Leeuwarden - Motorists can expect some musical
accompaniment when driving through the small Frisian village of
Jelsum in the Netherlands.
"You are approaching a singing road," reads the sign beside the
provincial N357 road in the north of the country.
What follows are a number of special grooves etched into the tarmac.
If cars drive over these grooves at 60 kilometres per hour, the
driver is greeted with the first bars of the Frisian anthem.
"It was intended as a funny campaign," said Gerrit Hofstra, spokesman
for the province of Friesland, on Monday to the dpa. "And it also
ensures road safety. That way motorists would have no problem taking
their foot off the gas."
Additionally, the campaign fitted well with Friesland's capital
Leeuwarden being named this year's European Capital of Culture, said
Hofstra.
But not everyone is happy.
You have to like the Frisian anthem a lot to endure listening to it
all day and night, said annoyed residents to Dutch television
reporters. "That's mental torture," said one woman.
No one expected these side effects, said spokesman Hofstra. The
"singing road" will therefore be silenced this week.