Comments on: Why do you honk your horn?

By: Mohan

Mohan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:32:44 +0000

Hi Sharbori, thanks for your thoughts!
Good idea… will cover that sometime soon :)

By: sharbori

sharbori — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:22:29 +0000

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.

By: Mohan

Mohan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:06:51 +0000

Thanks Loganathan! Yes, it requires just a bit of awareness and a bit of conscious effort to bring down the noise levels :)

By: Mohan

Mohan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:04:42 +0000

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.

By: Indian Homemaker

Indian Homemaker — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:52:28 +0000

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.

By: Mohan

Mohan — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:15:22 +0000

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 :)

By: Karthick

Karthick — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:24:47 +0000

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

By: Loganathan

Loganathan — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:08:57 +0000

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

By: Mohan

Mohan — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:41:23 +0000

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 ;)

By: Yogesh

Yogesh — Sun, 09 May 2010 06:29:44 +0000

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.