Have you ever visited a city like Mumbai? In the larger cities of most less developed countries it's not only very accepted but even necessary for the safety of everyone to honk at every corner or crowded situation.
The main culprit is the staggering amount of scooters, that usually ignore all rules and zip through any opening they can find. You'll be saving lives by honking in every situation, people kind of count on it. I'm not surprised this behavior translates into an increase in meaningless honking at red traffic signs.
Not the person you replied to but I disagree with this.
I've been to Mumbai (and Delhi and a few other cities for that matter), and it is not for the safety.
Take Ho Chi Minh City for example. There are more scooters there than people, and honking is not much of a problem as in Mumbai. Scooter riders know how to make their way and they are super precise when pedestrians cross. Pedestrians don't wait for scooters to stop. You just cross the road, and scooters will go around you. In India, there is the reverse mentality that roads belong to vehicles and pedestrians just have to take care of themselves.
> I've been to Mumbai (and Delhi and a few other cities for that matter), and it is not for the safety.
I live in India, and a lot of times it is for safety. It's not always about people crossing the road. There are people walking on the road, shoulder-to-shoulder, four deep; there are scooters driving side by side as their drivers are having a conversation; there are car and scooter drivers talking on their cellphones edging along slowly, not stopping, not driving at the normal speed of traffic; there are people getting out of parking, backing into traffic, seemingly oblivious to you as they drive backwards into you while you're stopped or braking hard; there are cattle; there are dogs. 9 times out of 10 it is for safety.
The Mumbai traffic light honking is about people honking at vehicles stopped in front of them to start driving when there's still a few seconds left on the red light. That's what the cops are trying to prevent.
It should be fair to start with the premise that this behavior creates a noise pollution problem. Otherwise the authorities would not be working to curb it.
Everyone has an excuse, but two wrongs don't make a right. Drivers are not justified to create noise pollution because pedestrians or other drivers are indulging in inconsiderate behavior.
I've lived on both sides of the world and frankly, it all comes down to how the individual regards himself and his social obligations. S. Asia is notorious for it's poor regard of public spaces. These are foundational cultural concepts that I don't see changing any time soon.
Without a sense of personal responsibility the individual is powerless to act. The excuses you provide make the problem perpetually someone else's fault. The comment above spoke to the "entitlement of drivers" and this is the key to the whole issue.
In the west, I've seen known gangsters stop their limo to personally remove a single piece of litter from the street. These are people who explicitly live outside of the bounds of the law. This person could have made his chauffeur or assistant retrieve the trash, yet he took such pride in his neighborhood that he had to do it personally. The contrast is obvious.
No one is justifying impatient honking at traffic lights.
My "excuses" as you've put them are situations that occur everyday on Indian roads where honking is an alternative to colliding with and running over people and animals. Noise pollution is the lesser evil.
I would never indulge in causing that kind of situation to arise. That's the limit of what I can do. If faced with that situation my greater responsibility is to avoid a collision.
Obviously. Except when there are four two-wheelers tailgating you and braking would cause them to collide with you, or at least slow down all the traffic behind you so that everyone is now honking at you.
It's probably hard to understand what I'm talking about if one has never experienced traffic like this themselves.
Like I said, I've lived on both sides of the world. It is probably hard to understand the cultural norms of living without rampant noise pollution if you haven't experienced it first hand.
I'd love to move everyone in India to the other side of the world so they can pick up better cultural norms and such, but it seems an unrealistic proposition.
Saigon was my idea of the worst possible honking habits, I can hardly imagine how it is in Mumbai if it's even worse.
But apart from honking, although I wouldn't call the roads "safe" for pedestrians, cars indeed don't really compete with pedestrians, everyone just tries to get along however they can.
I've spent my fair share of time on the road in developing countries.
Because of how everyone drives, honking is a necessity. It's how you know where other drivers/riders are without needing to see them, and when there's traffic all around, you can't only use your eyes.
I actually feel safer riding a motorbike in developing countries than I do in Australia, because at least drivers are aware and expecting me in somewhere like Vietnam.
Do you believe that these behaviors are necessary and excusable because of the lack of development or that these countries are less developed because of these attitudes?
Which option is a proactive philosophy which promotes change?
In the current situation it is necessary, since it prevents accidents. The main problem is that there is simply too much traffic on poorly planned and barely maintained infrastructure, so in that sense development would "solve" the necessity of honking.
But that's a long term solution, which will require a lot of time and funding. A short term solution that does not involve a massive infrastructure overhaul is difficult. Perhaps a clever reflow AI could mitigate some of the problems in the near future. This is something that does need attention, because the air pollution in cities facing this problem is terrible.
"Pulling a MySpace" means messing up your product so badly that your users abandon ship.
"Jumping the Shark" means taking your story to such incredible heights that it becomes unbelievable.
Not the same thing.
Ever since raising the volume on ads was banned they simply switched to using using limiters, that basically boost all frequencies to achieve the same effect. They'll even use common ring tones or the buzz of a silenced phone to draw your attention.
Personally I mute or switch channels as soon as the commercials start and I've actually turned down at least one job offer because they had radio on the office floor.
Don't forget the French guy that felt he had to cut up his dog to release his spirit. In that same year we also had a Brit mutilating himself and trashing his hotel (after consuming a veritable cocktail of alcohol and drugs including mushrooms, an inconvenient detail left out of most reports at the time) and an Icelandic guy that thought he could fly and jumped off a building, breaking his legs and feet.
Notice the trend here? All tourists, all acting alone. Bad set and setting.
Despite multiple researches showing no evidence of any real negative impact on Dutch society, foreign political pressure eventually got them banned. That most of these cases involved people with serious mental issues who shouldn't have taken any drugs in the first place didn't matter.
Truffles don't have the same effect and they taste awful. Fortunately growkits are still perfectly legal. These are a lot cheaper and they have the added benefit of keeping mushies out of the hands of unstable tourists.
It's a nice addition for any Bond villains lair. Big bad man like big bad toys.
This is actually a common problem in Mexico: "They [drug lords] like charismatic animals that symbolise power and strength: big cats such as lions, tigers and jaguars, along with big snakes, monkeys and nice looking birds," [1]
It does not. The amount of risk involved is not a factor. The term "selfie" refers to the inherent narcissism of the focus of the shot.
In a traditional selfie, when you move, your arm moves with you and your self remains the center focus of the shot. A drone selfie acts in a similar way. A timed shot on the other hand will always capture a specific scene, whether you are in it or not.
Arguably Eschers lithograph "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" does qualify, but Korneyevs picture doesn't.
It's also worth noting that Heksenkaas is a ridiculously overpriced product, which probably explains why they are trying so hard to keep the competition at bay.
.. and depending on the singer, can be nigh on impossible. Some are incredibly consistent in terms of timing and phrasing (making editing easy), while with others each one is unique, and only large sections can be used with each other.
The main culprit is the staggering amount of scooters, that usually ignore all rules and zip through any opening they can find. You'll be saving lives by honking in every situation, people kind of count on it. I'm not surprised this behavior translates into an increase in meaningless honking at red traffic signs.