Car Horn Pet Peeve: An Aggressive Rant

[Danger]

in order for my horn to work I need to press a very specific place on the steering wheel. I swear that specific place on the steering wheel moves around.

Depending upon what you drive, it might be a good idea to have that checked out by a mechanic. If there's an electrical fault, it could adversely affect anything from your cruise control or turn signals to your airbag.

 

[DaveC426913]

IMO, you are over reacting. If you screwed up, you deserve a honk on the horn. ...

So, IMO, if you screw up, get caught and ticking other drivers off in the process, don't complain about the horn... learn the lesson. I just kind of smile and think "oops, damn, busted".

Did you read the OP's entire post?

...But it wasn't even one horn blast of frustration which I could at least possibly understand, they proceed to keep honking their horns...
... I even put my hand up to signify I was sorry. They still blasted their horns...

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

IMO, you are over reacting. If you screwed up, you deserve a honk on the horn.

So the horn is a device of punishment? It should be for helpful communication. Honking at me served no helpful purpose. It didn't speed up anything. As I said in the OP a small honk of frustration I could handle, but there was a long line of ghetto blasting of the horns as if I could change the situation.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

If there is no other traffic in the immediate area and some idiot tailgates me, I lock the brakes for a fraction of a second, then romp on the throttle to get out of the way of a collision. The guy generally has to go home to change his pants. (And no, I don't care if he goes off of the road and possibly gets killed. Evolution in action.)

I don't pull dangerous stunts on tailgaters. But I did do this:

Was driving home on a 2-lane highway through hilly country, I had about 100 miles left to drive. Some guy started tailgating me. There was oncoming traffic, so he could not pass. However, the road was open and straight enough that we could have gone around 70 mph.

My response to tailgaters is "OK, you're choosing what following distance you want, I will choose a speed that is safe at that following distance." I slowed (gently) to exactly 50 mph, where I felt more or less comfortable. Slow enough to drive him nuts, but not slow enough to make him do something stupid.

Then I stayed at 50 mph for about 15 minutes. Watched my speedometer and made sure my speed didn't budge an inch. Even though I had a huge stretch of empty road in front of me. 15 minutes out of my day is no big deal, and the view was nice.

I waited until I thought he had given up hope of going faster. Then I pushed on the accelerator and jumped to 70 in the space of about a few seconds. Left him way behind. He didn't bother following closely again.

 

[turbo]

So the horn is a device of punishment? It should be for helpful communication. Honking at me served no helpful purpose. It didn't speed up anything. As I said in the OP a small honk of frustration I could handle, but there was a long line of ghetto blasting of the horns as if I could change the situation.

Sorry to hear that, Greg. If you come to New England, steer clear of Boston. It's a difficult city to drive in due to its antiquated "hub" layout, and the natives apply the horn quite liberally. Funny thing - the horns work perfectly well, but the turn-signals are all disabled, apparently. It is a whole lot more pleasant driving in Manhattan. No kidding.

 

[nitsuj]

Depending upon what you drive, it might be a good idea to have that checked out by a mechanic. If there's an electrical fault, it could adversely affect anything from your cruise control or turn signals to your airbag.

That is good advice. however the others ain't broke and all have "failsafes" warnings in place of a fault. Just the horn switch/wiring seems to be faulty.

That said, it can be unsafe not having a fully/properly functioning horn.

 

[BobG]

If there is no other traffic in the immediate area and some idiot tailgates me, I lock the brakes for a fraction of a second, then romp on the throttle to get out of the way of a collision. The guy generally has to go home to change his pants. (And no, I don't care if he goes off of the road and possibly gets killed. Evolution in action.)

I don't like to pull dangerous stunts on tailgaters, but I did find something entertaining to do back when I had my Jeep Cherokee.

The hose for the washerfluid for the back window sprung a leak, so instead of spraying my rear window, it emitted a stream backwards onto the hood of any cars too close to my back end.

That was fun enough I didn't even mind having a dirty rear window.

 

[nitsuj]

It takes all kinds I suppose.

My friend told me a story on his way from my house he was following somebody who felt he was too close (and he probably was).

The speed limit on the road is 50km/h, quite slow.

She had brought her vehicle to a complete stop, in the lane, put the car in park, got out and started yelling. Meanwhile traffic was building up behind them and the scene they were making.

My friends reaction was confusion. As in OMG what on Earth are you doing lady.

We still laugh about it.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Honking at me if I do something wrong is understandable, but I've had people honk at me when THEY did something wrong.

Two times I've been driving in the right lane and a car in the merge lane didn't want to slow down to get in behind me, so when they were forced to, they honked at me for either not speeding up or not getting over.
Those are the types of people that make me angry, but I take solace in the fact that their behavior will make their lives harder. I don't have to do anything to them because they'll do it to themselves.

