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

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

#231

Man the amount of honking is insane in India. I was visiting a relative in Patna and it's like everybody just honks for the sake on honking. I mean I thought delhi was bad, but this place just takes honking to a whole new level. It's so bad that I had to go inside a random shop to wait for my Ola as the sound levels were literally unbearable. The only place where I haven't seen so much honking is Goa. Maybe the traff…

It's like a group sonar.

I wonder what are the implications for the automated cars.

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

#232
post #123
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…

I've seen people flashing their hazards to say thank you in London, but never in Scotland. I suppose non-verbal, everyday communication like this can still remain very localised since the usual vectors for cultural transmission (social media, television, film, etc.) don't include such mundane things.

When I lived in one part of South London, I never saw this, or at least so rarely that I never figured out what it was supposed to mean. After moving to another, more suburban, part of South London, I see it all the time. shrug

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

#234

Man the amount of honking is insane in India. I was visiting a relative in Patna and it's like everybody just honks for the sake on honking. I mean I thought delhi was bad, but this place just takes honking to a whole new level. It's so bad that I had to go inside a random shop to wait for my Ola as the sound levels were literally unbearable. The only place where I haven't seen so much honking is Goa. Maybe the traff…

I've always observed that in India honking the horn is not just about overtaking - it's an acoustic indicator of your position, making it possible for those in front of you to plot your presence without taking their eyes off the road in front (which usually requires their absolute and undivied attention). Additionally, as the article points out, many vehicles don't possess funtional rear-view mirrors, and are therefo…

Until you get inside a city traffic jam, and then it becomes an acoustic indicator of something you already know: every square centimeter around you is covered by a car or a motorbike.

I'm a skeptical horns help with anything in modern Indian city traffic, but on the highway they can be quite useful, if annoying, especially on mountainous road when you don't have a good line of sight, but even just on a normal road with drivers who don't look on their rear-view mirrors.

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

#235
post #197
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…

In France they seem to use the horn, frantic (and frankly very rude) hand gestures and occasionally screeching tires to let you know that you did NOT in fact have the right of way entering the traffic circle.

In France drivers will flash their lights to warn you of police speed traps or other checks. (It's quite common for French police to stop and breathalyse all drivers on some rural road, especially on Sunday afternoons.)

I have driven in France loads and have literally never reached a police roadblock or radar trap without being warned by a vehicle coming the other way.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way my colleagues told me, circulation is such a mess there’s no way you can check all around you (plus what’s that going to change, defensive driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic means complete paralysis) so the only things you look at are in front, and the people following have to be ready. Needless to say I opted out of driving, crossing roads is as far as I took the challenge of directly interacting with indian ci…

>Way my colleagues told me, circulation is such a mess there’s no way you can check all around you It's not so much that you can't, but that most people don't and with no driver education and no enforcement of traffic rules, you are stuck in a shitty nash equilibrium. I learnt driving in Canada, and I have tried to continue the same driving habits in India - because that is the only way I feel safe while driving. I s…

It's probably going to change as they get more cars, more highways and better driver educations. It's probably going to take decades.

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

#237
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…

In Upstate New York where snow drifts can sometimes completely block visibility at intersections, honking is pretty common as if to say "ready or not, here I come!"

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

#238
post #111
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There's a lot of confirmation bias at work, IMO.

Some bicycle riders are indeed very bad people. They think they have the right-of-way in every scenario and will run red lights and act like the car drivers are the assholes when they almost get hit by cross-traffic that has the green. Drivers usually only notice the asshole bicyclists.

But in some cases, drivers need to get over the fact that bicyclists exist and understand that sometimes the actions of a bicyclists, while inconvenient for the driver, are the safest. For example, bicyclists do not belong on sidewalks. In areas with a lot of pedestrians (like downtown city blocks), a bicyclist is going to be incredibly limited in their speed on the sidewalk. In suburbs, a bicyclist on the sidewalk is less likely to be seen by a driver and is more likely to get hit by a car making a turn, especially if there are cars parked on the curb. In some states, it's actually illegal for bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk.

When they ride in the middle of the lane, it's not to be a dick. It's because there are dick drivers that will pass them and give them only a couple inches of space, which is dangerous. By riding in the middle, when a driver passes, it gives them a lot of room to move to the right if they feel the driver isn't giving them adequate space.

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

#240
post #105
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…

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…

> I flash lights for oncoming traffics because of danger or /police checks/.

Why? Do you want dangerous drivers on the roads?

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