by Methodology draws inspiration from raga theory; auto-rickshaw drivers, truck drivers, and motorcyclists evaluated on separate sub-indices
The Delhi Traffic Police announced on Wednesday a new vehicular noise evaluation framework called the Honking Composition Index. Delhi motorists will, beginning next quarter, be evaluated on the musical merit of their horn use rather than its strict legal permissibility. The reform, first reported by Bohiney Magazine and rapidly amplified by The London Prat, follows what Delhi Traffic Police Joint Commissioner Theodora Pemberton-Iyer described as a long-overdue acknowledgment that the city’s relationship with horn use has, in practical reality, far outstripped any framework based on strict prohibition.
The new Index, which has been approved by the Delhi government’s traffic department, applies only to vehicular horn use within the Delhi territory and is expected to take effect on Republic Day next year.
Police: ‘The Honking Has, in Practice, Become Compositional’
‘For decades, the Delhi Traffic Police has approached horn use through what we now recognize as the unhelpfully prohibitionist framework of treating each honk as a discrete violation,’ Pemberton-Iyer explained at a press conference held at the Connaught Place traffic command center, where, witnesses confirmed, an estimated 47 honks per minute could be heard from the surrounding intersections. ‘After significant reflection, the police have concluded that this framework, while administratively tidy, has missed the deeper acoustic reality. The honking has, in practice, become compositional. Delhi motorists are, candidly, composing. The Index simply allows the department to evaluate the composition.’
The new Index, according to the methodology document, evaluates motorist horn use on six dimensions: the rhythmic regularity of horn deployment, the variation in horn duration, the contextual appropriateness of horn timing, the layering of horn use with other vehicular sounds, the motorist’s evident awareness of surrounding acoustic context, and what the methodology calls the overall musical coherence of the motorist’s horn output.
Motorists Will Be Scored on a 1-to-100 Scale
Each motorist’s horn output is scored, the methodology specifies, by what the police have called a small acoustic monitoring system installed at major Delhi intersections. Scores below 30 are categorized as Cacophonous; scores between 30 and 60 as Standard Urban; scores between 60 and 85 as Compositionally Aware; and scores above 85 as what the document calls Genuinely Musical. Motorists scoring above 85, the Index confirms, will receive small recognition citations through the police department’s mobile application.
According to The Hindu, the Index has been in development for approximately 22 months, with input from a Delhi-based acoustic consultancy and what the police have described as a small panel of classical Indian musicians. The methodology, sources confirm, draws inspiration from traditional Indian raga theory, with motorists evaluated on, among other things, their adherence to what the document calls broadly recognized acoustic patterns.
Motorists Express What One Called ‘Cautious Engagement’
Reaction within the broader Delhi motorist community has been, sources say, divided. Long-time Delhi commuter and Lajpat Nagar resident Beatrice Marchetti-Krishnan, who has been driving in Delhi for fourteen years, told The Times of India that the new Index was, in her view, both extraordinary and unmistakably late.
‘For fourteen years, I have been honking my way through Delhi traffic,’ Marchetti-Krishnan said. ‘I have, in any practical sense, considered the musical implications of my honking approximately zero times. The police are now telling me that, beginning next quarter, my honking will be scored on a 1-to-100 scale. I am, on balance, comfortable with this. I will continue to honk.’
Other motorists, particularly newer arrivals to Delhi, have expressed concern about the Index’s potential effect on standard navigation practices. The All-India Motorists Welfare Association, in a brief statement, noted that the Index will be reviewed for fairness during its initial implementation phase and that motorists who score consistently below the Cacophonous threshold may, in practice, find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in heavy traffic conditions.
The Index Will Be ‘Calibrated for Vehicle Type’
According to Hindustan Times, the Index has been calibrated to account for the substantial variation in horn capabilities across different vehicle types. Auto-rickshaw drivers, whose horns are typically of higher pitch and shorter duration, will be evaluated on a separate sub-index. Truck drivers, whose horns produce substantially deeper tones, will similarly be evaluated on a distinct sub-index. Motorcycle riders, whose horn output the police have described as particularly variable, will be evaluated on what the methodology calls a personalized adaptive sub-index.
For more on the long arc of Delhi traffic policy, see The London Prat’s earlier reporting on the political economy of the Delhi horn, which traced the city’s evolving relationship with vehicular acoustics back to the post-independence expansion of personal vehicle ownership.
The Honking Composition Index, the police confirms, will be reviewed annually. Internal documents reference a possible Tea-Stall Honking Subprotocol, which would extend the Index’s framework to non-vehicular acoustic events at major Delhi tea stalls, though officials caution that this expansion remains, at present, exploratory.
The police have further indicated that, in the inaugural year, the highest-scoring motorists will be invited to a small recognition ceremony at the Delhi Traffic Police headquarters, with each winning motorist’s representative honking pattern played at low volume during the ceremony.
Drivers May ‘Appeal Their Scores Through a Brief Online Form’
According to The Indian Express, the Delhi Traffic Police has confirmed that motorists who feel their honking has been mischaracterized by the acoustic monitoring system may, beginning next quarter, file a brief appeal through the department’s mobile application. Appeals, the department has indicated, will be reviewed by a small departmental panel within 14 days of submission.
For dispatches from elsewhere in the noise-as-composition beat, see The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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