One of the most vexing experience of my life, just picture this. Waiting in standstill traffic with no place to budge, while the person behind you feels that honking continuously would magically change the signal to go, or create an exclusive path for the supreme entitled being that he/she is. Rules are not meant for them. They need to go somewhere ASAP, and feel that their destination is worth more than the scores of others around.
So, this post is for such people who feel that honking is the answer! You might be one of “them”, in which case you would either be in denial of being one and hence you need to pay more attention to this… or you agree with what I say and hence feel the need to share this post to other honkers out there (He he… this is more than a strategy for higher views! )
Ambivalence is like a prevalent theme across mankind (why man“kind” ? maybe later). We as a totality are strife with contradictions. And usually that’s what we celebrate and cherish. That’s probably what made us evolve to dominate the planet (Yea right! And see what’s become of it). I guess people still have the primal need to fight, dominate and get through. Even if we no longer fight for food, shelter as did our cavemen ancestors, we feel the need to dominate the random person on streets through those honking wars. But of course most people would be in denial of their own inherent honker nature.
Apparently people have creative ways to justify their own behavior and consider themselves misunderstood. So, I tried to get into those misunderstood shoes of those honkers… Trust me, I tried. Hear me out…
India’s population is ~1.3 Billion and we account for ~20% of world population despite accounting for ~2% of land area! Now tie this up with noise levels out on the road. If a quiet office has a decibel level of 50 db, the busy road is 80 db. Now it there are studies which show that 5 db (16.66%) is solely contributed by excessive honking. This is huge! So I hope you agree that honking is something of a problem. Now about the people who actually honk… The probability of encountering a bigger honker than you, is extremely high right? And two negatives make a positive? So honking at a honker is alright and this automatically excludes you from the category right? Killing a killer leaves the world with the same number of killers, but killing more than one killers and becoming a serial-killer-killer is like doing the world a favor right? Or maybe the louder you are, you can dim down those “other” idiots on the road?
In an ideal switch traffic signal which lasts for 111 s, assuming that that cars takes 7.77 s to cross the signal and bikes take 6.66 s, adding 2.22 s at alternate vehicles for a potential time lag for safety reasons we can estimate that 22 cars and 33 bikes could go through peacefully. However, there are additional 4 cars and 7 bikes after the signal has turned who decide that “hey, it turned red *JUST NOW*, and hence its ok to cross. The ends up taking ~14 s from vehicles from the other lane who are blocked and thus irritating them. This “irritation” has been proved to be a definite instigation for a person to turn into a honker with a statistical significance of 0.00001% (I escaped).
Now about those who decide not to put on the indicator when they make a sharp turn… I guess they have telepathic powers, and hence assume that the other commuters also have telepathic powers to know that just because they are in the further left side of the road, they still want to turn right suddenly at the signal? Unfortunately, most people DO NOT have telepathic powers!
Of course there are some who are eternally lost and confused and turn on the wrong indicator! Ah, I couldn’t find a justification for this except “some people just want to watch the world burn”, or “just plain vanilla stupid” or as Aristotle said “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness”. However, for practical reasons, I wish such behavior is monitored for a month before making the driving license permanent.
This summarizes some of my main on road concerns. I now realize that I should provide counter arguments, but I hope that the absurdity of these points bring those honkers to shame and starting tomorrow, everybody have an almost perfect road sense (99.99999% is fine)
People… chill out. Shift your focus from the horn to the brake maybe. Just for a bit. Patience… take a deep breath… Let them go when its their turn and your turn will definitely get yours. Let us try to be at peace and not just that, be a reason for someone else’s peace of mind too!
Note: Just because my other blogs are deep and full of symbolism, this blog is just about honkers, and NOT to be construed as an analogy for loud people who talk out of turn. The on-road situation should NOT be compared to any real life incidents just because life is a journey! :P
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| Just another view on Indian roads at peak hours |
So, this post is for such people who feel that honking is the answer! You might be one of “them”, in which case you would either be in denial of being one and hence you need to pay more attention to this… or you agree with what I say and hence feel the need to share this post to other honkers out there (He he… this is more than a strategy for higher views! )
Ambivalence is like a prevalent theme across mankind (why man“kind” ? maybe later). We as a totality are strife with contradictions. And usually that’s what we celebrate and cherish. That’s probably what made us evolve to dominate the planet (Yea right! And see what’s become of it). I guess people still have the primal need to fight, dominate and get through. Even if we no longer fight for food, shelter as did our cavemen ancestors, we feel the need to dominate the random person on streets through those honking wars. But of course most people would be in denial of their own inherent honker nature.
Apparently people have creative ways to justify their own behavior and consider themselves misunderstood. So, I tried to get into those misunderstood shoes of those honkers… Trust me, I tried. Hear me out…
India’s population is ~1.3 Billion and we account for ~20% of world population despite accounting for ~2% of land area! Now tie this up with noise levels out on the road. If a quiet office has a decibel level of 50 db, the busy road is 80 db. Now it there are studies which show that 5 db (16.66%) is solely contributed by excessive honking. This is huge! So I hope you agree that honking is something of a problem. Now about the people who actually honk… The probability of encountering a bigger honker than you, is extremely high right? And two negatives make a positive? So honking at a honker is alright and this automatically excludes you from the category right? Killing a killer leaves the world with the same number of killers, but killing more than one killers and becoming a serial-killer-killer is like doing the world a favor right? Or maybe the louder you are, you can dim down those “other” idiots on the road?
In an ideal switch traffic signal which lasts for 111 s, assuming that that cars takes 7.77 s to cross the signal and bikes take 6.66 s, adding 2.22 s at alternate vehicles for a potential time lag for safety reasons we can estimate that 22 cars and 33 bikes could go through peacefully. However, there are additional 4 cars and 7 bikes after the signal has turned who decide that “hey, it turned red *JUST NOW*, and hence its ok to cross. The ends up taking ~14 s from vehicles from the other lane who are blocked and thus irritating them. This “irritation” has been proved to be a definite instigation for a person to turn into a honker with a statistical significance of 0.00001% (I escaped).
Now about those who decide not to put on the indicator when they make a sharp turn… I guess they have telepathic powers, and hence assume that the other commuters also have telepathic powers to know that just because they are in the further left side of the road, they still want to turn right suddenly at the signal? Unfortunately, most people DO NOT have telepathic powers!
Of course there are some who are eternally lost and confused and turn on the wrong indicator! Ah, I couldn’t find a justification for this except “some people just want to watch the world burn”, or “just plain vanilla stupid” or as Aristotle said “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness”. However, for practical reasons, I wish such behavior is monitored for a month before making the driving license permanent.
This summarizes some of my main on road concerns. I now realize that I should provide counter arguments, but I hope that the absurdity of these points bring those honkers to shame and starting tomorrow, everybody have an almost perfect road sense (99.99999% is fine)
People… chill out. Shift your focus from the horn to the brake maybe. Just for a bit. Patience… take a deep breath… Let them go when its their turn and your turn will definitely get yours. Let us try to be at peace and not just that, be a reason for someone else’s peace of mind too!
Note: Just because my other blogs are deep and full of symbolism, this blog is just about honkers, and NOT to be construed as an analogy for loud people who talk out of turn. The on-road situation should NOT be compared to any real life incidents just because life is a journey! :P
