“Honk More Wait More” Policy

Do you also find irritating when you wait for the red signal to turn to yellow and then into green?
And you are totally surrounded by the noise pollution! To escape from this, Mumbai Police had come up with a new concept “The Pushing Signal”. On 31st January 2020, Mumbai Police shared a video on twitter, writing “honk not okay, please!” Individuals appreciated the initiative taken by the Mumbai Police.
Now the question arises what it is actually and how does it works?
Below the traffic signal, the decibel meter will be placed, if the honking goes over 85dB then the traffic signal’s timings will be reset. Most probably a 90 seconds red light is there in the traffic signal, now if the honking goes beyond 85dB then the red light will be set to 90 seconds. Mumbai Police had implemented for a day, if the experiment will be successful then it will be applied in the whole city.
Bengaluru Police was also deciding to inculcate this Policy in their city.
Though beeping is not as serious a problem in Bengaluru as in Mumbai, to introduce road discipline, we are planning to execute the system at major traffic junctions - said by city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao, speaking on plans for Bengaluru.
He had spoken to Mumbai joint commissioner (traffic) Madhukar Pandey on this. He took details regarding the systems and vendors. Further he said, he will ask the joint commissioner of traffic police in Bengaluru to identify major junctions where honking is most reported.
Does Bengaluru even have that much honking? This video being shared on social media is good for extending the message, but it is not a long-term solution to the problem. They definitely need to create awareness regarding honking less, but she does not think this would be feasible to carry out across the city, said by Ashwathy Dilip to TNM who works with ITDP (Institute for Transportation and Development Policy).

By: Suvarna Gupta