Horn Not Ok Please

The other day I was reading that Merc, BMW, Lexus and few more big automobile companies are planing some critical modifications in their cars। They are ging to do away with a few of unnecessary accessories used in the today's cars. This will not only reduce the cost of the cars but also provide some relief to th people which find all this jing bang an extra load. Okay let us now talk about the accessories they are planing to remove.

Brakes: Merc believes that the brakes are really not required in the cars
Accelrator: BMW is planing to remove the Accelerator pedal from their cars
Indicators: Lexus is in no mood to install either accelerator or the side indicators.

They all believe installing a simple horn can serve the purpose all these accessories। The base behind this theory is a study done by an agency RNL Enterprise. This study confirms that horn is used most out of all controls installed in the cars. If the car moving ahead of you slows down, you blow horn before you apply the brakes. People Want to cross the car moving ahead of them but even when allowed the space to zip past, they just go horn happy and keep waiting till the time car ahead pulls down the road leaving the entire road width for their perusal.

The other day I was reading the writeup of a fellow blogger who gave the figures of the sound pollution on the Delhi roads। According to his blog, while the permissible limit of the noise on the roads is 60 decibels, we experience the noise upto a level of 80 Decibel on quieter roads and upto 100 decibels on high traffic roads. It really hurts our ears. Delhi Traffic Police did observed No Honking day on the first day of this year and challaned 770 people on one single day. But still there is no taming of these honking monsters (Oh am I being to LOUD?). I guess Delhi Traffic Police should observe many more such No Honking Days (may be 300 days a year). People would definitely learn some discipline when they start paying out rupees 100 (that's the penalty for unnecessary honking in Delhi). Delhi Traffic Police will also have to allocate some budget towards the educating campaigns for the public. Consider using offline as well as online medium for advertising. Online could be a very cost effective medium. We should use radio also to spread the awareness about the honking disadvantages.

It really is not difficult to find people who honk every few seconds out of pure reflex. A century ago when Henry Ford attached the first Horn (a double trumpet attached to a rubber bulb) he was looking for an equipment to softly alert vehicles to make sure they don't swerve suddenly. Now I am not saying just throw the horn out of your car neither I am suggesting you to attach it with your car battery to give you a shock every time you try it. But use it when only when it is absolutely necessary. Believe me you will find a lot of chances to do that. But please have some mercy on t he people who are going deaf because of all that noise we make on the roads today.

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More buses, Carpools, Behaved Autos and strict enforcement will reduce traffic problems

Blame it on my laziness or the amount of workload I was dealing with. But yes, the promised post on the measures to reduce the load on roads is delayed. Anyways here it goes. To decrease the traffic on the Delhi roads, apart from raising the traffic penalties and the parking charges, I will suggest following measures also.

1. Increase the DTC bus fleet on the Delhi roads: For adventure's sake try to commute by DTC bus service just for one day. I am sure that you will have to wait at least 20-30 minutes before your bus arrives and then you will find it too crowded to make you put your idea to take bus aside. The current fleet of roughly 6400 buses (3600 New Low floor buses and 2800 old busses) is not sufficient for Delhi roads. The government will have to at least triple the busses to provide a service every 5-10 minutes. Also the buses should allow only a fixed number of passengers. A commuter is more likely to ditch his car/bike for the bus service if it does not keep him waiting and provides sufficient comfort.

2. Improve the other means of public transport: Nobody likes to be heckled by the Auto / Taxi drivers. The government will have to ensure that Auto drivers have enough discipline to a) Not to refuse the passenger without any reason b) Always go by the meter. I am sure people will stop taking there beloved cars out of their garage. Read more about the "Psyche Of A Delhi Auto Driver" in this blog by Maryann Taylor

3 Encourage Car pooling: This is one point that I guess has already been acted upon. Some days back I used to hear this radio advertisement which appeals you to car pool forgetting any differences if you might have with copassengers.

4. Ensure stricter implementations of law: There is an urgent need to see that whatever fines or penalties are decided (the current or the proposed hikes) are implemented strictly. There should not be a case where people know hey can get away by bribing a constable.

After writing all this I still believe that there is a scope to add few more suggestions here. I will be more than happy to see suggestion coming from you about the post.

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