[Thyag]

In my latest experience of driving nearly 3000 kilometers in 4 days (Chennai to Shirdi), my strong suggestion will be to use headlight flashing in night and very short honk for overtaking in highways during daytime.

Nowadays people are so much addicted to smartphones, media devices, etc; their senses are very very limited while driving. I have personally seen cab drivers, auto drivers, etc; having a smartphone in the front to watch serials, movies and all.

For overtaking a vehicle before flashing the headlights was sufficient, but not today. Also, heavy vehicle drivers used to get angry when you honk and they used to honk the hell out of you when you go in front of them. For me many times honking has got the attention and saved the day. When everybody is going to follow the rules - we all can stop honking, until that day - there is no other option.

This was taken from the dashcam 2 days back from the trip, Given the scenario what can be done, for me honking only helped - that too after honking and checking which truck will budge, the most comical thing is the left most truck gave way and I had to shift to that lane to make the pass .

[mmxylorider]

Car manufactures should install 1 horn inside the car close to the driver and make it tamper-proof. Every time you press the honk, both the external and internal horns should blow. Each time, every time. Let's see if that changes the behavior.

[shankar.balan]

This is just worth watching.
To get things into perspective.

https://youtu.be/DI7f4oFFAh0

[exhaustpipe]

I have wondered about this many times. Here are my two less quirky and one reasonable recommendations:

1. Implement a BMW like solution or TELSA, where they provide certain features in a car based on a subscription. 3 hours of horn usage in a month for 500 INR
2. All horns come with a static 60 minute usage per month.
3. Educate people about the health impacts of noise pollution.

[ToThePoint]

Horns are as much Bane as they are boon. In the utter chaos we survive in, horns are pretty much required; although the usage needs lot of discretion.

Hardly anybody has patience on our roads, everybody is in a hurry all the time.

What gets on my nerves is the constant honking as if telling someone to get out of their father's property. One honk is enough to alert if that's your intention, anything beyond is out of temper.

The only solution IMHO is what manufacturers are already implementing - Meek horns. But then people are so used to loud sounds that these are immediately changed in after market defeating the purpose!

[TSIched'Out]

Air pollution, Land pollution, Water pollution, Noise pollution, Population... We are creating new records everyday.

One simple remedy can be through legislation (just like BS6, ABS/Airbags as standard). Play a prompt every time horn pad/button is pressed. Something like "Unnecessary honking causes noise pollution. Please do not honk unless it is absolutely necessary" should get played through the speaker system overriding Radio/Bluetooth/AUX/Navigation/AndroidAuto/AppleCarPlay and irrespective of whether the system is on or not. This would be something similar to seat belt alarm or other voice/sound prompts that the vehicles sound in case if something is not right. Over a period, people will try to reduce the usage to avoid unnecessary nagging by the Vehicle.

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by Hayek

We should probably insist on horns being linked to fast tag - if you honk once, pay ₹50; honk twice in a minute, pay ₹500 and so on.

Don't give ideas to the luxury brands - they will start a subscription based honking service. The first 10 honks in a month will be free, then chargeable on a per usage basis

[iampulo]

Originally Posted by evil_grin

Here’s my suggestion.


That’s all. Make it need say 3x the current amount of pressure to press. Most people dislike putting in too much effort in most things in life. Just making horns harder to press will discourage people from using the horn. And we’ll have less honking. In emergency situations, you’ll still be willing to press it harder.

This can’t be started by one car manufacturer. Because the buyers won’t like it. And it might lead to a reduction of sales. There are only two ways to get it done:

1. The manufacturing companies team up to decide to make the horn harder to press together
2. The government passes regulation to force every manufacturing company to do so.

We’re doing a lot to reduce air pollution from cars. Let’s do the something for noise pollution.


Here are the existing threads related to this:
1 (The horn menace | Indians are honking way too much)
2 (No-Honking days in India)

That's really a good idea.
Here's my 2 cents:
1. I feel govt regulation on decibel levels should also be there.
2. Also, 2 wheelers retrofitting car horn and honking all the way should be penalised.

There should be a general awareness campaigns on the use of upper dipper light. Every guy on the road is always on a hurry and they flash dippers like it's emergency. For me, I would never understand who's really needy.

[Zippy_wheels]

The problem with honking should not be seen in isolation. It is interlinked with the other issues: -

1) The difficulty in claimimg third party insurance from opposite party, and the wastage of time when someone crashes into the vehicles plays a big part. We love our cars and our biggest nightmare is someone crashing or even just bumping into our cars and honking gives us the mental satisfaction that I did, whatever I could, to warn others of my presence.

2) People are always looking for an opportunity to overtake, its hard to even maintain a safe distance because someone else will slide in. We need broader roads with designated lanes for different classes of vehicles.

3) People talking on the phone and not paying attention need reminders.

4) In smaller towns and cities, people walk in the middle of the road and ignore if you honk just once. You have to ultimately sit on the horn for them to finally get irritated and move aside. If you just wait patiently for them to move aside then you'd rather walk and not drive.

5) We only get 30-60 seconds to cross a green light, if this time is taken up by vehicles from other sides, or people crossing, then there is the risk of you getting stuck.

Yes, quite a few times honking could be avoided, but people need to vent out at the stupidity and carelessness of fellow drivers, riders and pedestrians. And the only weapon they have is a horn.

Quite a few things need to be improved/changed before people start honking less. It is already better in some of the bigger cities since people have resigned themselves to crawling traffic and with 3 lane roads, traffic is, at times, a bit more organized.

