[Bh.P]

I still see quite a few cars sporting sun films despite the ban last year. Sun films are one thing that they can easily spot with a naked eye and enforce the law. When that is not done, I wonder how they will really enforce a law of this sort, where they have to catch a person with a loud horn, and prove that the horn is louder than the allowed decibel level. It may become more of a nuisance for law abiding motorists, who will get stopped at the whims and fancies of the cop and be put to hardship.

Also, I do not think individual horns is a major problem (though zero honking would be an ideal scenario that most would like). The problem is more to do with many people honking at the same time, at the same place, making the noise unbearable. Only individual driver discipline would help in this case.

I still fail to understand why people honk at a signal the second the light turns green, or a few seconds before that!

Anyway, with a City in my garage, I don't think I will have difficulty proving it's horn is not harsh.

[swiftnfurious]

Why do I feel they are NOT attacking the right problems in the first place? And they keep devising new methods to give more opportunity (for some of the cops) to fleece an aam aadmi!!

1. Is there a clarification of the acceptable DB levels to be used?
2. Is there a directive as to what device will be used to find a violator?

If there are no clarifications to these points, then they should NOT start this drive.

Again, if they first do a drive for implementing lane discipline, cut rash driving and obey traffic signals & rules, enforcing proper accident damage ownership, I do NOT think we require a ban on these things. And the benefits will be much more with one exception - lesser revenue to the RTO / government. But I guess the agenda of the government is to make as much money as they can, in spite of the huge gains from the road tax! Infact, if they impose heavy fines on the above mentioned points, they can recover more money and also correct the behavior of motorists too.

I for one, have 2 horns - OE Swift & Twin tones from Hella with a melody maker attached to it. And I do NOT know why a musical horn (if it's the one driven by a melody maker) needs to be banned if the horns adhere to the DB levels. I honk in the city if some ricks / 2 wheelers come alarmingly close to my car / attempting to cut me off. And ONLY loud horns deter these morons from attempting these, which otherwise probably will end up me paying for the damages caused by them.

[alpha1]

Why don't they catch hold of the dealers selling high dB irritating tone horns?

[samarth.bhatia]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Why don't they catch hold of the dealers selling high dB irritating tone horns?

The dealers exist because the demand exists. As the cops start catching the offenders, the demand will reduce on its own - and so will the supply (read the dealers). Similar to the tinted glasses law.

There are a couple of points:

1. A similar traffic rule has been in place in Delhi since las 4 to 5 years or so. All trucks/buses/cabs etc need to have a "city horn" in place, and if they use a pressure horn/air horn within Delhi Municipal limits they are fined heavily. And this has been very effective. Even the UP/Haryana/Rajasthan Roadways interstate buses that pass through Delhi follow this rule.

2. A very valid point of the limited clarity in this notice has been raised by some of the members. Since it is a Supreme Court notice that BTP has essentially passed on, most likely the data for dB levels etc may be available in the original Supreme Court document.

3. Implementation is the key, and undoubtedly the main target of these anti-noise laws is the reduce usage of air/pressure horns used by interstate trucks & buses. Once they are tackled, a major part of the problem will be solved.

4. Single horns are not always the original fitment - most VWs come fitted with twin horns, as do all premium segment Mercs, BMWs, Audis, etc. So this point in the notice might be flawed.

A welcome move, nonetheless. Take it from somebody who has seen the overall traffic noise in Delhi go down.

Cheers,
Sam

[interest]

I wonder how difficult it would be to nip this problem in the bud. The RTO should figure out and let it be known that what is the acceptable db range for horns. The government should then allow manufacturing of horns only if they adhere to this range (I am sure you have to go through checks such as excise/ VAT etc where government can monitor if horns outside the db range are being manufactured). Similar controls can be exercised for imported horns. Afterall dont we regulate/monitor manufacture of so many products (alcohol, medicines, fireworks)

[fusionbang]

IMHO this is not a great step taken by BTP, as it becomes difficult for owners who have cars like VW which comes with a dual tone horn where they have to pay fines for nothing.

Also I feel dual tone horns are better while travelling in outskirts of city and highways, as it will be very useful when you have to honk at people crossing roads without sense of vehicle coming there way at high speeds.

And as swiftnfurious mentioned the BTP should have a better tracking system which will allow them to identify the genuine rule breakers.

Sorry for going O/T. Also in case of tints, there is no device which can track the percentage of transparency in the windows which is a must, as there might be scenarios where people use transparent/less % tints to protect themselves from sun light, but unfortunately end up paying fines.

Will have to wait and see what additional rules come into picture in near future.

[Seshadri75]

Just for this and due to lack of time (I came back from vacation and notice this Bangalore-specific rule only now) I do not want to run to a garage or service centre!

Anyone knows any DIY (“Do it yourself”) steps for deactivating the reverse horn in Santro Xing?

I do not recollect why I had ever put it (2007), probably thought that others watching me taking reverse may be alerted, but the fact remains that as the driver you would not reverse until you are absolutely sure you are not hitting a pedestrian or any living thing, with or without that reverse horn!

“Can’t you hear?” arguments after hitting someone, front or reverse, never won any battle (I did not hit, just hypothesizing)! People may or may not register that they heard something. Or, they may hear many honks at the same time and would not be sure which one was for him / her and so on.

Even on the highways when I put a brief honk while overtaking, I just assume that the other driver heard me and get some kind of pseudo confidence at best. I still know it was useless.

