immediately_ afterwards.

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drallison
I experienced the musical highway (a segment of Route 66) last year while on a
trip around the Four Corners area and enjoyed its rendition of "America The
Beautiful". It was amusing and, sadly, short.

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TeMPOraL
That's cool but I still think it's just finding yet another way not to
implement the actual solution for speeding - ANPRs powering automated
ticketing and something like "three strikes and then your license get
suspended". As long as drivers can easily get away with irresponsible road
behaviour, they will be speeding.

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JoblessWonder
I'm always amazed that they have speed cameras in Europe/Australia but not
here. It seems like such a no-brainer for cities that have already landed on
the "limited privacy" side of the spectrum and have things like red light
cameras and license plate collectors.

