Let me make this statement – ‘It is possible to drive in India without honking‘. Do you agree? Driving through heavily crowded Indian city roads is no fun. To add to the woes, honking by most of the vehicles unnecessarily is a crime in my opinion. I do understand the fact that honking is a way of telling someone that you are about to pass or warning pedestrians, cyclists, motor cyclists, bullock carts, stray cows, dogs and other vehicles that they should take care. But that honking is crossing the limits, I have seen people committing that crime without their consciousness.
It wouldn’t be surprising if each of you have your own opinion on this subject. My observation is that the cab drivers engage in this honking business more than any others. I tried honestly to figure out why they honk so much while driving, some of the answers made no sense while few other responses made me laugh! Here are some of those gem responses for you:
- I have a working horn, I should use it.
- My horn lever has only one position.
- I don’t think I honk at all!
- It helps keep me awake. (due to over time duty)
- To let others know that the traffic signal has turned green
Honking a vehicle is considered rude in many of the countries but it is a must do thing in India. Though I tried to counsel and advocate ‘no honk’ behavior, my cab drivers take it cautiously for a couple of days and they are back to square one soon after that. For them it is an universal language of saying “get the hell out of my way”. I wouldn’t agree to the notion that driving in India is not possible without honking, in fact over the last weekend “I did not honk at all” while driving through Bangalore roads that too during exam times. There were few anxious moments when I was prompted to honk due to crisscrossing of the motor cyclist across the lanes, but my strict and conscious determination made me to avoid from honking. This is very much possible for everyone. Now most of the roads are in good shape and painted with lane separators. Honking un-necessarily at traffic signals doesn’t make any good except causing someone’s blood pressure go high! Can we all stick to lane rules and avoid honking?
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
I so totally agree with you. In this context there was a taxi driver who i asked as to why was he honking so incessantly, and his response was that every other driver is irresponsible and would not start or not move if not honked. so i asked him if everyone thought like him, then everyone would think that they are the only responsible driver, and the rest are not so!
i think bangalore drivers are the worst in entire india in terms of driving etiquette and hope that this discussion in your blog would help change some people’s driving style.
why not something on not talking on phone while driving?
thank you.
Hi Sharbori, thanks for your thoughts!
Good idea… will cover that sometime soon :)
The only time I honk is while turning on blind turns. I learnt to drive in Bombay and the teacher explained clearly that honking was avoidable. I find smaller towns and cities have much more honking so it is related to awareness. Also up to a limit the more confident you are as a driver, the less you honk.
I feel driving schools must tell all learners not to honk and the same can be emphasized while getting one’s license.
I have seen a lot of people can’t hear clearly and need louder and louder music and horns – this is because of noise pollution and I feel terrible for how it affects and traumatises poor birds and animals :(
Good to see a post on a cause close to my own heart.
Good point there! Definitely initiating the ethics from driving school lessons would be the good start. Let me take it up with a couple of driving schools around my place.
Hello Mr. Mohan,
Just today i got your blog, when i searched for some quates or something in google
Your Experiences and scraps was really so usefull and very casual like talking each other and discussing by near.
I drive hero honda passion plus to office, i have been using a honking for many days, bcoz my friends had different kind of horns on their bikes, i bought too. I thought chennai’s traffic need it and it was helping me to get some way to go home soon in this terrific traffic.
But after read your experience about honking, i REGRET myself and i’ll try to avoid it as much as possible.
Regards,
Karthick.S
Hi Karthick, I know it is not intentional for many but still honk without their own knowledge. A little bit of awareness will certainly take us through a long way. Thanks for your comment and look forward to hear from you on how it goes with less honking :)
Hey Mohan,
You have captured it all really well. The only time I lose temper very frequently in a day is the time I drive. What with those car drivers who never know where their break is. All they know is heavy beam and HONK. I agree with you that it is possible to drive without honking. I, incidentally tried this 2 days back. The weather was awesome that I wanted to enjoy my ride. But then I did cut down on my speed, made consious effort not to honk when it was really necessary. But one can not be doing this all day. It requires an disciplined effort from everyone. I say this because honking becomes a necessacity with pedestrians who cross like they own the road, Authorickshaws,cars and bikes who switch lanes forgetting that they have mirror to look behind and an indicater to indicate. Really loved reading this post.
Cheers,
Loganathan
Thanks Loganathan! Yes, it requires just a bit of awareness and a bit of conscious effort to bring down the noise levels :)
Awesome post.
I was brought up and trained not to honk unless it is absolutely necessary. And guess what? In 99% of the scenarios where people honk, it isn’t. I see instances where two wheelers honk from 500 meters away , warning others of their impending arrival when it is just not necessary. When a hundred horns go off simultaneously, how do you expect to distinguish one horn from the other. The incessant blaring inures you to a honking and everyone just ignores honking, which causes others to honk even more.
