Happy New EAR! 'Horn less and Hear more' campaign

“I have been taught in driving schools to use horns as much as possible” says a well qualified manager.

“My supervisor has clearly told me to honk continuously in front of employee's home to ensure that he comes out fast” says many BPO cab drivers.

“My parents have told me to honk at every junction irrespective of vehicle movement” says another college going girl using a moped in the residential area.

These are some of the reactions I have heard from vehicle drivers when I ask them as to why they honk so much? I have often seen bus and cab drivers using ‘horns’ to greet their fellow drivers on the road.

In India, there is an immediate need to discipline the vehicle drivers on the use of ‘horns’. With the increase in vehicle population the noise pollution has become a major threat in the urban and semi turban areas, and ‘honking’ contributes to this pollution to a great extent. Some State Governments are thinking of enforcing strict laws banning unnecessary use of horns. But I think legal route is not the right solution or approach at this stage as the root cause seems to be in the understanding the ‘use of horns’. Dictionary meaning says 'horn is a device in a vehicle that produces loud noise in case of automotive emergencies ’ I am not sure if our drivers have understood that horn is only for giving out warning signal in case of emergencies on the road.

In our efforts in training over 20,000 drivers, both professional as well as individual, all over India, we are convinced that the ‘mind set’ about ‘horn’ itself is wrong in drivers of all categories. In fact RTOs (Regional Transport Offices), in the past, used to indirectly encourage honking as a safe measure and we find most of our truck still displaying ‘Please sound horn’ board on their rear bumpers! This was perhaps at a time when vehicles had ‘air horns’ where with the best of their efforts, drivers used to just manage to reach the sound of their horn to the driver in the next vehicle. Now with the advent of electric horns the sound level often exceeds 110 decibel level and thus has become a major pollutant.

But the culture of ‘honk as much as possible’ has percolated well into a mindset of all drivers in India. The best way to change this mind set is to start creating awareness on all ill effects of honking. Vehicle drivers need to understand that noise causes increase in blood pressure, imbalance in mind, increase in stress etc. They should also understand that it is possible to drive on Indian roads with very less/no honking. In our training we define good driver as one who can drive without honking and many of our trained drivers have tried this with success. We should also bring in consciousness about honking amongst all drivers.

Couple of years back, I wanted to bring in consciousness in me about use of horn and I developed a special technique. I decided to put 'One Rupee' into a hundi in my car every time I use the electric horn and money collected thus would be deposited in a temple. Many a times honking was inevitable due to contingencies but this habit brought in a clear consciousness in me about honking. In fact this has made me more reflective while driving and my driving skills have improved enormously. Many a times my friends/relatives who travel with me in my car are quick to express their thrill in seeing ‘what-they-could not- believe-sometime-ago’, ‘no- horn’ driving!

Let us be all be part of ‘Horn less and hear more’ campaign and be successful in making 2009 as ‘HAPPY NEW EAR!!!