There used to be a stretch of road near my house that was haunted – at least that’s what I would tell my passengers as I drove along it. As we approached a certain intersection, a creepy moan would fill the passenger compartment. It scared the daylights out of a few people, especially when I took them for rides at night while telling tales about ghostly hitchikers.
The bit about ghosts, of course, was made up, but the moaning road was real. The road had become rippled with age, which made the tires play a haunting tone. It worked the same way that a record needle (remember LPs) plays sounds as it rides over the bumps in the recording tracks.
I often wondered why nobody ever bothered to take advantage of the effect by making roads that played sounds on purpose (perhaps as a type of advertising, or to alert drivers to speed limits and such).
Well, someone HAS done it in Japan. They have a whole stretch of singing highway, clearly marked with musical notations to let you know you haven’t lost your mind. Play the YouTube video below to find out what the singing road sounds like. I don’t read Japanese, but the subtitles suggest that the the road is playing a well-known Japanese song.