A while ago, the horn on my car went out and I drove for almost 200km without honking – on hairpin bends on the way to Ooty !!! The horn went out again a couple of weeks later and just to test myself, I did not get the horn fixed. My city driving technique did not change much… the time to reach my destination did not change. As it is, I hardly honk, but this was a revelation.. I got through 2 weeks without even NEEDING to honk.
Sadly, for most people in India, they would rather prefer that the horn button needs to be pressed to stop the honking and the horn exists to be blown.
No wonder we have a population problem – we’re such a horny country.
Hi Yogesh, nice experimentation with your non-functional horn there! True, I agree to the fact that honking is not at all required in 95% of the times… Just that people are getting carried away without knowing what they are actually getting into.
Your last line is too spicy ;)
You are so right! Today a guy was simply honking at me in a traffic signal even though the light was red!..Heights!
hmmm, some folks have lost their thinking ability, they tend to perform few things without the consent of their consciousness!
If I can’t hear their horns I will make sure that they hear mine.
tit for tat?
Hi Mohan, this is a nice topic that you’ve chosen to blog about. I find it rude on the part of the honker :-| Mumbai roads experience traffic situations you’d never get to see anywhere else. At the signals even before it turns green, people start honking as if to say “there’s a missile chasing me guys, move on”. And, not only one or two of them, you’ll notice all of them honking in a similar manner. No matter if it is motorcycle or a huge truck. Sometimes people do see that there’s a major JAM ahead, even then they’d honk. The person ahead is not going to fly and go ahead. Even s/he needs space to move. But some how, the people just don’t understand. The number of private vehicles is increasing day by day. A day will soon arrive when you will be able to sit in your car, move it about a meter or so and then walk it from there to wherever you need to go. More vehicles, more traffic jams, more noise.
hahahaaa.. i liked that ‘there’s a missile chasing me guys, move on’ statement :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Kalpesh. Awareness is the need of the hour!
hey mohan, I totally agree with you… we all call ourselves literate and well educated but not following lane rules and honkin unnecesarily… is something that irks me to the hell extent!!! Moreover, we also have road romeos with newly fitted weirdo honks zooming on street….blasting honks to make their presence felt..!!! sigh…. wish we could have ‘no honk days’ everyday… :D
Hope a resolution is passed to ban all kind of horns within city limits :) Ofcourse, the by product of that would be increased accidents!
Engines are so super silent nowadays that sometimes a person standing in front of a car doesn’t hear it at all.
We all seem to be in a big hurry…you drive slowly and without honking and you reach a few seconds later than you would otherwise. So why the hurry?
But those few seconds, all added up for the day, cost the taxi and auto drivers money! So they honk more than usual. They take those sharp lane cutting maneuvers that makes me honk and also swallow my heart at least a dozen time in a day!
You got a point… but even when all the vehicles waiting and frantically honking for movement soon after amber turning to green is not justified. Need a bit of common sense too!
Honking is considered very rude in UK. Since I have been here I have heard car honr max of ten times in the past 2.5 years. People here drive carefully, most of them follow traffic rules for the fear of getting a heavy fine, pedestrians are given preference and they honk only in extreme circumstances.
Noise pollution is so bad in India…it just gives u a headache to drive.
True… Wish we bring that common sense about honking in every individual in India too! Thanks for dropping by… look forward to see you often :)
Even I have tried this, nowadays I have no other go rather than allowing others to take my way as I do not have a working horn hahaha. But truly I have tried it and I want India to be as peaceful as Singapore Mohan. Awaiting that state in my country.
Hehehe.. it has to start from within each of us. I am sure a bit of awareness will take us a long way, but taking that first step is the biggest hurdle.
Come to Delhi, you’ll wish you were deaf!
Most idiots think honking is a magical device that moves mountains.
Hahahaaa… this article is to vent out my anger too! :D
I remember one saying “If you drive in India , you can drive anywhere in the world”. This is a misunderstood phase. My experience shows driving in Indian cities are easier and more accident prone and driving in coutries like US are difficult and less accident prone. Reason , one to understand the complicated rules and regulations and following it is not an easy task. The roads , traffic signals and standerdization backed by strong infrastucture and strict maintenance of this cannot be seen in India. In india we have traffic rules , but many time we faced with obstacles that make us not to follow the rules. I have seen drivers honking in US when somebody is blocking the traffic , may be the driver ahead not seen the green light or he is confused on the route or when he does a mistake. In India we have city roads that is crowded with bykes, cycles, cars , buses, trucks and all sorts vehicles and ofcourse dogs, cattle and unruly pedestrians. All obstacles are in front of the driver, the traffic moves at snails space and everyone gets impatient and reflux tells us to press the horn. We see western country roads are wider , well maintained, traffic rules and markings which are clearly visible and standard through out that country. There is no situation that 10 km of well maintained road followed by another 10 km of bumps and gutters. Our city planners should start thinking of this and bring standardization and infrastucture in place. Let us start thinking why people ‘honk’ than blaming them. We honk because our driving way is blocked or going to be blocked by someone . We do not want some one suddenly appear, so in advance for every turns we honk. We honk at drivers in front of us who are not ‘drivers’ but learners, we want to make them learn driving by honking from behind. I suggest all people to honk more , let our government think why people are honking . Let me conclude , if my way is clear and i do not see any obstacles to come in front of my vehicle , why should I honk. I honk because I am impatient and do not want to hit someone who does not obey traffic rules.
