Just when you thought rumble strips were as annoying as the road surfaces can get...

from OnTheCommons.org

Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, calls it the “corporate takeover of nature and the Disneyfication of the wild.” He’s referring the American Recreation Coalition, an industry trade association, and its new “Scenic Byways” website that proposes inserting “tonal patterns” into roadways as a new form of “innovative communication” (i.e., advertising). Kym Murphy, the former v.p. for environmental policy at the Walt Disney Company, explains:

The Walt Disney Company is experimenting with ways to communicate with its visitors by non-visual means in order to enhance visitors' experiences and protect the visual landscape. We have successfully created a technology for pavement "grooves and ridges" which cause tires literally to hum a tune as a vehicle passes over them! In the future, this non-visual "cue" to guests could let them know they are approaching a Disney property and bring smiles to their faces.

Why not use Scenic Byways as the leading-edge "laboratory" for this simple approach to alerting motorists that they are approaching a wayside, a recreation opportunity or an interpretive site? Consistent throughout a byway - or all byways - these simple cues could effectively communicate a standardized message, much like a stop sign, while helping to eliminate the need for visual clutter and creating a sense of continuity along the byway. Several unique, recognizable rhythms or tonal patterns could be used as audible invitations to pause along the byway, making visitors more receptive to "hearing" the byway stories we have to tell.

Um, well.… thanks, but I think I’ll pass. This is an “innovation” I can do without.

Boy oh boy. I can hear it now --- the ESPN tone when we get near a sporting venue; a Mickey-D's tone when we get near one of their "eateries." Brought to you by your corporate sponsor and ODOT! OTOH, Maybe corporate sponsorship of stretches of highway might just get them fixed.