After Mumbai, Bengaluru traffic police decides to go with ‘More Honk, More wait’ system

Indian metro cities are ranked in the top 10 for the worst traffic in the world.  Recently, Bengaluru is ranked as having most congested city traffic with drivers spending 10 days in a year at the signal on average. Mumbai is at number four while Delhi and Pune have secured positions in the top ten for having the busiest traffic signals with loud honking.

This is a trend in Indian metros that if you are honking at the signal, they believe the signal will surely turn green sooner. Everyone recognizes the problem but no one is following to curb it. The decimals of noise are higher enough to generate noise-pollution and hurting eardrums with increased heartbeats. Those ear-bursting honkings create chaos at the signal.

For those reckless drivers who can't stop honking and implicit a deafening clamor, Mumbai Traffic Police had come up with the solution by having the system 'More Honk-More Wait'. This system will
kind of punish people who are born to honk. If the sound crosses over 85 decimal the traffic signal will restart with the count of one and they will be forcefully waited more.
The idea was assize in Novemeber-December already caught its momentum. It has been rolling up in Mumbai and other major cities in India.

Bengaluru too has decided to adopt the system as it is working well on the ground. City Police Commissioner, Bhaskar Rao said, "Though honking is not a major problem in Bengaluru as Mumbai, they want to implement the idea for major traffic signals."
"I have talked to Mumbai Police Commissioner about details of the system and vendors. We will soon take the action to identify the major honking signals.", he added.

Even though this campaign is creating a buzz on social media but Ashwathy Dilip an official of ITDP (Institute of Travel and Development Policy) is not much thrilled about the move. She said," we are not very sure how much we need this in Bangaluru. It may create a fuss as people will get frustrated with extra longer waiting for the signal to turn green and may break the signal rule.

Nevertheless, there are certain problems related to traffic intersections. "Few signals has the longest waiting time as 300 counts. That needs to be reduced to make it more feasible." said another official.

Each and every idea comes with pros and cons but we need to take an effective step forward to reduce the problems.