Residents in the Dutch village of Jelsum aren’t singing the praises of recent changes to a nearby road.
Rumble strips were recently laid on the main drag in a strategic manner so that the road “sings” out the anthem of the Friesland region, a northwest area of the Netherlands, when a car drives along them at 40 mph, according to Reuters.
Sietske Poepjes, a local minister for infrastructure and cultural affairs, said the road was designed to promote the city of Leeuwarden, this year’s European Capital of Culture, and also test out a new paint for roads.
“It works amazingly well. You can hear the melody,” she told the BBC.
But what may be a novelty for drivers has been sheer torture to people who live near the road, like Sijtze Jansma.
“It’s simple, the Frisian national anthem is fun, but not 24 hours a day,” Jansma told the Dutch-language news station RTL News. “It really makes you deaf, you can not sit outside anymore, you do not sleep at night, and that vuvuzela whimper makes us crazy.”
Resident Ria Jansma said the road inspired some taxis to go across the lines as quickly as possible.
“We had the anthem played all night at high speed,” she said to Reuters.
The Friesland authority has taken note of the complaints and will remove the rumble strips later this week.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated RTL News was a newspaper.
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