Unnecessary hooting irks

Hooting is one of the things we do as motorists or cyclists. But we are supposed to do it minimally. We do it either to caution or alert someone. Maybe they are not crossing the road properly, maybe they are blocking you or delaying you. It is done once in a while and not just for the sake of doing it, there really has to be something that requires us to hoot because it is a pain to other people’s ears. But in Uganda, anything is possible.

I am sure our readers are familiar with taxi drivers hooting in search for passengers. If I were the minister in charge of transport and works, I would have banned this habit. By the way, hooting is banned in some countries and it attracts a fine. That is just how hurting it is just in case you took it for a joke or treated it as a light matter.

Well, if I am a passenger and I want to use a commuter taxi, I know that I will hail or stop one. The driver does not have to hoot at me asking whether I am going or not. But these drivers, and they are quite many who do it, go from destination to destination hooting all the way.

Before government came up with a law of commuter taxis having a blue band across their bodies and a taxi sign atop the vans, anybody with a van would pick up people and charge them as a taxi. Now that commuter taxis are easily identified from other vans, why the hell would drivers hoot all the way?

We are in the digital era. So, let drivers look for smarter ways of getting passengers to board their taxis.
In fact, the Highway Code, which is the national road user’s manual shows proper ways of using the horn. “When your vehicle is moving, use the horn only if you need to warn other road users that you are there. But remember, if drivers use the horn too much, road users will stop taking notice of it.”

“Do not use the horn as a means of saying “hello” to people you know. Never use it to show you are angry. Do not use the horn outside hospitals, courtrooms and schools, or between 11pm and 6am. Avoid using the horn in national parks,” it cautions.