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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)

#331

Post by idiotsecant »

nawgz wrote: post #307
gkop wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Subaru auto headlights work great indeed. Other Subaru smart functionality is crap though. For example, the touchscreen and gauges auto-dimming: literally every time it auto-dims or auto-undims, I have to tweak the dimming level. It would be an objectively better car without the auto-dimming.

> For example, the touchscreen and gauges auto-dimming: literally every time it auto-dims or auto-undims, I have to tweak the dimming level I have never noticed this, fingers crossed you didn't Baader-Meinhof me. The feature to aim the lights where you steer and auto-dim high beams when traffic is approaching and re-activate them works quite nicely for me as well, so I would consider the headlights to be a great stre…

>It is crazy to get into my partner's mid-2010s sedan and laugh at how bad the lights are at nighttime compared to the perfectly aimed and calibrated Subaru lights

On the other hand, that mid 2010s sedan's headlight system will age gracefully - there are no aiming servos to fail or autodim relay output to stop working or such thing. It's just lights with a switch to turn them on or off.

Increased complexity also implies increased maintenance and often more troublesome failure modes when something does fail.

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

#332

Post by city41 »

thrwyoilarticle wrote: post #77
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car horns seem to be calibrated to be heard by someone wrapped in a car, and are too loud for unprotected listening. Bicycle bells are closer to that range. No wonder the cyclist got freaked out.

The Ineos Grenadier 4x4 has a button specifically for this purpose (& because it's made by a cycling team & makes for good PR). I don't know how useable it really would be. I don't think I'd ever use my horn to let a cyclist know I'm there. It's hard to do a friendly, quick double-toot consistently and, as you said, it's just too loud. It's more likely to cause an accident than just waiting longer to overtake. Horns…

I've found most everyone responds well to "on your left!" Many will wave and thank you, largely because most bicyclists provide no alert at all and instead just fly by (which is dangerous and rude).

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

#333

Post by rubans »

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…

I've seen this sort of comment many times, implying that indicators, flashing lights, use of the horn is unique to certain countries or regions. Yet every time, there's replies saying "hey I'm from and we also do this".

It seems to me people haven't realised the behaviour displayed in their part of the world isn't as unique or quaint as they think it is!

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

#334

Post by bettysdiagnose »

orblivion wrote: post #177
JulianMorrison wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC English - Indian English, not British or American - is the second language of the most people in India. Otherwise, they have so many local languages they would be mutually incomprehensible. But everyone learns English, and so they can talk and do business.

And IIRC Hindi is supposed to do that but it doesn't always work out in the south (local nationalism among other things?).

Well Hindi is just as alien linguistically to the south as English is. English and Hindi have more in common with each other. I guess English is a neutral second langauge.

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

#335

Post by koyote »

mindcrime wrote: post #209
JulianMorrison wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC English - Indian English, not British or American - is the second language of the most people in India. Otherwise, they have so many local languages they would be mutually incomprehensible. But everyone learns English, and so they can talk and do business.

I had two Indian co-workers once, and we got into talking about languages. I was a bit surprised at the time to find out that the only language they shared in common was English. One spoke English, Tamil, and a regional dialect, and the other spoke English, Hindi, and a (different) regional dialect. I later came to find that this is actually quite common in India. And I understand English is still widely taught there…

Many years ago while travelling in Kerala I got chatting to an Indian guy on the bus. It turned out that he was from northern India and he mentioned that he too was a tourist in Kerala because he did not speak the local language.

He had to speak English to everyone and would have had the same communication challenges that I had. His skin colour was also quite a bit lighter so even though he did not stand out quite as much as me, he was still quite recognisable as an outsider.

Now this sounds quite obvious if you have ever read up about India and its languages/cultures/ethnicities, but even though I technically knew this I was still baffled that you could be such an outsider in your own country.

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

#336

Post by sbradford26 »

stronglikedan wrote: post #319
hadlock wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This technology exists in Europe, it's not allowed in the US due to very specific wording about headlight laws here, but very recently regulations were changed to allow for it. Not sure if it was in the infrastructure bill that already passed, or the follow-up one they're currently trying to pass. Most BMW (and probably Mercedes, Audi etc) with adaptive LED lights built after ~2017 have the hardware for this for use…

> it's not allowed in the US My MDX does it, and they have had that capability since at least 2017.

I believe the tech that is not allowed in the US is something that literally dims sections of the lights that would shine line into the eyes of an oncoming driver. This is different than the auto dimming lights feature in US cars that just shuts off the high beams when an oncoming car is detected. Most of the tech is made by a company called Gentex. If you have an auto dimming rear view mirror in your car they most likely made it.

Press release about the feature I am referring to: https://ir.gentex.com/news-releases/news-release-details/new...

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

#337

Post by bettysdiagnose »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #238
brirec wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unde…

I think even to describe them as "very bad people" is quite the stretch. They may be a little bit obnoxious but running a red light as a car vs running a red light as a cyclist is completely and utterly different. Firstly the implications of running a red as a bicycle are typically just that other road users tut, it's very rare that anybody gets hurt, and if they do nobody dies except maybe the cyclist. Secondly it's that the entire traffic light system makes perfect sense for cars and other motorised transport, but only makes some sense for bicycles some of the time. There are a huge number of crossings where you go "it makes perfect sense for cars to stop here, but I as a cyclist basically only have to stop here to not upset drivers". IMO to reject and protest against the utter domination of our cities and public spaces by cars necessarily involves skipping traffic light systems that only make sense for cars. But doing it safely and with respect for pedestrians and other road users.

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

#338

Post by boomboomsubban »

dvirsky wrote: post #245
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…

In Israel, flashing the warning lights or hazard lights or whatever they're called when driving, means "hey car behind me, you're on high beams and blinding me, please stop". Since moving to the US I haven't found an effective way to signal people about this, they certainly don't understand this signal. Flashing high beams quickly is either a warning about police ahead, or "turn on your damn lights" (there is also a…

>there is also a hand gesture for this, spreading and closing your fingers towards them to illustrate a light beam

I try to use this in the US, though my success rate is rather low. And I wonder if the distraction just makes things less safe every time I do it.

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

#339

Post by wirrbel »

In driver's school in Germany about 2004, I learned that one _can_ use the horn to announce overtaking esp. of agr. tractors or harvesters, etc. I think I never did so but I am fairly certain if I'd dig into the law, there would still be a paragraph allowing it.

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

#340

Post by Symbiote »

sbradford26 wrote: post #336
stronglikedan wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not allowed in the US My MDX does it, and they have had that capability since at least 2017.

I believe the tech that is not allowed in the US is something that literally dims sections of the lights that would shine line into the eyes of an oncoming driver. This is different than the auto dimming lights feature in US cars that just shuts off the high beams when an oncoming car is detected. Most of the tech is made by a company called Gentex. If you have an auto dimming rear view mirror in your car they most l…

This article has pictures; perhaps easier for a quick overview: https://www.manufacturer.lighting/info/162/
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