About 200 students from various schools in the city took a pledge against honking as part of the ‘I Won’t Honk’ campaign, a citizen’s initiative held at the Traffic Park on St. Mark’s Road in the city on Saturday.
The campaign, organised by Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management (GIREM) in collaboration with the Bangalore Traffic Police, sought to create awareness among students about the consequences of unnecessary honking and to bring about a conscious and attitudinal change among children.
The reason behind making the children take oath, according to GIREM president Shyam Sundar S. Pani, is they would indirectly create awareness among drivers. “If they are made aware of the consequences of unnecessary honking, they will question their parents if they follow the same practice,” he said.
According to a statement from the organisers, the density of traffic in Bangalore has increased tremendously over the years, along with the unnecessary use of the horn by motorists. The legal level of noise pollution permissible by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) is 55 decibels for residential areas and 65 decibels for commercial areas.
Additional Police Commissioner (Traffic) B. Dayananda, inaugurated the event. “The menace of honking is increasing day-by-day in Bangalore, aggravating noise pollution resulting in serious health hazards. I hope such an initiative will help in creating awareness about the ill-effects of honking.”
“Honking is considered impolite in Scandinavian and European countries. We Indians love to ape everything western. Why not ape their road manners as well?”, added Mr Shyam.
According to a statement by GIREM, individuals who would want to take the pledge can give a missed call on 080-30088638.