 

[nitsuj]

Honking at me if I do something wrong is understandable, but I've had people honk at me when THEY did something wrong.

Two times I've been driving in the right lane and a car in the merge lane didn't want to slow down to get in behind me, so when they were forced to, they honked at me for either not speeding up or not getting over.
Those are the types of people that make me angry, but I take solace in the fact that their behavior will make their lives harder. I don't have to do anything to them because they'll do it to themselves.

Ah ha ha, yea I can relate to that.

Intersections that are not "straight" lanes, as in one must turn a little to stay in their own lane while crossing the intersection.

This is particular tough if there are no lines painted through the intersection making it obvious which lane is which.

The neighborhood I lived in had such an intersection. Particularly older (70yrs+) people had trouble with this. I've been "honked at" by senior drivers for staying in my own lane on a couple of occasions.

It always made me laugh, senior drivers are so cute sometimes.

 

[DaveC426913]

Honking at me if I do something wrong is understandable, but I've had people honk at me when THEY did something wrong.

Two times I've been driving in the right lane and a car in the merge lane didn't want to slow down to get in behind me, so when they were forced to, they honked at me for either not speeding up or not getting over.
Those are the types of people that make me angry, but I take solace in the fact that their behavior will make their lives harder. I don't have to do anything to them because they'll do it to themselves.

One must be cautious when reading the minds of others. You don't really know what he thought you were doing wrong (that is, assuming you weren't doing anything wrong...).

In fact, are you even sure he was honking at you? Two drivers often experience a single event very differently, and misinterpretation is quite easy.An example - though it is completely unrelated to the above: I once pulled onto a highway from a gas stop. Dusk had come while I'd been filling up and as I accelerated back into the stream, I flicked on my lights. Unfortunately, my high beams happened to be on. I immediately turned them to low as I overtook the first car.

But the guy certainly assumed I'd pulled up behind him, flashed my brights at him, then proceeded to pass him. He indicated his displeasure with a one-finger salute. How was I supposed to let him know that I'd meant him no malice?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Honking at me served no helpful purpose. It didn't speed up anything. As I said in the OP a small honk of frustration I could handle, but there was a long line of ghetto blasting of the horns as if I could change the situation.

I very much doubt all the honking was aimed at you. Horns startle and anger. When one person honks in a collection of stopped cars everyone in the vicinity is put on edge, because no one is sure if it was meant for them or not. It's in the nature of traffic that anyone who hears a car horn has to first assume it's meant for them and they run a panicked check of what they're doing. Once someone determines that someone else is honking in vain, they might honk back at them meaning "Shut the F. up!" That sets everyone else in the vicinity further on edge, and the next person with the lowest tolerance for frustration will join in, trying to shut the other two up. Eventually everyone is honking because everyone else is honking.

Car horns need to be redesigned to alert without startling. I don't have any ideas what form of sound that would take, but the current car horn is over-the-top.

 

[Danger]

The hose for the washerfluid for the back window sprung a leak, so instead of spraying my rear window, it emitted a stream backwards onto the hood of any cars too close to my back end.

My high-school buddy drove a Datsun 510, and kept his regular windshield washer nozzles set to squirt over his roof onto the windshield of the guy behind (if he was too close). It's particularly effective when you replace the washer fluid with ink.

You guys probably don't even want to know about my invention that fires a blob of ignited butyl rubber/magnesium based solid rocket fuel into the following car's radiator...

 

[edward]

My high-school buddy drove a Datsun 510, and kept his regular windshield washer nozzles set to squirt over his roof onto the windshield of the guy behind (if he was too close). It's particularly effective when you replace the washer fluid with ink.

You guys probably don't even want to know about my invention that fires a blob of ignited butyl rubber/magnesium based solid rocket fuel into the following car's radiator...

Don't mention things like that it will give the Arizona State Legislature bad ideas.

They way the law stands now if a person approaches your vehicle on foot during a road rage situation, and you feel threatened, it is legal to shoot said person.

BTW I used to have a 60's Fiat roadster that had two horn settings, one for the city and one for rural areas. It also had a low fuel level warning light. Those are the only two things that were consistantly reliable.

 

[Danger]

I used to have a 60's Fiat roadster that had two horn settings, one for the city and one for rural areas.

Now that you mention it, I think that my '69 DS19 Citroen had that feature as well. I never had a chance to make it road-worthy, so I'm not sure. Somehow, I think that I saw mention of it in the shop manual, though. It's quite a good idea. Around here, particularly, it would be nice to have something horrendously loud to get the attention of a caribou herd crossing the highway. The same thing in town would be unacceptable.

 

[lisab]

There are some regional influences for sure - in the Seattle area, we just don't honk much. If someone in Seattle acted like one of Greg's tormentors, everyone in the area would probably stop in there tracks and stare, thinking wth?

