No Honk Challenge

Last year in April I wrote a post "Horn Not Okay Please", where I recommended noise pollution level in Delhi is too high, so we should honk less often. Last week one of my ex-colleagues argued that it is practically impossible to drive in Delhi without honking. Though I suggested

to honk less and not go down to zero but this brought up the thought to test how practical is it to drive in Delhi without Honking at all. Thus I took a "No Honk" challenge.

No Honk challenge means I will be driving to my office (23 Km one way) and back without reaching to that big button in the middle of my steering wheel. This means braving the traffic intensive areas like Badarpur and Kalindi Kunj among others. Do you think it is possible? Some say not possible at all while some other believed it is very much possible. Initially I thought of trying it for one day but later decided to extend it for 1 week. So the challenge started on last Thursday and I'll have to admit that the challenge started with a honk as soon as I started my car (damn this honking habit). But believe me I didn't even look at the horn for even once for the entire day after that. The next day was a bigger challenge I was subjected to the construction related diversions and also Kanwaria (Holy road trip on foot by Lord Shiva devotees) rush. But things till now have gone smoothly. I have driven close to 350 Km and in all have pressed my horn only 5 times. This include 2 times when I honked in parking lot when this guy standing in driveway refused to move and once when I started 10 minutes late but wanted to reach office 10 minutes early (did you read my post "Sure way to avoid traffic on the roads is to start early"). Now I know you would be wondering how many times I reached office late. Any guesses? I reached late to my office in total of 0 times.

I know there are some morons who will just honk because of no rhyme or reason. Some even take responsibility to invent some kind of music out of the noise (read that honking). But for more reasonable ones, I did an analysis for reason which force us to honk. In this No honk drive for a week I was frustrated, on some occasions. Lets talk about that guy who was the reason behind 2 of my 5 honks. In the evening when I reached parking lot, this guy was attending a call on his cellphone standing right in the middle of the driveway totally unaware of the risk he took over his life. God bless such idiots. Same is the case when someone stops in the middle of road, may be coz they wanna count the stars in day light.

A common reason we delhiets face is when the vehicle in lane next to you, overtakes wrongly, switches lanes and jumbles whole lane in order to win the race with an unknown vehicle. Having this bad habit of driving so that they block 2 lanes (or as I say driving in Opportunity Lane) gives them an opportunity to swerve across multiple lanes. I have one more classical case to frustrate drivers. People using a T-Junction as the bus stop and buses obliging them. What you don't believe this? Just see the picture.

So next time when you complain about so much of noise pollution on the roads just be sure that you are not being the reason to add some more. Following are some points I suggest to help Delhi fight this noise pollution.

• Be attentive when you are on the roads.
• Do not swerve across multiple lanes.
• Slow down and look for traffic before you merge in the road coming from a by-lane or street.
• Start early to get less frustrated.
• Don't be a speed monster behind the wheel.

I have lost the challenge but I have understood 1 thing how much unnecessary honking we all indulge in. But it would be unfair if I don't credit those guys who are considerate and genuinely honk less. My friend @hapharzd is one such guy who called me up and said how much he agrees with honking sensibly and he himself think twice before honking.

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Dont be a monster behind the Wheel

Friday night I was returning home from my office in my car and was stuck in a bad traffic maybe because if the evening rain. Hoooonnnnnnnk Poonnnn Hoooooooonnnnnnkkkkkkk and then Screeeech stopped a Hyundai Accent right behind my car. Honk Honk Honk Beep Beep Beep this guy was really impatient. I moved to the next lane, he found some space to slip in and Honk Honk Honk again. He kept honking speeding with full paddle to plug the gap and Honk again for the next car.

Now I would give him the benefit of doubt and assume he was carrying someone who needs immediate medical attention. But how many of such cases daily are really carrying a patient to the hospitals. I guess most of them are not. It’s only their Adernalin rush in more than 90% cases. Well have we ever thought about the negatives of it? Well let’s start with the amount of fuel you burn with this accelerate break accelerate break accelerate break. When we are using too much of that accelerator paddle mileage of your car actually decreases by as much as 25%. What! You are big shot and fuel prices don’t bother you much, remember fuel reserves are limited but I guess that also won’t bother you much. Okay your rash driving can prove dangerous for others. How dangerous? Well dangerous enough to kill someone. Kill a loved one, may be a son or a daughter or worse, the lone bread earner of a family. How does that affect you? Imprisonment could be one reason. But then yes you might have the connections at the top positions which could save you from the prison. But what if you get hurt? Can your connections ensure that you don’t? Do I need to go even further to count more evils of that rushing Adernalin. Just think once before you step on you Gas next time. Drive safe. Read more!

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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