I hate using my car horn

[samclem]

Some time ago I was first in line at the left turn lane, waiting for the light to change. As it did, there was a car approaching the limit line at the street I was turning on to, and it was not at all clear he intended to stop. (I seem to be in the minority of drivers who check before entering the intersection when the light changes). As the guy locks up his brakes, the jackass behind me leans on his horn (I'm sure he didn't bother looking anywhere but the light.) No one was behind him, and I was sorely temped to just sit there and smile at him through the whole green light, or pretend my car died, then scoot through on the yellow. But, that's not nice (and it is how people get shot).

 

[Mulligan]

Today, I was in the car wash line... inching along with all the others. I was behind an older guy in a pickup truck. The driveway curves around at the entrance to the actual washing facility. There was plenty of room between me and the pickup in front (I'd say a good 20') . All of a sudden, the guy pops it into reverse and lurches backwards rather quickly - a very unexpected move in a car wash line! He was reversing so fast, it caught me off guard and I didn't know if he saw me. I honked to alert him that I was there while he continued to jet in reverse. His truck went completely across the front of my car, narrowly missing my bumper. He hit the curb on the curve with his right rear wheel and finally stopped.



He immediately rolled down his window and aggressively yelled out at me, "Hey, you got a problem?". I put my open hands up and replied "No problem... I was worried you didn't see me". He responded, "I saw ya" and that was the end of it.



My intent was to use the horn as an alert.... not a $#%@ you. People are too quick to jump into a road rage. I hate using my car horn!

The older I get the more fascinated I have become with communication. Being involved with adolescents my whole life it is amazing how often the message being sent is not the message received. Both sides have to interpret the actions or words in the same manner in order for the communication to occur. Many times it doesn't. He received the communication in a different manner and acted accordingly. Once he understood your intent his hostility apparently ended, though he forgot an opportunity to apologize! It appears you handled it perfectly. You sent the effective warning sound and disarmed the misguided verbal aggression also.


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[scrabbler1]

Seriously, I have to use my horn 3 or 4 times per hour every day just to wake up the person texting when the stop light turns green .

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For me maybe not this often, but considering most of my trips are short ones, I have to do this fairly often, and FAR MORE often than I did 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. And even when I don't need to tap on the horn to wake up some clueless person texting or yapping on his cell phone, at many traffic lights I see a car not moving after the car ahead of him has moved far ahead after the light has turned green. I mutter to myself, "Green light, GO! Stop texting and DRIVE!"

Years ago, my ladyfriend got front-ended when some moron in a pick-up truck backed into her from a considerable distance. She kept hitting her horn but the guy never stopped or even slowed down. Even after hitting her car he didn't stop right away, causing further damage to her car!

 

[harley]

I use my horn to alert people that I'm about to use the rocket launcher.

 

[imoldernu]

Parking lots
Tap-Toot for neighbor "hi".
Otherwise, rare.

We live in a town with few stop lights. Don't need them. Four way stops where everyone is courteous and understands how to make them work.

You'd have to see it to understand. Our kids live in the Chicago Suburbs, and cannot believe what they see here. Automatic 10 point drop in blood pressure.

 

[MRG]

Last time was to wake a neighbors old hound dog up as he was sleeping in the road.

He didn't get upset, flip me off, or pull a gun. He really didn't care if I beeped, just continued sleeping in a sun spot. That's a pretty good life!

 

[Music Lover]

I'm glad to see that most here don't use their horns. I don't know if most would agree, but I find those who blast the horn are the ones causing the initial problem.

Or to be more blunt, most horn blowers are rude idiots.

Yeah...the person texting at a green light or drifting into my lane doesn't deserve the rudeness of a horn blast.

 

[H2ODude]

My pet peeve is people whose cars honk when they lock them. I wouldn't own one that did that; I assume you can program most to otherwise. My one car discreetly makes a non horn noise, the truck blinks its lights. Nothing like walking through a parking lot in my usual fog and some unoccupied vehicle beeps at me. Argh.

 

[mystang52]

I find myself reluctant to use the horn except for true danger (e.g., if I can maneuver away I'll do so, even if the other driver is the one doing the wrong maneuver) rather than use horn. Frankly, I don't trust the other drivers anymore and am fearful of road rage. "Discretion is the better part of valor."

 

[Tadpole]

I opened the thread to say something about texters at red lights but I see other people have had this problem. How else can you wake them up from their virtual realities and stay in your car?

 

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by Elbata View Post
I'm glad to see that most here don't use their horns. I don't know if most would agree, but I find those who blast the horn are the ones causing the initial problem.

Or to be more blunt, most horn blowers are rude idiots.

Yeah...the person texting at a green light or drifting into my lane doesn't deserve the rudeness of a horn blast.

I should add - in addition to warning about impending danger/fender-benders, I absolutely will lay on the horn when a phone-user isn't paying attention when the light turns green. If I could, I'd tazer them as well. They are a risk to everyone on the road, and pedestrians.

My pet peeve is people whose cars honk when they lock them. I wouldn't own one that did that; I assume you can program most to otherwise. My one car discreetly makes a non horn noise, the truck blinks its lights. Nothing like walking through a parking lot in my usual fog and some unoccupied vehicle beeps at me. Argh.

Agree, I hate those things. I wish the default was to be OFF. For our CR-V, the first push just flashes lights, the second will beep. Easy to avoid the beep, and easy if you ever 'need' it, like to find your car.

-ERD50

 

[Nunthewiser]

Mine is broke, but I do use my finger (just like the bumper sticker says).

 

[LoneAspen]

You should have shot him. His brain is likely getting soft; he needs culling.

LOL!

 

[JPatrick]

In Texas we used to say..

Concealed Carry--It's The New Horn

I think it was REWahoo that came up with that..

