Driving in bombay without a horn

[Tejas@perioimpl]

I've always been an advocate of driving with minimal use of the horn. So one day when my accord horn went bust and the dealer needed two days to get the required part, i thought, let's see if i can drive without the horn (my other cars were not available or else i wouldn't have tried this foolish thing)

so i start off trying to leave my building and children are playing cricket (at 8:00am!!) and don't even acknowledge the presence of a car. I could have pressed the clutch and razed (raised?) the engine to make a sound, but alas i was driving an automatic... so put in neutral, razed the engine noise, shifted back to D, waited for it to engage and started off.

Leaving home early morning wasn't too much of a problem without the horn and i was growing confident that i could go on through the 2 days without one.

Come evening, return time, and the nightmare begins.

Can't exit out of office gate cuz bus queue extending out of bus stop and blocking gate and no one seems to bother... watchman happily asleep.... horns of cars lining up behind me manage to part the crowd and i slowly inch forward...

soon stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and every second cab, bus, truck and cycle cuts in front of me and all i can do is press the center boss of the steering without response. I nearly broke off the headlight flashing stock of the car by over using it...

my average speed dropped to 5kmph in traffic and was really irritating...

Then all of a sudden as a miracle, by horn beeped a couple of times and i grew confident.

I had a small errand to make at mohammad ali road (MAR) and thought now no problem, horn's working, here i go...

I reach MAR with the horn honking away and Murphy (from Murphy's law) decides to butt in... My horn dies in the thickest of human traffic... People of bombay will know the density of people at MAR. So an average drive time of 20min through the area took me around an hour and i guess i must have singlehandedly caused the biggest traffic jam of MAR ever!

Car's now safely parked and am traveling by cab everywhere till the horn's repaired.

Whatever people say about no honking, i have realized that you just cannot drive through a city without using one unless you have all the time in the world and don't care about dents on your car.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

[hvkumar]

Same here, I use horn minimally. But unless you use horn in crowded places, you may end up in jail, having knocked down someone who refused to look in your direction.

[ashthedivx]

Lovely Read !!

Though i had not gone through such incidence, but still it is actually very horrifying to think such state in Delhi's Mad traffic.

[condor]

@Tejas, commendable - if you can manage to do it. Check out this thread, where someone has actually done it :

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...rn-please.html (No horn please!)


p.s: Please start doing a search before you post - esp when starting a new thread.

[watashi75]

Driving without a horn is different from driving without using the horn. I have experienced it twice and I wish I never experience it again. It is like driving with non-functional brakes.

[K a s h]

Originally Posted by watashi75

Driving without a horn is different from driving without using the horn. I have experienced it twice and I wish I never experience it again. It is like driving with non-functional brakes.

The Horn and every bulb except the headlight in my yamaha packed its bags during the previous rains (must be a short circuit) and its really, really difficult even for a two wheeler in bangalore traffic. I realized how important this horn is on our roads. Without the horn, you simply become non-existent. I have always listened uncomfortably when all of my visitors, from Germany and US, in my office, complain about the constant honking in our roads.
Not anymore! it is simply impossible in our roads without honking.

[Blur]

Driving without a horn in Mumbai. Dude, were you serious

Besides pedestrians who are likely to step into your path any moment, you especially need it to honk the auto/cab guy out of your way. You know how they love to occupy the rightmost lane, doing a merry 30/40 kph

[Peter]

Anyone else have similar experiences?[/quote]

Tejas,

Your one hell of a Gutsy guy to venture out on the Mumbai roads without a working horn ...I dont blame you in a way actually as you seem to never have experienced it before as I myself had a similar experience as my horn conked off and the experience was very much terrifying ,

I realised that one cannot drive in mumbai without blowing his Car horn , and no one gives a damn either if your horn is underated as well. I was literally abusing everyone on the road out there as no one seemed to care..I was so tired and frustrated that I took a U turn and parked my car in my company car park at Vikhroli and took the train home as I knew for myself that a much worse nightmare awaited at Dharavi area as I reside in Navi Mumbai and didint have the energy to fight it.

So guys please think twice before venturing out on the Mumbai roads without a working horn.

Peter.

[raja748]

Originally Posted by Peter

Anyone else have similar experiences?

Tejas,

Your one hell of a Gutsy guy to venture out on the Mumbai roads without a working horn ...I dont blame you in a way actually as you seem to never have experienced it before as I myself had a similar experience as my horn conked off and the experience was very much terrifying ,

I realised that one cannot drive in mumbai without blowing his Car horn , and no one gives a damn either if your horn is underated as well. I was literally abusing everyone on the road out there as no one seemed to care..I was so tired and frustrated that I took a U turn and parked my car in my company car park at Vikhroli and took the train home as I knew for myself that a much worse nightmare awaited at Dharavi area as I reside in Navi Mumbai and didint have the energy to fight it.

So guys please think twice before venturing out on the Mumbai roads without a working horn.

Peter.[/quote]

It is righfully said that "horn is the ONLY safety feature in a car when you are driving on Indian roads."