SITUATION:

Mumbai has 1675 vehicles/km. Being a fast-paced city, motorists are in a tearing hurry. Resulting in traffic jams and indiscipline. Like excessive honking. Vehicle owners even fit extra loud horns than standard to navigate through teeming traffic. But law enforcement couldn’t enforce enough, with just 1293 people booked in the last 10 years. Their awareness campaigns like “No Honking Day”, “HornVrat” and “Horn Not OK Please” and the efforts of the environmental NGO, the Awaaz Foundation, couldn’t cut through. In the last decade, while vehicles on the road have increased, so has honking – 18 million times/hour.

BRIEF & OBJECTIVE:

70% of noise pollution on roads still happens due to indiscriminate honking. Affecting citizens’ physical and mental health. After many attempts to curb it, the Mumbai Police sought a solution that did what fines couldn’t – generate instant results and maximum awareness.

Mumbai Police developed this innovation in the traffic system internally, in collaboration with CMS Systems and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Special decibel meters were rigged to select traffic signals. Each meter had a uni-directional mike that isolated honking frequencies in real-time and relayed to the meter. The meter was coded to analyse fed honking level and relayed to the Digital LED Display for all to see. When the signal turns red, if honking decibels spiked above 85 dB (dangerous), the meter also sent an instruction to the countdown timer to reset. Making the signal stay red longer, and the impatient motorists wait longer. Thus each signal became The Punishing Signal. While they waited, interactive OOH displays linked to the signal pushed messages LIVE, highlighting their bad behaviour. And made them exercise restraint while honking, if they wanted the signal to turn green.