Mumbai cops' honking video gets loud cheer on social media

Mumbai: Mumbai police on Friday uploaded a video of a novel experiment it conducted in some parts of the metropolis in November last year under which traffic signals were configured to stay red for longer if incessant honking there caused the decibels levels to shoot up beyond a limit.

The video racked up 275.8 thousand hits, 21.4 thousand likes and 8.9 thousand re-tweets in the first 12 hours after it was uploaded on Mumbai police’s official Twitter handle, with several netizens praising the initiative for sending the message across “loud and clear”.

The plan was to convey a message ‘feel free to honk if you don’t ming waiting’, and, as part of it, decibel meters were placed at CSMT, Marine Drive and Pedder Road in south Mumbai, Hindmata in central Mumbai and Bandra in the western suburbs, an official said.

“As per the arrangement, if due to the honking the din levels crossed 85 decibels, then the signal would reset and stay red for a longer time. This effectively meant that honking would actually delay you rather than speed up your commute,” he said.

“This social experiment was carried out in November. We will wait for feedback on the video and the initiative and then decide if it can be implemented as a regular feature at traffic signals,” he said.

Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has 36 lakh vehicles and several of its traffic junctions have noise levels way above 85 decibels, which is considered a health hazard and can lead to hearing loss.