Along with honking lessons, people need to be taught to give space to others too. There are so many different scenarios, sometimes we drive slow because we are distracted or not in the mood to drive fast, maybe our vehicles cant go fast enough, maybe we are going to stop after some time or are just looking for something along the road - we need to be considerate and move to the side to allow other vehicles to pass. I see so many vehicles driving in the right lane, at their own pace, and not allowing other vehicles to pass, even though there is a wide gap infront.

[SN88]

I call it muscle memory. Most people dont even know why they are honking!!

I have literally marked and noticed drivers chit chatting with fellow passengers and honking for absolutely no reason. I think we have passed the point of no return from this menace.

For someone who has lived in the middle east for a decade where honking is seen as a terrible insult, coming back to India and driving was infuriating for a few months.

[amalji]

Originally Posted by SN88

I call it muscle memory. Most people dont even know why they are honking!!

During my younger days ( more than 20 years back ), this was what was taught to me.

• Whenever you are about to approach a curve, Honk!
• Whenever you are about to overtake, Honk!
• Whenever the vehicle in front of you is slow to move, Honk!
• If a pedestrian is about to cross the road, Honk!
• If a driver is inexperienced and is struggling to manage the vehicle and that vehicle is obstructing your speeding, Keep Honking!

What this literally means is that you keep honking most of the time while driving. No wonder why it becomes a muscle memory.

Now, i have tried taking a conscious approach to not honk. The change in driving style i had to adopt for this kind of driving was to first analyse any road and then take a call as to what's the safe cruising speed on that road. It could be 20, 30, 50, 70 or 100 and then try and stick within that speed. The only thing is that I have to take into account the road condition, traffic and pedestrians and not the power and torque figures of my car when I make this judgement.

That way, the incentive to accelerate hard and then brake is gone. Trust me, the additional time you take to reach your destination by not accelerating hard and braking hard is negligible especially on traffic conditions where you feel like honking. You almost reach the destination around the same time.

These are the updated rules for honking for me.

• Whenever I approach a curve and feel like Honking, i take it as feedback that maybe I'm taking that curve at a speed more than what I should have been taking it at. The Honking is just allowing me to go at a speed which i shouldn't be taking in the first place.
• Avoid any overtake where i feel the need to honk before overtaking. This doesn't mean that i wouldn't honk if while overtaking i find a surprising change in direction from the other car. I would honk then.
• If a pedestrian is about to cross the road and I'm unable to anticipate and brake safely, i take it as a feedback that I'm over speeding on a road with reasonable number of pedestrian crossing probability.
• If a find a driver struggling, i have started to empathise with that person and give the person the time to get back. Honking worsens the process because the other person gets even more tensed.

Disclaimer: I would like to thank my wife for helping me think from other's perspectives rather than just through my perspective and the perspective of the power and torque figures of my car.

[RaceCyborg]

I've been a strong advocate for not honking ever since my early driving days. But it's truly a frustrating and depressing experience when literally everyone around you thinks otherwise. Like it literally drives me nuts .

Until not too long ago, I've made it a policy of mine to give way by any means to the driver who honks behind me incessantly for no reason. Once they go ahead of me, I start blaring my horn continuously at that person for some time before stopping . That actually seems to work much to my surprise but then I've decided to stop this habit because in the end, I am the one getting unnecessarily stressed out.

It's still depressing to be one of the very few ones that actually follow some semblance of road discipline. So much so, that I am actually thinking of quitting driving.

[Karaboudjan]

Excessive honking on our roads is a matter of shame for us.
I remember, a few years ago, Mumbai Police had started a No Honking campaign, whereby, if excessive honking was recorded at a traffic signal, the timer countdown of the red light was automatically increased, leading to longer wait times for the stopped vehicles. This was a wonderful initiative, but came with its drawbacks of the normally excessive noisy Indian streets.

Some of the ways we can reduce honking in India are:
1. Educate the younger generation. The first thing we use to attract the babies to a car or inside a car is to press the horn. We all have done it as a fun activity with our kids. It is time to stop this and educate them about the real requirements of a horn.
2. Ensure that we give feedback to cab aggregators if the drivers use the horn excessively. I remember in the early days on OLA/Uber how much the cab drivers used to use their horns. Over the years, I think this has reduced due to our feedback to them.
3. Car manufacturers should limit the number of times the horn can be used in a single drive or in a 24 hour period. This can be done by duration or times. Furthermore, this can be linked to the ADAS features of a car whereby the limited number of times can be overridden in case of emergency detected by the ADAS. Otherwise a manual override switch can be provided in a hard to reach location on the passenger side.

[Mustang Sammy]

Have tried numerous times to stop honking on the road, but have yet to make even one zero-honk trip, for the same reasons that other posters have listed:
1. To warn oblivious or uncaring drivers when they are about to change lanes into my car
2. People driving in between lanes
3. Two wheelers coming the wrong way up a narrow road
4. Pedestrians crossing wherever they like, while engrossed in their phones
5. People parked in locations that obstruct traffic: turns, construction areas, traffic lights. This is a pet peeve, as it shows a complete disregard for others, coupled with laziness on their part.

That said, as amalji has said above, we could all be more considerate of inexperienced drivers, truckers struggling with overloaded and underpowered vehicles, bicycles, pushcarts and the like.

[SLK_2005]

Unless there is basic traffic sense and everyone follows lane discipline, honking shouldn't be controlled and cannot be controlled as there will certainly be severe backlash. Driving in India is an adventure in itself. We can assure to drive correctly following all the rules by the book but we can't ensure that drivers in front of you and beside you do the same.