How safe is it to drive a vehicle on Indian roads without blowing the horn ?

We have come across a gentleman who drives a Sumo on Indian roads and has not blown the horn for last seven years. We have been witness to this impossible task he has been carrying on while we hiked a 7 hours ride on his Sumo (a break up of 3 hours and 4 hours ride on 2 consecutive days) through some of the most congested crossings and market places in and near Kolkata before driving through the serene countryside. Not once did we feel tensed on the road, such was his excellent driving.

Now I'm just curious to know if it is 100% safe to ride a vehicle without blowing the horn (an effort to reduce sound-pollution) in a place where honking, with and without reason,is routine ?

Depends how you drive. If you really allow for every pedestrian to walk out in front of you, and every other driver to change lanes just as you are passing them, then yes... it would be safe. Oh, I forgot to mention the dogs and cows.

We can, however, make a big contribution to cutting noise pollution by avoiding 'horning' because of retaliation and because of impatience. What could be more ridiculous, and irritating, than blowing the horn at a line of stationary cars in front of you?

I think blowing horn on Indian roads completely depends on the driver and his patience. If the road is blocked then whats the point in blowing horn
But sometimes it gets inevitable not to blow horn ...Sometimes it helps a lot.
I would say that whether you blow or not..u must atleast have that option with you.. You never know when it will come handy.

I just can NOT imagine anyone driving in India - without a fully functioning horn!

Even though horn is essential, however I put it to minimal use. Over the years, I have developed exceptional patience on roads, especially locally.

Patience and sense combined would reduce your horn usage to minimal.

I belive on Indian roads it is utterly essential to have a strong horn. I remember, when for some time the horn of my car was not working, I felt totally scared to drive as it was not possible to make myself noticeable for other, maybe not so attentive drivers.... A truck-horn is the best. Or maybe a bus horn?

At least with two-wheelers, it is perfectly possible to drive
without honking (well, most of the time anyway).
That almost nobody does it, is a different issue.

Many of them honk just as much as taxi drivers!

Often, I am glad when they do, as it draws my attention to the fact that some moron is overtaking just as I turn

Thanks Nick-H, ashualways4u, obione980, shashank.aggarwal, gillheri & suricate for expressing your views in this poll.

We just hope with more patience and alert sense on the road, just as shashank.aggarwal has pointed out, we can all minimise the sound pollution but there should be no hesitation to press on the horn long and loud to save lives.

At all? Then it is suicidal.

In my scooty I had installed a train horn, a horn which goes tweet tweet and people used to wonder which vehicles horn is this, fancy horns are signature like in India, you are known by your HORN heheheheh

It gets to be the instinctive reaction to everything.

I caught myself blowing the horn at a pothole today

Yes sometimes on lonely and wide roads sometimes I see myself honking, many people have the habit of honking in rhythm , by pressing the horn at repeated intervals, and driving at fast speed,
apart from horn in my city additional police sirens ( the siren of police, ambulance was fitted in bikes, so whenever they pressed that special switch it would go on, but most people knew, since it was not as strong as real police siren but somewhat near to it ;p

;-)

Radical : the Bangalore Twitter-enabled horn , at last.

I think the horn becomes more important with a bike. In India (or almost anywhere in Asia)I use it to warn pedestrians who appear to be about to step onto the roadway.