The idea might have sounded good to officials conferring in an office where a climate-control system softly hums in the background, computers emit a low drone and the occasional clink of a coffee cup can be heard.
But for villagers in the northern province of Friesland in the Netherlands, the sounds emitted from a country highway as a result of their government's plan to deter speeding amounted to "psychological torture."
What happened was that someone came up with the idea of installing rumble strips on the highway that play a melody from the Friesland anthem when drivers maintain the correct speed.
When drivers don't keep the speed limit, the melody is off key and off tempo, and nearby villagers notice.
It's "horrible," Friesland spokesman Gerrit Hofstra told Canada's National Post. "It's not nice to hear."
The strips are similar to the type used in America on highway shoulders to warn drivers who drift out of their lane. They're also used on remote stretches to warn drivers when they are approaching a stop sign or a stop light.
According to the BBC, Sijtze Janmsa told RTL News: "I'm going nuts. You can't sit outside and you can't sleep at night."
Ria Jansma told Reuters news agency: "Last Saturday night, taxis ... tried to go across the lines as quickly as possible, and we had the anthem playing all night at high speed."
Along with keeping drivers alert, the $100,000 project also allows officials to test various qualities of paint.
Sietske Poepjes, the local minister for infrastructure and cultural affairs, told the BBC the project on a stretch of the N357 road was a way to promote the city of Leeuwarden, this year's European Capital of Culture.
"It works amazingly well. You can hear the melody," she told the BBC."
Villagers living nearby said it was torture and that drivers would speed to see if they could play the song faster.
A spokesman for the province said, "It was an experiment on how to influence the behavior of drivers."
However, he admitted, "I was there myself and if you're living there it was unpleasant."
Officials now have removed the strips.
"The idea is good, but a lot of people said it was a lot of noise, that they couldn't sleep anymore. ... Now it will be quiet and people will enjoy life again," the provincial spokesman said.