In the past few years, the automobile enthusiast within me has moulded into an automobile thinker. The enthusiastic nature has matured and I can see things more practically now. One thing that has often perturbed me is the over-use, rather, frantic use of automobile horns in India.
Horns have evolved over the time and have become louder
Before getting into the details, I think we all know the reason behind the existence of horns. They are an extension of the 'tring-tring' bells that were earlier used on cycles and carts. Intensity of bells grew as mobility got quicker and bells were transformed into horns, so that a motorist can be heard.
Heard - by whom? (Primary reason why horns were made)
1 - Fellow motorists
2 - Pedestrians
3 - Other road users
Yes, the reason behind making horns was to signal road-users about a speeding automobile. But that same reason is now being exploited, to an extent that it has become a medium to express anger. Horns, that if used sensibly can also prevent major accidents. On the contrary, I have seen unnecessary use of loud horns being the reason for some mishaps as well.
Our country adds over 18 lakh new passenger vehicles every year, the number of two wheelers is even large and we can not count how many new rickshaws, pedestrians and cycles greet our roads for the very first time every year. If thoughtfully seen, with the density of traffic in India, the need for judicial use of automotive horns is most needed here.
However, it is almost impossible to teach millions of Indian road users on the effective use of horn (wondering what is effective use of horn? Will be writing later in a post), in the same way in which it was once impossible to teach millions of people on the benefits of using seat-belts and helmets. Can technology come to our rescue then? Can we be a country with controlled level of automobile noise-pollution and road rage? We shall soon have a solution in the following posts.
