Unhonking India

AG: Shared a ride to Mumbai on Friday. Brainwashed Niket, my host from bla bla car, to totally avoid honking. Tips to do that. Whenever you feel like honking, use the brake. Another, maintain distance between you and the vehicle in front. This practice will result in reduced blood pressure, fewer accidents, and a great environment. Change happens, one person at a time. Hope I can convince Sumeet about trying this tomorrow…

SP: Atul, I do not honk anyway. I also try to tell people that it is useless and just can’t clear the road for them

AG: Cool.. Hat’s off to you. Please try to convince some one in the family to follow in your foot steps

AA: I tried, but others did not allow me to stop the honking.

AJ: Atul I have been hearing this on FM daily. I do try to keep distance from the front car but that enables the left car to cut lane and overtake me thus reducing the gap. Honking is reducing slowly on Pune streets

AJ1: AA the subject should read – Don’t be horny!

AG: Ajay.. Vandana will not be happy with the subject change..

AJ1: He he. my son was pretty amused when he saw that sign all over Pune. He asked. Don’t they know children are reading that!

AG: Ananta.. Try the experiment again tomorrow.. If you are conscious of something then you do it.. Am trying that strategy for reducing my slouch..

VS: It has become today’s fashion… One who obeys traffic signal rules & stops sincerely when sees red light…the vehicle behind gets impatient & starts HONKING… making the person who follows signal to break it… IT IS TIME TO STOP people MONKEYING & DONKEYING this way. Let is also follow traffic rules, avoiding jumping signals, honoring stop line….

UD: Last four years I have not honked. My wife keeps shouting……. Arey tya gadhavalaa horn de

BO: It’s become a daily ritual. It’s beyond our imagination. So I try to keep my nerves but atleast 5% of the time end up losing.  The attitude of people is not changing.

UD: I have decided….. I can change mine. … ‘attitude’

AG: Bharat.. It’s like meditation.. You need to change the state of mind.. Very soon you even forget the presence of a horn..

AJ2: Singapore … there is no honking … reading throo … I realize I don’t honk in Pune too .. Simply by following what Atul G has said ..

PAT‬: Just a thought… Like in smartphone we keep mute & vibration ON… Can we have such system on vehicles… After all humans(men/women) enjoy all types of VIBRATIONS

AG: Parag new slogan don’t be horny use vibrator..

MA: Honking…one more idea, keep your favorite music handy. If you are stuck in bad traffic, trust me – the guys in front of you are as desperate to get out of it as you are. One hand on the horn doesn’t help anyone.

NK. Great idea. See this story:

http://www.thebetterindia.com/41380/no-honking-man-of-india-ravi-kalra-delhi/

PR: Its very simple not to honk. I almost never honk despite being an avid road tripper and always happy to hit the road. But think we as a nation have a long way to go. Some cities like Delhi have significantly improved on this aspect tho.

AG: Lovely article nandu. I thought of doing something similar myself.. But I am still piloting stuff. One interesting idea which was given by a student. If we adopt a practice of coming to a dead stop before joining a main road, then honking reduces..

AS‬: I love the idea for city driving .. Would certainly reduce blood pressure and anxiety .. Just not sure about highway driving where still in rural area/towns ppl stroll across highway sub consciously  .. Had to do a polite honk while driving through such places as it felt uncomfortable being at 100+ and seeing ppl strolling

AG2: Sorry but honking isn’t the biggest problem on the roads today. Over time you learn to tune it out. I worry a lot more about wrong side driving which one say I suspect may be the end of me. Absolutely nothing one can do if a vehicle comes and Rams me the wrong way too

NK: I think we should start something like what Mr Kalra is doing in Delhi. There is an organisation called Save Pune Traffic Movement  (SPTM) We can rope them in. Personally I NEVER honk

AG2: Cops absolutely do not take it seriously. In Pune I have seen them direct traffic coming the wrong way as casually as if it was perfectly acceptable. NEVER honking is silly. Sometimes you need to

AG: Bravo ashish and anoop . Ashish I think honking is a more urban than rural problem.. So would worry more about what we do in cities. Anoop as someone who cycles often on the wrong side of the road. I stand guilty.. But walking on the wrong side is a survival strategy which we should teach our kids.

AG2: Cycling is ok. But you need to worry about getting hit from behind. Walking on “wrong” side is actually the correct thing to do no?