That’s the question, do you use your horn? Do other people in your area?
Seattle is a strange city, in that no one ever uses their horn. If you do, you’d be responsible for at least three latte spills and maybe a fender bender on on the opposite side of the street.
One of the bedroom communities has gone so far are to ticket honkers for road rage.
I’ve lived in many cities. Kansas City honks, so does Austin, L.A. fer sure.
Boston and New Orleans drivers seem to have the horn wired directly to the brake pedal. San Francisco and San Diego, don’t honk much, but still more than Seattle.
How much does your city or town honk? Is there anywhere else as “honkless” as Seattle?
You haven’t met my brother-in-law! He honks at EVERYTHING! Since he does seem to be the only person in Seattle who does it, if you see someone cruising by laying on their horn, wave; it’s my BIL.
His horn is broken, he’s used it so often. Now it just makes dying goose noises. Hoooo-OOOO-oooonk. HAAAAOOONK. HERNK. eeeeeeeee. HORNK.
I love that guy. He’s not angry or anything. He just really, really likes his horn.
Anyway, more on topic, back home in New Brunswick, you rarely heard anyone honk. Then again, you rarely met anyone else on the road.
This was a recent conversation at work and many people were surprised to find out that it is an offence in Australia to sound your horn unless it is necessary to warn animals or other road user of the approach or position of your vehicle. You can be fined for sounding your horn at the driver slow to take a gap at the lights or any other sounding that isn’t to prevent an accident.
Tucson in general is a horn-honking town. Lots of honking going on here. I personally honk if someone is about to hit me, but that’s about all. One time as I was driving past a house and a guy came out in a towel and nothing else to get something from his car, I did honk in an excited way. He waved.
Oh, and my husband says go to 15th and Leary sometime. Apparently it’s quite noisy. I haven’t noticed it, myself, but I’m usually going through there at slower times in the evening, and he’s there at busier times, during the day. He says all hell breaks loose if the bridge is up. (Like honking will make it go down faster!)
Ballard and those noisy Norwegians! They’re so vicious!
The great odds are that the guy in the other car does not have a loaded shotgun… or that his aim is lousy… but why take the chance? Seriously, I think the horn blowing in SoCal is really pretty limited, just like the use of turn signals.
I rarely use mine. Actually, I only use it if someone is daydreaming their way through a green light.
If someone almost hits me, I don’t see the point. Honking could startle them and cause more chaos. What’s the point of honking after the fact? It’s not going to somehow change the fact that this person just scared the crap out of me.
If someone is just basically driving like a complete moron, they probably wont realize that the honking is directed at them anyway. So, again, what’s the point?
People in western MA don’t seem to honk as much as people from the Worcester and Boston areas. There was this guys yesterday though - he was such a jerk. We were stopped at a red light. I was behind him. Someone was in front of him. The person at the front had his right turn signal going. He was also slightly pointed right - there was no doubt that he was going right. This is a no turn on red intersection so it’s not like the guy could legally go right. Also, our light was red so there was no chance the second guy in line could have gone through the intersection. But, he started honking at the guy in front of him and gesturing for him to go. I thought maybe he knew the other driver and was being an ass on purpose. Then, next intersection - exactly same scenario. Red light, no turn on red, first car going right - and he starts honking again. He did this at 4 intersections to 4 different drivers. I wanted to kick his ass by the time I turned right and he went straight.
As it happens they do. The fine is $225 and hundreds have been issued. I was checking some data recently - people have even been booked in McDonald’s carparks.
I learned to drive in the Worcester area - they are **very **familiar with their horns. I thought I was pretty light with it myself until I moved to the Clearwater/St. Pete area of Florida…I don’t know if they realize they even have horns down here!
Washington, D.C., is filled with the sounds of horns. The sense of urgency tends to spill out into the suburbs, where the most frequent horn-honking occurs not to prevent an accident but to wake up the guy who’s still not moving 0.01 second after the light turns green.
I have been to Egypt a few times and experienced Cairo traffic many times as a passenger (haven’t driven there) and horn-honking is ubiquitous, and not necessarily rude or aggressive, kind of as if you walked down a busy sidewalk saying, “Excuse me, 'scuse me, excuse me, excuse me, on your left, pardon me. . . .”
I’m in the DC suburbs, too, and don’t use my horn very often. I had to use it earlier this week, though, when a lady thought the left arrow meant she could go straight and she nearly hit my car.
I also will use it if people aren’t paying attention to the traffic lights, but I’m not one of the “0.01 second” folks that CookingWithGas mentioned (though I’m definitely familiar with that type!). I sometimes have to honk folks in the morning, when they pull up to a stoplight, disappear behind their dashboard, and stay there. I don’t ask for much, folks, just that you actually drive while you’re driving.
I don’t honk people who are going too slow in the left-hand lane. I prefer to tailgate them.
I don’t know if the signs are still up, but there used to be parts of NYC where you could (theoretically) be fined for using your horn.
I moved up here to VT/NH from NYC and here virtually no one uses their horn. People will wait patiently until the person in front of them realizes that the light changed 30 seconds ago. I think part of it is that everyone knows everyone and you wouldn’t want to be beeping at someone you know or someone who knows someone you know. That small town-ness led to an amusing anecdote from someone else who moved here from the city:
He was on Main Street and for some reason felt the need to beep at someone, so he did. Days later, someone came up to him and said “Do you drive a red truck? Yeah, you beeped at someone the other day. We don’t do that here.” So you really can’t get away with much!!
Lots of honking in Oklahoma City. There are so many rubes come to town to sell a horse or something, and cruise the freeway at 40mph looking up at the 12 story buildings.