All who honk are useless assholes killing people around. Do you people have any idea how much hinking can affect the brain and mental health??? I never honked from the past few months. I have a very bad honking record, meaning I rarely honk. However bad the traffic is and however bad the driving is, if we can use our brains to calculate and put in full concentration, any road can be driven without honking. I get so irritated with the continous never ending honks in Bangalore. I hate my place. The government would do shit about this!!! They may be busy filling in their own pockets. Even if you spit, they are not going to care. So BOTTOMLINE is Bangalore will never improve atleast for the next 15 years and people will die from sound pollution.
According to me, 80 percent of honking is caused by the bike drivers. I feel like stopping every vehicle that honks and break the honks with a hammer such that they cannot honk atleast for the day. Then the city can relax its mind for a day atleast. Or if possible, I want to go to a blank magician and make it such that no vehicle can honk when they approach the vicility of my house. The honks automatically stops… Argggghhh!!! Honking Bastards!!! You all will die because of your honking one day. Learn to concentrate and let other do the same….
too many harsh words!!! all they need is a bit of self awareness and counseling. We should educate through proper medium which is the lacuna now!
I know the words are harsh.. But the intent was to reveal the mental trauma that I have gone through for years. Each person has his own susseptability and adaptation limits. I have crossed this a long time ago.
I really appreciate the forum that you have created, however, I still feel that this would not help in any way.. End of this, all will just vent out their angers and share their views and the forum would be dead one day.
Instead, it would be better to innovate something like this:
- I suppose every area/district in bangalore city has a co-ordinator or an Administrator who would cater to the needs.
- If all people in the district get together against honking for vehicles passing by the area, then this could be handled by the administrator by passing a request to the respective body.
- If there is a body that has taken initiatives on reduction of sound pollution in bangalore, then all such administrators can report by this body.
- Then this body can collectively accept the requests from many such districts and inturn interact with the city/state officials respectively..
So this is the kind of initiative that needs to be taken for reducing noise pollution caused by vehicles towards a zero.
However as per the present situation, I see that people here are not ready to co-operate between each other because each person here only thinks about his life and his peace… so of there is a problem affecting the society, no one proceeds forward.. this as all we know is a disease affecting from years…. The day we cure this, we cure all sorts of issues at once..
I think sharing this kind of idea is what actually makes the forum useful than just sharing experiences..
Thanks for the space I have got here..
I appreciate Mohan and people like him who are spreading this word atleast…
Hi Mohan,
Some time its necessary and user should know the limits. I have been observed and irreted so many times with Unnecessary honking.
Hope you will soon post the black killer soon CO2.
I dont understand these Terrific …Ooops! Traffic police who ask for the emission test for four stroke engines (what a joke). They do emission test while vehicle is running then only they will come to know how worst the vehicles are polluting our city.
Thanks
Chandru
Chandru, emission tests are a way to ensure that the engines emitting CO2 under specified limits for all type of engines. Of course the limit changes for each type of engine and a good indicator on enforcing some adherence to pollution guidelines.
Mohan, I do agree with the points mentioned in your blog. I too have been driving with no honks or very minimal honks (only when absolutely necessary, like at some blind corners) since last 2 years. It is really disgusting to see people honking especially at traffice signals during rush hours when there is a backlog of vehicles waiting and everyone wants to cross over before the signal changes to red. But there is no use of honking as it takes time for the number of vehicles to cross within the available time. People need to be patient. Also, as you have said, many cab drivers are worst, honking almost constantly. Also, what I observed in UK where they follow driving on the left side of the road (same as ours) is to give way to the traffic coming from the right at circles (roundabouts) and road junctions, which helps a lot in who gets the priority to cross without use for honking any horn. If we followed this simple rule irrespective of the vehicle size, it would help a lot in traffic management and less number of accidents.
Dear Shambhu,
Well pointed out. I am still skeptical about the roundabouts ensuring smooth traffic flow in India. All I can imagine is a frantic deadlock with the number of vehicles coming from all corners!
