Students to give out free decals they created to spur motorists to sound horn less often
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Four young volunteers form the team responsible for ideating, printing and distributing the decals.
PHOTOS: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
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SINGAPORE – Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam and all that you can hear is the endless honking sounds from vehicles?
They not only could go unheard by deaf motorists and drivers playing loud music, the noise they produce is also disturbing and above the National Environment Agency’s permissible levels.
The sound of a car horn can reach 110 decibels, which is well over the permissible noise level in residential areas.
A team of young volunteers has set out to change a habit many motorists in Singapore have – to sound the horn the moment something does not go their way.
The four students, who met while volunteering with Keeping Hope Alive (KHA), designed a vehicle decal to encourage less honking and create a culture of graciousness on the road.
They are Anglo-Chinese School (International)‘s Ashley Rao, 14, Hwa Chong Institution’s Harkman Tham, also 14, Temasek Junior College’s He Chen Qinrui, 16, and Temasek Polytechnic’s Rafael Sng, 17.
KHA is a volunteer group that focuses on improving the quality of life of less-privileged Singaporeans.
The idea for the free decal came from Ashley, who was in a Grab car ride and observed that the driver was hard of hearing.
“How do people alert drivers who cannot hear?” she wondered.
Initially, the students wanted to design something with deaf motorists in mind. After taking in feedback, they decided on a general decal for all motorists.
The final design – after being revised more than 25 times – is a blue decal with an image of an ear resembling a lightbulb, with short lines that symbolise that the light is turned on. It is meant to encourage motorists to flash their headlights instead of sounding their horns.
After revising the design of the decal 28 times, the young volunteers settled on a design which shows an ear in the shape of a light bulb which has been turned on.
PHOTO: KEEPING HOPE ALIVE
In Singapore, deaf and hard-of-hearing motorists are not legally obliged to put up on their vehicles any form of notification of their condition, said a spokesman for the Singapore Association for the Deaf.
However, they must first pass a medical screening to ascertain that they can hear at a certain level with the use of hearing devices before they are allowed to learn to drive, he added.
One driver who is looking forward to displaying the decal is a 58-year-old cabby who wants to be known only as Ben. He lost the sense of hearing in one ear and has 30 per cent hearing ability in the other.
He told The Straits Times he once unknowingly took a parking space that someone had been waiting for and he did not know that the person was angry until he was confronted about it.
“I suppose they sounded the horn but I could not hear from inside the car,” said Ben, adding that having the decal may prompt other drivers in a similar situation to use visual notifications, such as flashing their lights, instead.
More than 300 small decals, which can be used on small cars and motorcycles, will be available for free at vehicle workshops and insurance companies from this weekend.
The young volunteers spent more than $200 of their pocket money on them and plan to print decals in larger sizes.
“We are students and have no intention of making any profit out of this initiative. But if there is a need, we will not hesitate to come up with collar pins, keychains, or any other required items that can help encourage the community to be more gracious” the students said.
