[Fx14]

Another one of selective rules being implemented to catch us unawares and collect fines.

One will have to start maintaining some kind of reminders of days / hours, when you can honk or not.


https://www.hindustantimes.com/citie...018745102.html

[AJ56]

If motorists are to be fined for using an emergency device like a horn, then will the authorities take responsibility when said law results in an actual accident? Specially in this country where most road users do not pay attention to dipping beams, and what about animals?

[windrider]

Unbelievable. If only the officials showed half as much interest in closing potholes and fixing road signs and markers. It has been mentioned that a driver/rider will be penalized if they honk for no good reason. How exactly are they going to decide if I had a valid reason or not? These kinds of rules would only work in places where road users and pedestrians strictly obey traffic rules. India is not such a place. There are just way too many people, vehicles, rickshaws, bullockcarts and stray animals roaming around on our roads to implement this rule. This just looks like another way for the govt to collect funds and for policemen to collect bribes.

[SS-Traveller]

Notified 24x7x365 No Honking zones (such as near hospitals) are acceptable, but to put a citywide blanket ban on honking for just one day a week is downright ludicrous. And when the police plan to penalise motorists caught honking without any reason, who might be the judge of criteria of what constitutes a 'reason for honking'?

[Dry Ice]

We have been hearing this for quite sometime now - check out this thread started in 2008 https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ays-india.html (No-Honking days in India)

I wonder what the motivations are to plan and execute initiatives like these?

[pkulkarni.2106]

Well, I wouldn't remember if a particular day is a no-honk day, for sure!
I fail to understand why would anyone want an entire city to be the no-honk zone for a day.
What if you notice a distracted driver, where honking would avert an accident, but it's a no honking day? Would you rather let the accident happen than pay some fine?

Looks like they're more interested in penalizing the motorist than they care for the pollution.

[Javelin]

IMO there is too much needless honking in our country, similar is the case of unnecessarily using high beam.

Whenever i am abroad, the peace of no one honking, everyone maintaining lanes, following traffic rules etc makes commuting such an enjoyable experience.

Rather than selective slapping of fines and confusing the common man. The changes required are more at the grass root level.

Will it require something like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ? My point being everyone was aware about keeping their surroundings clean, we learnt that in our first Moral Science/ Social Studies class, still it required such a big campaign to instill the cleanliness lesson.

What i am hoping for may not materialize in next 10 years. However, i sincerely expect us to get educated on traffic courtesy. The long term solution lies with
1. Educating our children on such issues.
2. School curriculum - inclusion of Road Safety related issues.
3. Provided there is clarity in rules and no misuse. I hate to say but “Bamboo Works”. Only after curbs on needless honking, we can expect drivers to behave.

Hope we don’t have to experience another nationwide campaign on something as basic as “How to Drive your Car”?

[am1m]

It's a start! I think the aim is to gradually make people realize that there is no need to honk, and that is much needed. I can understand on the highways where a honk is needed to save lives and avoid accidents. But in ridiculously slow city speeds like Bangalore, I can say that 90% (if not more) honking is just out of impatience, get out of my way types. And it's worse in smaller towns! Most of it is ignored anyway, since honking has become so commonplace. Just slow down, or wait and be patient! At least two generations of Indian drivers have grown up thinking that hoking is ok, and the default mode- when it's not. Forget countries with less traffic, I've seen other SE Asian nations that have as bad traffic as ours, where people just don't honk. In fact I work on and off out of a smaller state sometimes where drivers just don't honk as much as I'm used to in Bangalore or other cities. And 9 times out of 10 when I hear some car honking behind me, I look and see it's a Bangalore or Mumbai registered vehicle, rarely a local one! We just do it without thinking.

Honking doesn't move traffic along any faster, just adds another irritant to the already stressful experience that driving in our cities has become. While I doubt this particular initiative will do much to change the mindset, I hope it's a start. Just try consciously not using the horn for a day or two and see if it makes a difference to your travel time or accident risk in city traffic.

[Amrik Singh]

If successful, though highly improbable, I wish every day to be Wednesday.
India is a country, where if you don't Honk, while others feel - you must !!! Others will Honk to remind you to Honk.
I sometimes wonder, if Horn Switch is somehow linked to Accelerator Pedal - The moment you want to accelerate, you must press Horn, instead of Accelerator.

[alpha1]

Boy, it would be some scene to be present near the Local train stations during the office hours on Wednesdays!

Noble intent, but utterly impractical and subjective in terms of deciding whether your honking was necessary or not, when you are "caught".

As other's have pointed out - we would prefer if the authorities own responsibilities of their own work - like road work, metro road closures etc. and provide a smooth functioning road infra (including rational traffic lighting) before coming up with such utopian measures.

[V.Narayan]

When Government departments and elected officials lack the resources or IQ or common sense or all of the above to implement solutions for the country's real problems they devote their energy and mindspace to trivial pursuits such as renaming roads, renaming cities, announcing no honking days, banging thalis, and so on.

[Javelin]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Noble intent, but utterly impractical and subjective in terms of deciding whether your honking was necessary or not, when you are "caught".

As other's have pointed out - we would prefer if the authorities own responsibilities of their own work - like road work, metro road closures etc. and provide a smooth functioning road infra (including rational traffic lighting) before coming up with such utopian measures.

Noble intent for sure.
And I totally agree getting caught while honking- and to determine if it was required at that moment or not is tough.

Yes, road infra is not upto the mark at majority of places. However, poor road infra is no excuse for mindless honking. I understand that there are times when honking is inevitable, but other 95% of the time its pure nonsense / nuisance.

Till the time we don’t accept there is something wrong. There is no way to move forward.
Thinking about the road manners, we grew up reading behind the trucks- Blow Horn. Horn Ok Please. So on and so forth.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea that as the largest motoring community in India, we do our bit. May be Team-Bhp stickers behind our car discouraging mindless honking will be a small step towards peaceful roads.
Peace

[PPS]

Just received a Rs 1,000/- challan for unnecessary honking. This happened below Love Grove Flyover, Worli. Surprisingly, there was no traffic at the signal today & people were crossing the road. Hence, my driver was forced to honk. There were 2-3 cops standing at the signal & they could clearly see this. But it seems they signaled to their colleagues at the cctv desk & an e-challan was promptly issued within 10mins on my mobile! Have raised a grievance, don't see much hope though.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by PPS

Surprisingly, there was no traffic at the signal today & people were crossing the road. Hence, my driver was forced to honk.

Was there was no possibility of him waiting patiently for them to cross safely? Would that have delayed the journey by a lot?

I think a lot of us have just gotten into the default-honk mode for any potential obstruction (or what we think are obstructions). I think overall, it doesn't help make the journey in city traffic any quicker.

But I agree, the cops will go after the soft targets first. Hope they show this much zeal booking the local cab, bus and auto guys who honk a lot too.

[Cyborg]

The concept of a no honking or unnecessary honking day in Mumbai is as stupid as saying fish can fly. Another impractical and ridiculous so called rule.

There is a complete lack of discipline and zero traffic sense with most of the pedestrians and vehicles who walk/drive/ride without looking and don’t even listen or move after repeated honking, what is a car owner to do? Ram them?

Cheers