Horn, OK? Please!
The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
131–140 of 378 posts
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#132Audi makes extra-durable horns for cars sold in India.
https://theworld.org/stories/2012-03-26/indiainc-audi-makes-...
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#133Different 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…
> Here in Lithuania, flashing your warning lights (the four orange ones on the corners of the car) means thanks, for example if you let someone merge from one of the very short onramps. I've never seen this in Germany, where onramps are however much longer.
In Sweden it's common to do this by using your blinkers. You blink once in each direction. So first left, then right. Or the other way around.
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#134Different 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…
I can confirm all of it for Germany as well (except the Italian serpentine road synchronization hack). I flash lights for oncoming traffics because of danger or police checks. I flash warning lights (or raise right hand) for thank you. Others do as well (especially buses, when you let them out of the bus stop, since in Germany they don't have the right of passage leaving a bus stop) I learned that truck drivers (and…
Somewhat tangentially related, but the french government did an interesting ad on this (very entrenched in France too) habit of flashing lights after police checks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsVZu-2IaA
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#135> Trucks, in particular, are often not even equipped with side mirrors in the first place. Maybe mandating side mirrors (or rather enforcing this mandate - I can't quite believe that side mirrors are optional for roadworthiness, even in India) would be a better point to start with, rather than outlawing the phrase "Horn OK Please"?
I guess the hearing impaired can't drive in India.
And you can't drive too long before becoming hearing impaired.
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#136Anyone with local insight on how safe/unsafe the roads are and if things like side mirrors would help? I once drove around Sicily for a few days and the main city area roads were constant traffic jams, many more car lanes than actual road lanes (faded or non-existent lane markings), and people switching lanes and turning without any notice/indicators. For all the chaos it kinda worked and people just went very slowly…
Several years ago I read an article (I don't remember where) explaining and arguing for a libertarian approach to traffic rules (in the US). The argument was if you get rid of stop signs, people will tend to stop at intersections more, not less, because they don't know what to expect. I don't really agree with it but it was an article that I started reading with astonishment for how silly it was and by the end became…
I had a group of guys in from India to help on a project. I loved driving to lunch with them. If they saw someone approaching a stop sign on a side street they would slam on the brakes, expecting the driver of some SUV to just blow the stopsign and jet in front of them. I would laugh every time. They were clearly used to India where they said that all traffic laws are optional.
Over the last few years though, as traffic has worsened, I am starting to use their approach.
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Exactly that. There used to be government ads between TV shows about various circumstances for casually inquiring about the protagonist's family. The response would be the catchphrase "hum do, humare do" (we two, ours two). The message changed a few years later to encourage a three-member family. The protagonist would always beam when saying the catchphrase.
Edit: I think I remember... the early ads were for getting condoms for free at government run hospitals and clinics. Later on, the ads were for encouraging vasectomy.
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#138Different 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…
> Here in Lithuania, flashing your warning lights (the four orange ones on the corners of the car) means thanks, for example if you let someone merge from one of the very short onramps. I've never seen this in Germany, where onramps are however much longer. In Sweden it's common to do this by using your blinkers. You blink once in each direction. So first left, then right. Or the other way around.
In the USA, I at some point picked up flashing headlights as "thanks", I don't know how common it is, I don't see it that often (anymore?), but USA drivers may be unlikely to give thanks on the road. :|
(Flashing headlights is also "i see you trying to merge in front of me and i'll give you space." Which I also occasionally do but don't see that often).
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#139Different 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…
I can confirm all of it for Germany as well (except the Italian serpentine road synchronization hack). I flash lights for oncoming traffics because of danger or police checks. I flash warning lights (or raise right hand) for thank you. Others do as well (especially buses, when you let them out of the bus stop, since in Germany they don't have the right of passage leaving a bus stop) I learned that truck drivers (and…
[deleted]
Re: The origins of ‘horn ok please,’ India’s most ubiquitous phrase (2016)
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
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_cou…
To me, the Fatalities per mile is the most meaningful metric, but that's very sparsely populated on the chart. The next most meaningful metric on that chart is Fatalities per 100k vehicles.
Somali car owners have a 6.5% chance of dying in their vehicles, annually.