Among the many forms of pollution that affect our cities, we have noise pollution, often underestimated. It causes annoyance, depression, and hypertension, stress, hearing impairment, memory loss and panic attacks. It also leads to road accidents. Though riders become immune to the noise, the biological reaction to stress continues. One of the major causes of noise pollution is Unnecessary Honking while driving on roads.

The way the system works in India, Honking is a necessary evil. You have the most absent-minded, trustworthy and fatalistic pedestrians here: they just assume that the driver will stop. You need to honk. You also may need to honk to encourage the cow to stop admiring your car and cross the road. And then there are those who honk just to show their presence on road. The situation gets worst during traffic when some honks recklessly just to move the traffic. This clearly shows impatience and lack of awareness. There are some measures that could be taken to reduce unnecessary honking:

• The first and foremost thing is to spread awareness about noise pollution and honking because there are lot many who probably don’t think it as a problem. For the same NGO’s can be started who works specifically for the same. Posters should be put on roads and areas with schools and hospitals saying “no honking”. Once these people understand the long-term consequences of noise pollution, they’ll tend to reduce honking
• There should be strict rules against unnecessary honking. Fine should be charged by police on those are found guilty of unnecessary honking. This should be monitored using CCTV systems.
• A maximum dB limit should be set because there are lots of truck and heavy vehicles with loud horns which could be heard from half a mile away.
• The most important is to take driving lessons from a renowned driving school. They make sure that you learn all the driving laws and also aware you of the consequences of not following them.
• I think one of the ways is to make them feel that they are annoyed by your gestures like: If possible let them pass you, look them in the eye and ask — happy? Or just make a hand feature that says “fly and go”.
• Public service announcements on radio and TV channels using famous personalities. They are usually impactful and will help people understand that forming pollution is easy but resolving the impact is difficult.

Reference:

• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Honking

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