Singing road's encore

As if there weren’t already enough funny noises coming from the underbelly of your car, starting today, you can again hear the "William Tell" overture when you drive over a strip of road in Lancaster.

The city’s first strip of singing pavement was constructed for a Honda ad in September. It used strategically placed grooves -- similar to rumble strips on highways -- spaced so that a series of pitches resembling Rossini's famous composition played when a car drove over the road. But neighbors complained about the strange noises and the crazy behavior of the people driving in the area. So Lancaster covered over the grooves after 18 days, rather than 18 months as originally planned.

The city vowed to construct a new road, and Mayor R. Rex Parris said that corporate sponsors were jockeying to pay for it. But the new road, on Avenue G between 30th and 40th West, doesn’t have a sponsor’s name on it. That’s because Honda didn’t want another company’s name on the road they pioneered, said Bob Green, interim director for Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department. Sponsors will instead pay for special events and programs having to do with the road, he said.

The new singing pavement won’t cause the same problems as it did before, he said, because it’s on a three-lane road in a less residential area. “There are no houses nearby,” he said. “And it actually sounds much better than it did previously anyway.”

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Steve Bao

Comments

[tweek]

If the residents of Lancaster don't like Rossini maybe they should carve a Megadeth song into the road.

[john in SD]

tweek, #1 what may be amusingly melodic to a driver in the car doesn't necessarily translate to a symphony to someone living a block away.
#2 I think the larger complaint was the attraction of vehicles and noise from people who came to experience it. Might have been fun for a few days, then the cars tearing in full of tipsy auto-music lovers from the basin at 3 am probably wore thin.
#3 What really motivated the reply was the implied misconception that Megadeth is some high desert redneck musical trash, musically unworthy of mention. They've had ups and downs but I've been a fan since I saw them tour with Alice Cooper 20 years ago, they are well respected in the circles of their genre. If you Baker residents can't keep up with the beat maybe Lancaster is too much "big city, bright lights" fer ya?
Or is this James or Lars, who still can't believe Dave got over you in a new york minute and did just fine, thank you? :-) (LOL to M & M, I love you both)

[James]

I love Honda and its cool that they would come up with something like this. I guess they didn't think about the homes nearby..haha