Techchick: Helloooooooo, are you listening? I’m a teenager. I’m invincible! Nothing can hurt me!
Besides, I live in Canada. (Insert condescending comment about Canada not being a warzone here)
I’m a teenager, too, but I certainly don’t consider myself invincible. Extending the OP a little farther, which do you find more annoying: receiving the finger or something honking his/her car horn? I have never done either.
Well, I’ve never noticed anyone giving me the finger, and thus have no level of irritation to attribute to that. However, I may have been honked at a few times (accidentally running a red light, not going at a green light, drifting between lanes, rearending people, once I think I hit and ran, you know, I need to get more sleep), and I was fairly annoyed, because the guy was trying to run a redlight, or thought that I could go on a left turn (I happen to value my life more than he does, though). Anyway, if you honk your horn, everyone around you notices and they can’t be too sure who you’re honking at. The finger though, few notice, so you’re safer and it’s more specific. I usually just swear.
You’ve never used your car horn? You’d fit right in here in St. Louis. In the 2+ years I’ve lived here, I have heard another driver blow his horn exactly twice. (And one of those drivers was an ex-New Yorker like me, so he doesn’t count.)
The horn is there for a reason. It announces your car’s presence to people who can’t see you, and also serves as an alert signal for inattentive drivers.
If you’re on the highway and someone is drifting into your lane, blow the horn. The other driver wasn’t paying attention to the road, or just didn’t see your car; sounding the horn will let ip know you’re there.
If you’re behind someone at a traffic light, and ip doesn’t move for several seconds after it turns green, tap the horn lightly. The driver is probably distracted-- changing the radio station or reading a map or something-- and hasn’t realized that the light changed.
If opposing traffic drifts into your lane, slow down and lean on the horn. At best, the idiot will realize ip’s on the wrong side of the road, and correct the situation. At worst, ip’ll still hit you, but you can truthfully testify that you did something to avert the collision.
In short: yeah, it’s not good to use the horn whenever you’re pissed off at somebody. But there are situations in which you’re supposed to use it.
Laugh hard; it’s a long way to the bank.
Actually, I’ve used my horn to alert people moving into my lane right on top of me, but not for anything else. Mostly I think it’s because the horn is so universal, it alerts everyone, and I think it could be distracting.
I guess one of the reasons I’ve never used a horn is that I’ve had my license for less than a year. The other is that I do get annoyed when I hear a horn. Even though the driver directs it at one person, everyone in the area has to hear that sound. It’s not a pleasant one, either.
The car horn may have a purpose in design, but in practice it does become annoying.
A horn?!
If I only had such luxuries!