BENGALURU: A video of an American woman breaking down the quirky “honking etiquette” of Bengaluru’s roads has gone viral on social media, sparking amused reactions from residents. Dana Marie, who lives in the city, shared a lighthearted yet detailed explanation of what different car horn patterns mean in the traffic-heavy metropolis.
Decoding the horns
Filming herself while driving, Marie humorously categorised the various styles of honking she has observed. “A single horn just means letting you know that I’m here,” she explains. “A medium horn is like, bro, what are you doing? Get out of my lane.”
She added that in Bengaluru, honks are often accompanied by verbal exchanges. “After the medium horn, people like to roll down their window and yell for a while about what went wrong,” she said.
According to her, a double horn signals an attempt to overtake, while “a bunch of short beeps in the middle mean stop or pull over because I want to talk to you.” The longest horn, she added, is usually an urgent warning: “Get out of my way right now before you collide into my car and we both get injured. Thank you.”
Beyond horns: the headlights
Marie also touched upon the use of headlights. “Then there’s the dipper, when you flash your lights. It means I’m coming, get out of my way—unless it means I’m stopped here and waiting for you to go first. It’s one of those two,” she joked.
She noted that while the “Bengaluru descriptor”—rolling down the window and shouting—is not universal, it happens often enough for her to notice compared to other cities she has lived in.
Personal experiences on city roads
Recalling a recent incident, she said: “My cab driver was very soft-spoken, well-dressed, wore a tie, and had been speaking gently on the phone for 30 minutes. Then, suddenly, he was screaming at someone in a van next to us.”
Marie’s observations, delivered with humour, resonated with many who could identify with the chaos and unspoken rules of Bengaluru’s traffic.
Social media reactions
The video quickly spread across platforms, prompting laughter and agreement from viewers. One user wrote, “I love how all Indians know this emotionally and all Americans have analysed and quantified this.”
Another pointed out, “Dipper never means I am letting you go first. Whoever does the dipper first gets right of passage first.”
A third commented, “Perfect description. You’ve upgraded yourself to native status. Next level is rolling down your window and showing strength in Kannada. All the best.”
The light-hearted take has since been widely shared, with many agreeing that Marie captured the city’s chaotic driving culture in an unexpectedly accurate way.