In the 60's there was a southbound strip of Highway 17, near Zolfo Springs, that talked to drivers. Sort of. Ken Mulling showed me the rumble strip type surface one day when we had case work over around Arcadia.
The idea, Ken explained, was that if you drove too fast over the strips they would vibrate up through your car the admonition: Slow Down. We tried it several times and were only able to coax out an unintelligible grumbling sound. It was a sound, however, that like the rumble strips that jolt inattentive drivers on highways, would get your attention.
After I asked several other old cops if they remembered the thing, and got negative answers, I looked it up on the wellspring of all knowledge, the Internet. Wikipedia says the strip wasn't unique. There have been Musical Roads in Denmark, Japan, South Korea, and the USA. They would hum, when driven over at highway speed, everything from Mary Had A Little Lamb to The William Tell Overture. So, maybe I'm not fantasizing.
Studying on it longer, I seem to remember that after we'd driven back and forth across it a dozen times or so something did finally rumble through my unreceptive skull. It sounded a great deal like: Get a life, stupid.
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