BENGALURU: City Traffic police’s re-launched campaign, ‘No Honking Monday’, seems to have little impact or no impact at all on Bengalureans. Twitterati on Monday made fun of a tweet on the @BlrCityTraffic handle which had a poster with the message, ‘How you wish when you honked your car could start flying. But it won’t. Please stop honking’, accompanied with a message saying people should avoiding honking as it was ‘No Honking Monday’.
The police, in association with an NGO, had launched this scheme earlier in 2012 and then relaunched it in 2016.
“If I don’t honk, people won’t give me way. That’s why I have a shrill horn,” said a motorist on Commercial Street, on Monday. When asked if he knew about ‘No Honking Monday’?, he cracked up replying, “What’s that?”
Over the years, several campaigns have been launched to stop motorists from honking. “People have not participated much and we have noticed only around 4 to 5 per cent reduction in noise levels,” said an official from Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.
Though traffic constables are sometimes seen stopping vehicles who are honking unnecessarily and educating motorists about the ‘No Honking Monday’, they claim there’s nothing much they can do about it. It’s all in the mindset, they say.
A traffic constable at an MG road junction said, “We’ve been directed to tell people not to honk on Mondays. What equipment do we have to measure the loudness of horns, or do anything about it?” he said.
Another motorist and a resident of Basavanagudi, Rajakrishna R, a private bank employee said, “Without educating the public about this, no campaign will work. Unfortunately, such campaigns will be reduced to posting on Twitter and Facebook.”
Meanwhile, M N Sreehari, a traffic expert said, “It is the mindset of people which needs to be changed. It is not like other countries where you just announce something and it is followed. Here, people need to be trained when they are young. It would be good if schools and colleges can take initiative to tell their wards about the ‘No honking Mondays’.”
Commenting on the failure of the initiative, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) P Harishekaran said: “I know it hasn’t picked up well, but we will conduct special drives to educate public about it. We will make sure it works.”