Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

atlasobscura.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 378 posts

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#111

Post by brirec »

amalcon wrote: post #90
technothrasher wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me, the horn is a warning sign Here in Massachusetts, it seems the horn has only three functions. The first, a quick "beep beep" signals that you recognize another driver or pedestrian and are saying hello. The second, a one to three second beep means that the traffic light has switched to green and car in front of you has not begun moving within 20ms. And the third, a five to sixty second "beeeeeeeeep" means t…

Worth noting that a "mistake" in Massachusetts includes not just things that are dangerous, but also such grave misconduct as stopping for a yellow light, going at only the speed limit, or riding a bicycle.

There’s something about being a motor vehicle driver that just makes bicycle riders very bad people

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#112

Post by PretzelPirate »

rootsudo wrote: post #107
sdfjkl wrote: post #85

Different cultures have different unwritten behaviours on roads. In the mountains of Italy, drivers give a short honk before entering a turn on a serpentine road, which usually can't be seen around. If there is no responding honk, they will take the full width of the road (making the very tight turn easier and faster). Tourist drivers have to pick up on this :) In much of Europe oncoming cars flash their lights to wa…

The same applies in southeast Asia/China/Japan, for both. It isn't exactly ubiquitous just in Europe. Not in USA though.

Other than trucks blinking left or right, all of these are pretty common in the US.

As someone who grew up in a rural area, honking before going around turns on small roads or crossing single-lane bridges you couldn’t see the other side of was something we did regularly to avoid being hit.

I don’t experience this as much in larger cities though.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#113

Post by Etheryte »

thrwyoilarticle wrote: post #84
Etheryte wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experienced confusion about this when I travelled to Indonesia some years ago, but a local taxi driver made it easy to understand: "What's in front of you is your responsibility." It's an unwritten local driving rule and once you know it, the local traffic is considerably easier to grok. No one looks behind them because everyone's agreed that they only worry about things in front of them. If you want to pass a car…

Grokked or not, there are more road fatalities.

More or less is relative. In 2019, Indonesia had 15.3 road deaths per 100.000 inhabitants per year [0]. For context, Norway had 2.0, United States had 12.4, and Liberia (the worst on the list) had 35.9, to pick a few random data points. While I definitely agree that the traffic in Indonesia is chaotic and that can lead to more accidents, that doesn't tell the whole story.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#114

Post by suvo »

My theory has been a little different. IIRC Horn and Please are written on the two sides asking the tailing vehicle to blow the Horn. And the OK comes from the OK word written on the bumper (in the middle) by the manufacturer. This was a requirement as far as back in the 80s (may be even earlier) to stamp the OK (on the lines of OK TESTED) I guess. People got habituated into reading Horn OK Please and the integrated with the culture.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#115

Post by sumedh »

hungryforcodes wrote: post #57
ramraj07 wrote: post #27

A reminder that pretty much no lorry driver in india knows English. Vehicles here have inane phrases like this and it’s for the most part almost protocol to paint them when you get a vehicle of that class. The guy who paints Lorry backs with the company name probably asks “you want the horn ok please phrase right” and the drivers probably like yeah whatever. Not like the drivers here expect courtesy from anyone aroun…

> A reminder that pretty much no lorry driver in india knows English. They live in India -- why would they need to know English exactly?

> why would they need to know English exactly?

because if they know English, they can get higher paying jobs

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#116

Post by aww_dang »

causi wrote: post #37

Whenever I visit a large city, the sound of car horns is what takes the most getting used to. It is deeply unpleasant, and happens so often it isn't even useful. I'm convinced these people are using their horns as an expression of emotion, rather than an attempt to communicate with a specific car. For someone from the suburbs it's a very alien and disturbing experience.

There's plenty of rationalization for noise pollution on this thread. In my view you're closer to the mark. Drivers honk at red lights, which is completely irrational.

"Honk more, wait more - Mumbai" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q358fIosAsU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_from_noise

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#117

Post by albert_e »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #12

“it doesn’t seem to make grammatical sense” To people familiar with standard American and British English, perhaps, but it's written by Indian English speakers for an Indian audience. Perhaps it's not ungrammatical in that language variety?

I am arguably an expert in Indian English and I can assure you the phrase "Horn OK Please" does not have any meaning nor is it grammatically correct.

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#118

Post by iso1631 »

pmontra wrote: post #45
Etheryte wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experienced confusion about this when I travelled to Indonesia some years ago, but a local taxi driver made it easy to understand: "What's in front of you is your responsibility." It's an unwritten local driving rule and once you know it, the local traffic is considerably easier to grok. No one looks behind them because everyone's agreed that they only worry about things in front of them. If you want to pass a car…

I look at the rear mirror all the time, especially before stopping. Is that car behind me too fast and will crash into me? A taxi decided that didn't like me stopping at a pedestrian crossing a few nights ago and overtook me. I honked and both the people crossing the street and the taxi stopped. I think the danger trumped the rule of never honking at night in a city.

Was this in Jakarta or a smaller city?

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#119

Post by statictype »

qart wrote: post #104
albert_e wrote: post #19

I am pretty sure "OK" is a separate phrase - not sure about origins, could be a Quality Check OK by manufacturer or a transport authority certifying it is fit for use maybe. "Horn Please" / "Sound Horn" is the other phrase with a clear purpose and meaning. They just got mixed in due to usage. I saw/see many examples where OK is painted in a distinct font from other words.

Seconded. "Horn Please" / "Sound Horn" / "Blow Horn" is the actual message. OK is often painted on a separate line. Sometimes above, sometimes below the "Horn Please" message. I don't think any of these have a meaning though. I think they are just memes (in the Dawkins sense). Also a meme on truck art: some sappy line about lost love. Also, "We Two Ours Two", which became "We Two Ours One" (usually in Hindi)

“We two ours one” always puzzled me. I assume this is about overpopulation and encouraging families to have a single child?

Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)

#120

Post by Cthulhu_ »

sdfjkl wrote: post #85

Different cultures have different unwritten behaviours on roads. In the mountains of Italy, drivers give a short honk before entering a turn on a serpentine road, which usually can't be seen around. If there is no responding honk, they will take the full width of the road (making the very tight turn easier and faster). Tourist drivers have to pick up on this :) In much of Europe oncoming cars flash their lights to wa…

We've taken to ringing our bicycle bells if we're approaching a corner or intersection we can't quite see past.
Post reply on HN