Last one year or so I have been driving a Vento, and I am lucky. No, it is not because it has a loud horn, rather I find the honk-pad on the steering very hard and it would actually make my thumb pain if I used it for a week or so. Transitioning from Santro, which has a very light and easy-to-tap honk-pad, this was a blessing in disguise. I have cut down honking almost to zero, under any circumstance.

Every time I still rarely end up honking, by the time I honked and the intended object (pedestrian, cyclist, another car etc.) had registered the fact that I honked, I have had put the brakes already, or manoeuvred in a way already that the objective of the honk was rendered useless. I only created that base of an anticipated argument “Can’t you hear?” and nothing more.

I am of the opinion that horns for cars were a bad invention; forgive me for this sweeping statement!

Even if you disagreed, kindly share DIY for deactivating the reverse horn for Santro, should you have any link, and I would appreciate it very much.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Seshadri75

Even if you disagreed, kindly share DIY for deactivating the reverse horn for Santro, should you have any link, and I would appreciate it very much.

Slot into reverse, find the source of the sound. You will end up finding the siren. Cut the wire off and tape it.

However if it is the same siren as the security system, then program the system to disable the reverse siren.

[tpsantu]

Originally Posted by vinjosep

Wonderful! What's next? BTP have got their priorities all wrong and mixed up.

Personally I would rather do without horns. I have driven for more than 80K kms outside India and during those drives have had to use the horn less than 4 times, all thanks to the general lane discipline being followed. But back in Bangalore/India not having a decently loud horn is near to suicidal. I have lost count of the times when someone pops up from nowhere warranting the use of a horn.

BTP should concentrate on introducing lane discipline first - the single biggest contributor for our traffic jjams and thereby the resulting sound pollution.

Every single day I observe on the Hosur road slow moving trucks/ pickups/ what not driving on the right most lane. Result? Others trying to hog the space on the other lanes and at times zig zagging... and all this adds to inumerable usage of the horn. NICE road is another typical example where the lack of lane discipline contributing to chaos/ jams/ slow traffic is glaringly obvious. </rant>

Couldn't agree more with you. One of the major problems to tackle in Bangalore specially, Hosur road and ORR is lane discipline. And personally for me the BMTC buses pyling on these roads are the biggest nightmare. I always try to stay atleast a lane away from then. They are the most unpredictable and the worst violators of lane discipline.

Sometimes there are slow moving BMTC buses on the right most lane of the elevated highway as well.

[soumobakshi]

Agreed that Honking is a nuisance, but this being prioritized by BTP is not a solution to BLR Traffice woes. I have been observing that within City limits the most commonly occuring issue on why people honk is BMTC buses driving in the middle of the road or the right most lane. And when they stop at designated bus stops they will ensure that no other vehicle can cross him. Best Case in Point is the stretch near to Nimhans on Hosur Road and multiple places on Banerghatta Road where the stretch is not divided by a road divider. If Govt. and Police department can regulate and sensestize the BMTC drivers on basic and common road / traffice sense majority of the problems can or will be solved. Well Goods Carrier and Auto will still exist to create a menace, but that can be taken on another day.

[GeePee]

Hi All, Its nice that I notice myself slowly getting on to reply mode in team-bhp (till now mostly I was/am an ardent reader and a serious notes-maker from team-bhp website) Now in reply to this subject, first, great move by the BTP and appreciate their efforts in their attempts to make this a success. Its rather difficult or impossible in my opinion to check the usage of these shrill horns and their originating vehicles as most have opined on this site. A traffic policemen cannot jump at the on-coming vehicle the moment he senses a shrill horn. Shrill horns/honks are definitely trade mark of bad driving etiquette and honking considered outrightly rude across the world. Instead I would urge the BTP to work with the Pollution Control Board in taking the initiative directly to the manufacturers and dealers of these horns (honking devices) and make strict quality checks to see that the manufacturers stick the environmental norms defined under sound/noise pollution. If manufacturers of these devices are found to violate these norms, the penalty should be high. Only a strict law can take its course. Well, some of the prominent manufacturers like Bosch strictly adhere to environmental norms with such devices they manufacture. Also these devices should be made tweak proof so that any adjustments can be made externally. As most of the readers have pointed out, private heavy vehicles should be first checked - for example many rural districts identify the transport service provider by the kind of honking made by their approaching vehicles

[rjalihal]

Yet another ridiculous rule from the Supreme Court. It appears they are picking on the common man by making him more and more uncomfortable. Loud horns are needed in India, a country where drivers and pedestrians are as stubborn as ever. Why dont they first apply this rule to commercial vehicles and then clamp down on private vehicles. Just like that other foolish, no tint rule. They came down hard on private vehicles, when people continue to get molested in public vehicles and they continue to run on tints. It is pointless I feel.

Cheers!
Rohan

[NPV]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

People who are hell bent on using musical horns will just install another normal one and will probably use a switch to activate them whenever there are cops !

Frankly speaking, this one will be very difficult to implement. Besides even if there is a medium traffic it is difficult to find out which sound came from which vehicle

Implementing this will be difficult so why not just address the root cause - the availability of such horns in the market.
The manufacturers can be banned from making these horns and the retailers can be banned from importing/selling them and this can be done nationwide and will address this issue once and for all.

[jassi_jeeper]

I drive a Thar Di with a soft top. The noise of loud horns does filter into my cabin and bothers me a lot. I hope people themselves develop the honk only if absolutely necessary mindset.

[schakravarthy]

Wonder when dazzling headlights and high-beam driving will be penalized. IMO, it should have been the priority.