Why the constant honking?
 

Just back from first visit to India.

Wondering why there is a constant, annoying honk, honk, honk from every driver on the road all the way to the Taj Mahal and back to Delhi? And in Delhi too, for that matter.

A lot of the foreigners I talked to remarked on the constant racket.

welcome to india. Blowing your horn indicates you are there, that you see the pothole, love life etc etc. The same goes for the art of switching the lights on, going on high beam or switching them off even at night.

As far as the noise goes, I think you don't notice after a while. This year my two year old was annoyed with the constant honking of our CCU public taxi he stuck his little fingers in the ear each time we sad 'taxi' :D The second day he enjoyed it. When we were back in MUC my older son commented that I never honk when driving. how boring.

Welcome to India, indeed. I have a sneaking suspicion that car horns in India are somehow wired to the gas pedal. It NEVER STOPS. The horns there drive me bonkers but as oliver2002 says, you start not hearing it after a while.

Pakistan is the same, but I was stunned when I went to Islamabad for the first time. There, honking the horn is prohibited, and people actually follow the law! I thought I had landed on some other planet that only looked like South Asia, but didn't sound like it. (Then we drove across to Rawalpindi and the honking came back :()

they have now started imposing fines for honking in delhi as well....i guess it will take time but i hope some good comes out of it....

We've noticed the same in China. On a private tour out of Shanghai, the driver would lean on the horn as we went through a village rather than slowing down.

My impression was that repairing the horn would be a higher priority than repairing the brakes. ;)

Funny you noticed it... the rental taxi we had in the 80s from our village was always keen on fixing the brakes and the horn. Everything else was far less important :)

@Keyser: how do you enforce the 'no horn' rule... I always wonder about that when seeing the various signs on that in Kolkata:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1012/...1b05fb7b08.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3575/...29b5b2ceb1.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/...4cc3cf55ed.jpghttp://images.ilovekolkata.in/storie...rn_kolkata.jpg

This one is neat: http://www.paryavaran.com/photo/noho...ource=activity

you get a fine for noise pollution if you are caught honking at traffic lights or near hospitals....i know a bunch of people who have got them....

Good. I hope the fine is significant enough to make drivers think twice before honking.

Have none of you ever been to Midtown Manhattan during rush hour? :confused:

I spent a week in Bangalore in May -- as far as I could tell, a horn honk means:

- Don't cut me off
- You just cut me off
- I am cutting you off
- You're in my lane
- I'm sharing your lane
- Watch out; don't walk in front of me
- I am happy
- I am sad
- Hi!
- I haven't honked in at least 20 seconds

Walking down the street listening to the horns is definitely part of immersing yourself in the experience of being there -- and prepares you for "crossing the street", which I did several times a day because the hotel was across Old Airport Road from the office building. Basically like playing Frogger, only with fewer lives. Fortunately the traffic, while very very heavy, goes relatively slowly and has some gaps, and the drivers are paying attention even if they don't look like they are, and generally avoid collisions...

:D

this is simply not possible....:p

Yes. The honking is a constant background noise, but I think the honks are mostly saying: "Hey. You. Guy crossing the street against the light, looking the wrong way. I'm bearing down on you in a truck." However, there may be a few that say: "I learnt to drive in Pakistan."

Some jeeps come with horns that beep intermittently (like a dying goose) as long as you hold the button down. So instead of one long beep, you hear the 10X more annoying small beeps.

But really, you have to use the horn because no one uses their mirrors. If they don't hear you honking, it means you're not there.

Come on, of course there is a lot of horn honking in India. Pretty much all the trucks have a sign on the back saying, "Horn OK Please". Which gives everyone permission, constantly.

I had a taxi driver in Kathmandu (where the honking is constant as well) and asked him about it. He was so surprised when told him we don't do that in America, that in fact it could result in a ticket.

"How does everybody near you know you're there??" he wondered.

I would say that people in the US don't use the horn enough. It's meant for signaling presence and should be used more.

Most of the time, the presence of a big ole steel and glass vehicle in the road is enough of a signal that its present.
I don't think there's a correlation between "horn cacophony" and low collision rates. (The opposite is true, I think).

that's also highway ettiquette in India (i use that term very very loosely) - if you are behind a truck on a single carriageway as many of our highways are, you honk to let him know you want to overtake, most will signal when its safe and let you pass..... a few pshychos will see this as an opportunity to pretend they are in the nascar truck event

well said....

"Horn OK Please"! :D