Whether it’s the ear splitting shrill of a China-imported bus or the death wail of a beat-up Toyota taxi, Yangon traffic police are clamping down on horn-happy drivers.
“We’re taking action against undisciplined honking,” said a senior officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Downtown has historically been considered a “no honking zone,” he said, which will come as a surprise to anyone who has stepped foot in downtown.
But an attempt to enforce no-horn zones in six Yangon townships in 2003 failed because of inadequate traffic policing and a lack of high-tech equipment, a police colonel told local media in 2013.
Many drivers continued to push through traffic using sheer noise.
“But as the city expands, we’re taking action against unsolicited honking if it causes a nuisance for the public,” the officer told Myanmar Mix.
“One or two honks won’t be a problem, but if you keep honking or leave your hand on the horn, then there’s a problem.”
Traffic police will confiscate driving licences of noisy offenders, he said, returning them once a maximum fine of 30,000 kyats (US$20) has been paid.
He quoted the vaguely worded Article 65 of the 2015 Motor Vehicle Law that states, “anyone found to have broken one of the rules…specified in this law will be punished with a fine of not more than Ks. 30,000.”
The 2015 law raised fines for minor road offences, but some drivers complained to Frontier magazine that the change merely raised the cost of bribes and increased corruption.
