Blaring honkers shatter city's peace

Vadodara: You may have honked several times while driving on the busy SSG Hospital Road. But few know that the entire stretch near the hospital is a no-honking zone.
Its the easiest traffic rule to flout and the toughest for cops to enforce. Not many are even aware that no-honking zones exist in many areas of the city. And using horns in these zone is an offence.
While the traffic cops have been making efforts to ensure that commuters follow traffic rules, they seem helpless when it comes to penalizing compulsive honkers.And it has only led to severe noise pollution in certain areas.
"Honking in a no-honking zone is an offence. The jarring sounds distract commuters and can even lead to accidents on the roads. We penalized the 426 persons for using blaring and musical horns last year. The penalty amount can go up to Rs 100," said Yashpal Jaganiya, assistant commissioner of traffic (ACP).
He said the department is identifying no-honking spots to put up more signboards.
Traffic experts say that it is practically impossible for the cops to crackdown on commuters honking in restricted zones. "There are merely 400 traffic cops on the road against lakhs of vehicles. So it is not possible for the police to penalize every offender. The police should instead focus on educating citizens to not honk, " said Satyen Kulabkar, a traffic expert, .
He added that majority of the commuters are not aware of the no-honking zones and the signboards displaying the rule are are barely visible. "The areas housing government hospitals like SSG, Jamunabai, Narhari and Yogini Vasantidevi are no-honking zones apart from Nyay Mandir. Commuters shouldn't honk here but ironically these areas witness maximum blaring due to heavy traffic," Kulabkar told TOI.
"Citizens should use their conscience and understand that honking near hospitals could cause stress to the patients and hamper their recovery. The cops should use decibel measuring equipment and penalize offenders," said Dr Rajiv Daveshwar, superintendent of SSG Hospital.