You know how it is – the moment a red light turns to green, there will be a flurry of honking – a bunch of impatient souls making their feelings felt. Some of us may simply think of the blare of horns as an inevitable part of driving in India, however honking actually produces significant amounts of noise pollution and fatigue and stress. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to reduce that honking?
An 11 year old from Mumbai wrote to Anand Mahindra, head honcho on one of India's biggest auto manufacturers. She suggested that horns be manufactured in such a way that the number of times and the duration of honking are limited to make roads quieter. Mahindra was delighted by the suggestion.
It would be great if the honking mechanism was such that it could produce only a limited number of toots over a given period and also control the duration of each. That way people wouldn’t honk needlessly; keeping each honk for when it really matters.
Honking is both tiring and tiresome. People rarely bother to follow rules about no honking zones or about restrictions on the type of horns that can be installed in vehicles under the Motor Vehicles Act.
According to another commentator, each vehicle should be fitted with a device whereby, if the horn is sounded more than a set permissible number of times, this would attract fines.
Another Twitter user had this suggestion for reducing honking: make it as loud inside the car as it would be outside the car. That would be a deterrent for those honk-happy souls with their hand always poised for noise.
This Twitter user lauded the little girl for the clarity of her thoughts and felt that the idea about having horns with pre-set or limited honking frequency should be implemented. The common sense of the idea shows the sort of clarity that can only come from the mind of a child, felt some.
Can honking be made to consume more fuel? The tweet suggests that honking should be made to consume more fuel. This would reduce honking automatically, thanks to our fuel efficiency conscious road users.
This commentator felt that manufacturers should do away with automobile horns altogether; that not having horns at all would make people more inclined to drive safely.
A representative of the Chandigarh Traffic police also joined in the conversation.
Several organisations including a Mumbai-based group have been working to reduce honking. They urge people to join in their initiatives to draw attention to the problems honking causes, naming and shaming serial honkers, and observing some days as honk free days. Clearly, there are many who feel Horn (Not) OK Please!
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