I very, very rarely use my horn, but I had to the other day. I was making a legal U-turn at a light and a woman making a right didn't see me. Since we can't occupy the same location at the same time I had to honk at her before she rammed me with her SUV. That's about the only time I ever use it: just for safety reasons.

 

[ThinkToday]

So the horn is a device of punishment? It should be for helpful communication. Honking at me served no helpful purpose. It didn't speed up anything. As I said in the OP a small honk of frustration I could handle, but there was a long line of ghetto blasting of the horns as if I could change the situation.

IMO, punishment too, in some cases. Ever been behind the idiot reading a book at a stop light that turned green... and they're still reading? I've been a green lights stopped waiting for some guy to figure out whether to turn or not? Ever had someone drift into your lane like a drunk, only to see them texting, putting on makeup, screwing with their GPS, etc.? Yea, I use my horn to say “wake the F up and drive right”, but no, I don't camp on my horn. Punishment, hell ya, people need to wake up and pay attention to their driving or GTFO the road and take care of their business where they don't affect or put others at risk. The main point I’ve made to my kids, as they’ve learned to drive, is that their sole concern behind the wheel is the safe operation of that vehicle, everything else is a distance second, and if there’s something else they need attend to, they find a safe place to pull over and do it. IMO, behind the wheel isn’t the place to multitask, day dream about tonight’s date, etc. Focus, pay attention, obey the law, drive aware of your environment, and you should seldom get the horn.

 

[BobG]

Two times I've been driving in the right lane and a car in the merge lane didn't want to slow down to get in behind me, so when they were forced to, they honked at me for either not speeding up or not getting over.

Almost sounds like two passive-aggressive drivers competing with each other.

I've had drivers in the lane with the right of way speed up just enough that they'll be just past your back bumper so you can't merge at your current speed. That's fine, because you don't have to speed up that much so that you can merge in front of them. But there's some drivers that will keep going the same speed just so they can feel abused at having to slow way down to the let the car with the right of way pass. One driver that knows the other car has to merge, but he has the right of way and likes having the right of way - the other driver with an easy solution, but prefers to be the outraged victim.

Honking horns are pretty rare where I live, too. You certainly have distracted drivers talking on their cell phones, texting, etc, drivers that forget to use their turn signals (or, better yet, the drivers that use their turn signals after a lane change just in case you missed it), and just plain bad drivers, but there aren't that many rude drivers.

But are a few and sometimes they run into each other. There was the road rage incident where a car of 3 teenagers chased a car that offended them, so the chased driver drove into his old neighborhood, parked on a dark side street, got out of his car and shot all three when they stopped behind him to finish the argument they had on the road.

 

[BobG]

I probably should have honked my horn yesterday evening.

I was driving down a side street, approaching the intersection where I needed to make a right turn. A woman was on the street I was going to turn down coming towards the intersection, getting ready to make a left.

She's driving fairly slowly, but cuts the corner stealing my entire lane, meaning I have to pretty much come to a stop to let her complete her turn, and then she still just keeps coming down my lane!

Should have honked, but I just couldn't believe she didn't see me until it was too late to honk. She finally saw me at the last second (I have a Jeep, for crying out loud - eventually she has to notice a Jeep right in front of her!), but couldn't quite come to a complete stop and she hit me.

Of course, having a Jeep, my vehicle is designed to protect the important stuff from getting damaged. And it was kind of hard to tell if she did any damage to my bumper, because that was the same corner of the bumper that I hit a rock with while 4-wheeling (the middle of it is just slightly depressed with the top of it not quite level.

In fact, the trip where I hit the rock is the same one I lost one of the plastic ends to my bumper and didn't notice until the end of my trip. I could have replaced all 4 for about $25 to $30, but decided I liked the look of the bumper better without the milkjugs on the ends. And seeing as how I didn't have those plastic ends anymore, the corner of my metal bumper gouged her plastic bumper.

Pretty strange. Given that it was a side street and she was turning, it was such a slow motion collision where it just took a while to realize she didn't see me.

 

[DaveC426913]

I was driving down a side street, approaching the intersection where I needed to make a right turn. A woman was on the street I was going to turn down coming towards the intersection, getting ready to make a left.

I'll bet she lives very nearby. She's probably gone this way so many times it probably didn't occur to her she might still be obliged to obey traffic laws.

 

[Danger]

I'll bet she lives very nearby. She's probably gone this way so many times it probably didn't occur to her she might still be obliged to obey traffic laws.

Been there—done that. You remember what my town is like, even though you had limited exposure. The buggers put up a 3-way stop on the intersection of 5th Ave. and a mall parking lot, without thinking to install "new signal ahead" signs at eye level as is normally done. I probably went through there 3 or 4 times before I realized that it wasn't still a through-way.