The Beethoven rumble strip in the United Arab Emirates has been getting some press recently.

You know what a rumble strip is, right? They’re those irregularities in the pavement installed to jolt you awake when you’re about to drift off the road, or to warn you to slow down when you’re entering a hairpin turn. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone would figure out that different rhythms and pitches could be produced by varying the spacing of the strips. When driven over at a certain speed recognizable melodies emerge.

Fujairah has decided to emulate Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

I don’t know how many of these “musical roads” there are in the world, but the number must currently be pushing 50. (The most recent tabulation I could find was 46 in 2022.)

The first known musical road was created in Denmark in 1995. Argentina, Belarus, China, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, San Marino, South Korea, and Taiwan followed. Japan, the musical road champ, has at least 30. The U.S. has at least three. France and the Netherlands had some for a while, but they were paved over.

It’s true, musical roads might be considered a nuisance by some, especially those living nearby, who have to contend not only with the incessant repetition of “Ode to Joy,” for instance, but also increased volume of traffic due to curiosity seekers.

Often the melodies can be made out only when the strips are encountered at a correct, consistent speed. In at least one instance, in California, a strip was paved over after residents complained and then reconstructed elsewhere. Unfortunately, the construction workers confused the measurements, so what you get is a badly out of tune “William Tell Overture.”

One post beneath the video suggests that the tune would sound correct if you hit it at 100 m.p.h. I’m not condoning it; just saying.

Hi ho, Silver! Away!

FUN FACT, though hardly surprising: It was New Jersey that installed the earliest-known rumble strips, on the Garden State Parkway, in 1952.

ADDENDUM: Okay, so it looks like Little Alex and his droogs decided to go back and hit the “William Tell” strip at 100 m.p.h. Still pretty wonky, but worth it for the laugh.