A number of people have expressed their thoughts that heavier penalties should be applied on people who have the habit of honking noisily on streets in Vietnam.

The noisy action is no longer a new topic in the Southeast Asian country, both to local people and expats who have stayed here for a while.

A lot of people have complained about the habit, which is sometimes called a bad habit of Vietnamese people.

Lawyer Huynh Phuoc Hiep said that there have been accidents in which travelers were startled by loud honks and then lost control of their vehicles.

“Honking reflects drivers’ level of civility and their way of obeying regulations,” Hiep said.
Many countries around the world have issued bans or fines on honking horns too frequently. For example, in New York, the fine for unnecessary horn-blowing is US$350.

Meanwhile, the fine is from VND100,000 ($4.59) to VND800,000 ($36.75) in Vietnam, according to the lawyer.

Hoang Nhan, from Ho Chi Minh City’s District 10, also agreed that loud honks could cause accidents.
“As a man, I’m startled by the honks from buses and trucks, and so are women,” Nhan said. “It could take a life if you lose control for a second.”

“The horns are theirs, but I think they need to use their brains to think of when they should and should not honk,” he stressed. “They cannot blow horns whenever they want.”

“It’s necessary to have penalties on unaware honking to make streets more civilized and limit accidents,” Ngoc Han, from the southern province of Dong Nai, proposed, while Mai Nguyen said penalties could stop people from honking and reduce the city’s noise pollution.

Honk for fun

Quoc Bao, from Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District, listed the reasons why people honk, in his experience. “They honk because they want to cut off other people in front of them, because they want to turn left or turn right, or even follow other people to honk for fun,” he said.

Bao added that he was cursed at by angry drivers when he waited a few seconds for the traffic light to turn from red to green, or when he stopped at a yellow light. His mother was once yelled at by a young woman who kept honking to cut her off on the right.

Singaporean Johnson Lee said he once saw his taxi driver continuously honk his horn during rush hour.
“It didn’t work as we were surrounded by vehicles,” Lee shared from when he visited Vietnam. “We didn’t push him to drive fast. The honking just made us and people on the crowded street more annoyed.”

Meanwhile, Bao Huy, another honking objector, said that many people honk just to “threaten” those in front of them.  Many bus and car drivers are often seen continuously honking even though they are on crowded streets, when the honking will not help them move faster, driver Hung Cuong said.

Dr. Nguyen Hong Thai, from the University of Transport and Communications in Hanoi, said the lack of awareness when in traffic reflects the selfishness of a number of people. “Authorities should come up with methods to raise people’s awareness of using their horns,” Nguyen Van Lua, another driver who feels dismay toward noisy honks, added.

News Source: tuoitrenews.vn