Swiss Post buses are equipped with horns to warn on coming vehicles as they navigate tight corners on Switzerland’s mountain roads. The horns sound out the first few notes of the Andante of the overture to Gioacchino Rossini’s opera William Tell. These notes were first heard on Swiss roads 100 years ago.
In 1919, when Switzerland introduced a motorised Alpine postal service post buses frequently ran into increasing numbers of private vehicles. To avoid accidents, the postal service added horns to their vehicles to warn on coming vehicles where visibility was poor. However, the early manual horns proved inadequate so a project began to find someone who could make a louder horn. In 1924, a new device with an electric air compressor and three horns was born. It has been fitted to Post buses ever since.
The horns cannot be used everywhere. While less noisy than some Harley Davidson motorcycles, the horns are loud – 120 decibels. If used regularly in built up areas many residents would justifiably complain. For this reason, their use is restricted to mountain roads where the only other humans are in vehicles or on (noisy) motorcycles. Signs with a horn symbol (shown in the photo above) demarcate zones where the horns can and can’t be used.
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