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

I've owned a lot of cars / trucks--and probably couldn't tell you if the horn worked or not in half of them, outside of testing when I bought them. Just not a horn user, but don't know why.

 

[imoldernu]

Re: emergency beeping... easy to fix... open the remote, and put a piece of paper under the button. Avoid the evil eyes.

 

[RunningBum]

Yeah...the person texting at a green light or drifting into my lane doesn't deserve the rudeness of a horn blast.

Really? Someone is a real threat to hit you by drifting into your lane and you're worried about being rude to them?

The texting thing, yeah, maybe a bit rude, but it's more rude to be texting when you should be driving. I tap as lightly on the horn as I can, to alert the driver and trying not to be a nuisance to others around me. On the occasion where I've been distracted and missed a light turning green, I'm fine if the driver behind me taps their horn to make me aware.

My neighbor is the type to toot as a greeting. He would see me out running and honk, and it was dangerous because it would startle me. I also figured if someone was honking maybe there was an issue and I should get completely off the road, which was dangerous because we have no shoulder and I'm likely to wind up in a ditch or off the side of the hill. I told him he had to stop it and explained why, and as a former runner he understood and did stop. He wasn't being rude, just thoughtless.

 

[MooreBonds]

I should add - in addition to warning about impending danger/fender-benders, I absolutely will lay on the horn when a phone-user isn't paying attention when the light turns green. If I could, I'd tazer them as well. They are a risk to everyone on the road, and pedestrians.

+1 If someone starts moving into my lane without looking, you better believe I will give them a good 5 second beep. If someone is a bad enough of a driver that they don't look before changing lanes, they need to be notified that it's not acceptable behavior. (note: this isn't when I'm zooming along at 20 mph faster than them - this is when going within 1-2 mph or so of their speed, and they simply drift or change lanes without looking). If I didn't honk, I would have at LEAST had a side swipe accident. Not to mention a possible chain reaction if the offender were surprised to hear their car hitting something and instinctively hit the breaks - causing a possible logjam accident with the car(s) behind them.

Do people really just sit there and let someone merge into their lane (and their car) without honking What do you do? Politely slam on your breaks and swerve out of your lane to let the bad driver in? That sure doesn't let the other person know that they nearly caused an accident.

My pet peeve is people whose cars honk when they lock them. I wouldn't own one that did that; I assume you can program most to otherwise. My one car discreetly makes a non horn noise, the truck blinks its lights. Nothing like walking through a parking lot in my usual fog and some unoccupied vehicle beeps at me. Argh.

There are probably 2,395 people who select a car with "remote key fob locking activation signal" as one of their variables. For the 99.999999% of the rest of us, we take what comes with the car.

And for additional thoughts that you obviously haven't considered: what about parking garages when you don't remember what floor you are on? you can't see the photons bending around the curves or floors of the garage, but you sure can hear the sound. How are you supposed to verify that the car is locked if there is a car on the other side blocking your view, or if it's very bright outside - like everyday sunlight?

 

[samclem]

Yeah...the person texting at a green light or drifting into my lane doesn't deserve the rudeness of a horn blast.

I'm sure this was intended to be in the "sarcasm font" (which we need so badly!).

 

[liveanon]

I use the horn any time I need to. I don't care what the other person thinks (usually they're not thinking). Just yesterday I had to lay into the horn when a lady was backing out of a parking space and didn't see me. She stopped, looked around and continued backing up and I had to honk some more. At least it got her to stop, I don't think she ever saw me (Large GM SUV v. mid-size sedan). At red lights, when the light changes, if the person in front doesn't move within a second or so I give the horn a quick tap so they can put their phone down long enough to get across the intersection before they resume texting.

 

[Music Lover]

Really? Someone is a real threat to hit you by drifting into your lane and you're worried about being rude to them?

I was being sarcastic. If my safety or that of my vehicle is threatened, I lean on the horn with no guilt. At the very least, it may get someone looking my way who can be a potential witness.

 

[rodi]

I think I've honked 2 or 3 times in the last year. Once for a person at the front of a left turn queue who didn't notice the green. (And this is at an exceptionally long light cycle so missing the light literally adds 4-5 minutes to my trip.) The other two were for lane changers/drifters who didn't see me.

I was honked at once - not sure why... I was in my lane, and folks were merging into/out of my lane... I was in a lane that had 2 lanes exiting to the right of me, 2 thru lanes on the left of me, and my lane was going to disappear at my exit, directly ahead. (For those in San Diego - this was South 163 at the University and Washington exits in Hillcrest... A place of many merges since two freeways meet and two major exits shrink the freeway.). I think the honker assumed I was going to change lanes and wanted my "spot"... but I wasn't upset, just considered the honker to be clueless.

To the OP - the guy at the carwash was clearly in the wrong to be so rude... but in your circumstance I would have honked also.

 

[Jack_Pine]

I opened the thread to say something about texters at red lights but I see other people have had this problem. How else can you wake them up from their virtual realities and stay in your car?

Paintball?

 

[Jack_Pine]

I use the horn any time I need to. I don't care what the other person thinks (usually they're not thinking). Just yesterday I had to lay into the horn when a lady was backing out of a parking space and didn't see me. She stopped, looked around and continued backing up and I had to honk some more. At least it got her to stop, I don't think she ever saw me (Large GM SUV v. mid-size sedan). At red lights, when the light changes, if the person in front doesn't move within a second or so I give the horn a quick tap so they can put their phone down long enough to get across the intersection before they resume texting.

Pretty much with you though I usually give them 3 seconds so it is obvious to them they are clueless.

 

[Samz]

My Grandmother kept driving well into her 90's and even in metro Atlanta traffic.

She always thought the truckers on I-285 were honking "hello" to her .