70% of noise pollution on Mumbai’s roads is from excessive honking. After many attempts to curb it, Mumbai Police did what fines couldn’t – they changed behaviour with a sense of humour and humanity. By developing an innovative system internally, in collaboration with CMS Systems and BMC. Special decibel meters were rigged to select traffic signals. Each meter had a uni-directional mike isolating honking frequencies in real-time and relaying to the meter. The meter was coded for analysing the fed honking level and relaying to the visible Digital LED Display. If honking dBs spiked above 85 (dangerous), the meter also sent an instruction to the countdown timer to reset. Making the signal stay red and impatient motorists wait longer. Thus each signal became The Punishing Signal. While motorists waited, signal-linked interactive OOH displays pushed messages LIVE, highlighting their bad behaviour. And made them honk less, for the ‘green’ signal.