I have tried to drive without honking since i read this post for a couple of days. It has been insanely difficult to drive without honking. People hop in your way from all the directions. I am trying.. let me see how much more time it will take…
I completely agree to the fact that it is not easy to change the routine way of driving.. but nothing impossible! Glad to see so many people are getting cautious about this :)
I really don’t think Indian people could drive without honking regularly. There is just so very much traffic and not all vehicular on the roads, they just drive with a hand on the horn honking to warn others off their right a way. There would be more crashes and deaths without the honks!
Like I have pointed out population distribution in cities and not following traffic rules is the root cause of all issues. You would be surprised to know that the percentage of accidents is very less compared to other developed countries, so are the deaths on account of such accidents!
For pretty much every day of the 3 yrs I had my bike, I was riding it without the honks, but beware, you can very quickly get road rage. I got angry all the time. Somebody or the other is gonna piss you off really badly. So, patience is a must.
In the end, I am glad I rode without the horn and would probably do so when I am back in Bangalore, but I sure do wish people will get a little more traffic sense.
I remember an episode of ‘Travelers’ on Discovery channel where they are trying to drive in Kerala and one of the guy sums up the experience thus “There are three things you need to drive india “Good brakes, a good horn and lots of good luck”.
I have been driving without honking for over 4 yrs now. Difficult in the beginning, but now I don’t even miss it.
Thanks for the motivation Deepak. I am sure we can bring in a change :) Just that we need to spread the word and make them sense the need.
Hi Mr Mohan
I agree that it is possible to drive in India without unnecessarily honking.
Your positive efforts are indeed laudable.
But I feel we Indians are not sensitive or caring about either the decibel level we create or concerned about the noise pollution. At the same time it is possible only through censure/punishment route to inculcate following/abiding to traffic rules.
Regards.
Elaya Kumar S
I second your thoughts. Not just following the rules.. we need to bring in the awareness to reduce the sound levels and to follow lane discipline. Let us spread the word with our friends :)
2 more reasons i assume are..
they’ll miss their train which leads to nowhere.
their wife isn’t able to control any longer and has passed an ultimatum that if he does not arrive early and on time she will have to satisfy with others. lol..
what say?
i get so very pissed off with these.
delhi has passed a law against these more-than-enough honkers.
it shud be strictly applied in the whole of India too.
especially the bajaj pulsars…
they r just so very worst kind of sound generators..
bajaj horns shud be banned from everywhere…
what ya say?
Yogesh
ygoel.com
that was funny :D I am aiming at bringing in awareness among people and there by to change driver’s attitude. Not sure how will banning a specific brand of vehicle horns solve the issue!
Actually I tried to figure out what is the maximum allowed decibel of horns (like they have a decibel limit on music of local community halls) but can’t find it anywhere. Will need to do a comprehensive RTI on it :)
Bajaj horns are actually louder, I’ve observed that. Lets write a letter to them, I knwo they are trying to make very masculine bikes but then they should not forget the GENTLEMAN in every man ;)
Alas! The mellow horns of the Ambassadors and the FIATS of the yonderyears :(
I remember some other reader sharing the save view wrt Bajaj horns! Hope someone from that company reads this.
Mohan, this was my gripe number one in Bangalore. Every driver on the road tried the drive it by the horn and not by the steering/handle. It was one f**king mess. There was no culture and no civilization. The worst part? It was not even the illiterate or the uneducated or untraveled, but in fact many colleagues from esteemed software companies with big degrees and enough exposure to world outside India doing it. I tried correcting and learned that it was in avail. I hope it gets better before I come back to Bangalore.
It makes me laugh everytime I read your second line here. Remember, Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India! It has a good mix of educated and literate people. All it needs is a kind of self obstinacy from each of us to start with and spreading the word to people around us. Though I have tasted failure in my first attempt, I will try again to convince more people. Let me do my bit… when you come here next time, hopefully your friends stop to honk un-necessarily!
I honk at times to be safe than sorry. When I sense that other motorists/pedestrians are very close and one wrong move can make them collide with my vehicle, I need to draw their attention.
Most of us Indians do not follow any rules- we talk on mobile, we stare at posters, we talk with other rider/passengers, roads are also used by pedestrians and hawkers, people drive in wrong direction, if you wiat for the path to become clear a bike fellow will come from nowhere and squeeze in… in such a situation honking one way to get some attention and survive in the congested streets. If we ensure we don’t violate traffic rules need for honking will come down
Agree with you Shri. The mother of all problems is non-obedience of traffic rules. That happens because we are too crowded -> over populated… Its a kind of chain reaction! All I am requesting fellow citizens is to follow the traffic rules and be good to others while ensuring your own safety.