NO "HORN PLEASE"

“beeeepppp .. beeeeepppp”… “poooommm poooommmm” …. “tring tring tring tring”…. These are the sounds which one can never miss out when the light turns green in a traffic signal.

Recently I have been travelling to office by two wheeler and have been experiencing this scene in all the signals without an exception.
Even if the person is say about 100 mts from the signal, the second the green lights are on… he starts blaring his horn expecting ALL the vehicles in front of him to magically disappear. It’s not JUST one person, unfortunately almost everyone waiting in the signal seem to do this thereby making the traffic signal junction the most noisy place.

Even though they know that unless the traffic in the front moves the person in front will not be able to move, they have to keep honking until they see some kind of momentum in the vehicle in front of them. The slower the momentum higher the decibel of the horn.

Often makes me wonder if the boards “SOUND HORN” or “HORN PLEASE” on the rear of the Heavy vehicles have been misinterpreted or they have been happily been extended to all vehicles including bi cycles. ( wonder how people expect the people on bicycle to ride them at JET speed)

Do we fail to realize that no one wants to stand in the middle of the road on a HOT sunny morning (or for that matter at any time) and that the other person is as eager as we are to reach the destination at the earliest? Can we not be a little patient and wait for the few seconds till the traffic eases a little?

This scene is not just when stationed for signal. There are many people who just keep honking through their way without showing any kind of consideration for the fellow commuters. A classic example of this would be our cab driver and call taxis. The minute there is continuous car honking without even a glance at the rear view mirror once can be sure it would be “YELLOW BOARD” vehicle behind.

Is there a Major problem?? Are these people hallucinating that they are all driving an ambulance or they are part of a VIP convoy???

Am not saying we should totally abstain from using the HORN. The horn should only indicate the other person of some danger to you or to other people. Lets not use it to clear the traffic ahead of us to make way.

Let us all make a conscious effort in minimizing the use of the HORN.. If we drive with more caution and more concern for the fellow commuters am sure we will realize that we had been using the horn MORE than it was necessary.

Let us take the 1st step by trying a ONE No horn day. If we think we can still be unhurt by this we should continue this and also insist our friends do the same.

Marching Towards a less noisy Chennai