If it is, no one has informed me. When I was learning how to drive, my instructor told me that blasting the horn was a no no, but it was a good tool to use to inform of the other drivers of my exisitance.
So, today, I was making a quick trip to the grocery store on my scooter. When pulling out of the parking lot, there is a traffic light. It only turns green when it senses that a few cars are lining up for a while. This makes it easy for many drivers to sit and sit and sit and get lost in their thoughts while waiting. While leaving, I sat at the light for a while waiting for it to turn green. When it finally did, the car in front of me sat idle for a while. I gave him about five seconds to get going, but when I realised he wasn’t going to, I gave a quick tap on the horn. He then stuck his hand out the window and flipped me off. It wasn’t a blast of the horn, just a nice friendly tap to say “Hey buddy, it’s time to put your foot on the gas!”
Later, as I was doing even more errands, I was riding behind a car, in the left lane, that was going a little bit slower than the flow of traffic. I thought she realise that at one point during the stretch of road when she pulled into the right lane. About two seconds later, it seems like she changed her mind and swerved back into the left lane. I know that being on a scooter makes me less visible so she probably neglected to see me, so I gave the horn a tap again, to let her know that she just cut off another vehicle on the road. She rolled down the windows and told me I was a “fucking bitch!” :eek:
All this rage just because I honked my horn at someone? What the hell gives?
Under the circumstances you describe (and I am on a scooter frequently, too) I would have done exactly what you did. The other drivers may have been embarassed and due to lack of personal couth, did what comes naturally to them. Other drivers might have been more polite.
That happens more often than not around these parts as well. Many people seem to think that being honked at is an affront to their manhood and they respond with the only type of manners they have.
When I visited Siberia a couple of years ago I noticed that drivers would routinely tap the horn when they were going through an intersection to alert other drivers of their presence. I never once saw any aggressive reactions to this.
It seem like people go out of their ways to look for offense where none is intended. It’s hard enough to portray demeanor accurately in plain text, even more so with a car horn. I walk to work every day and see plenty of extra-automobile communication taking place via horn honks. Judging by 99% of the responses, this is not the ideal way to deliver a message from one automobile to another.
The default assumption is that the horn honk is a complaint. The standard response in today’s world seems to be, as you observed, “fuck you”.
I’ve long thought that the car horn needed more “bandwidth”. There should be at least three distinctive tones, one meaning “I politely request you to notice the light has turned green”, another meaning “Hey! Look out! You are driving like you do not I am here, and may hit me!”, and one for expressing hatred and profanity unfit for this forum.
Oh, and another for when you recognize friends on the road and want to get their attention.
I think horns are useful–but we should have two types. One, in the center, for “oh sh!t, emergency!” alert and on the sides, a “toodle-ooh schnookums, wakey wakey!” horn.
Also, people who get upset when you honk when they fall asleep at a light (5 seconds would be a whole green light cycle at our lights) or when they almost back into you/lanechange you are just psychotic misanthropes. Or very nice people in a very crappy moment.
Having someone honk at you signifies that you are doing something wrong, or at the very least not doing something right. Many people believe themselves to be the most impeccable, shining examples of humanity with which God saw fit to gift the earth. As such, these people respond quite poorly to criticism of any sort. No fault of yours.
We do have distinctive honks, although maybe not as distinctive as we might wish. A light, short horn tap should be sufficient to wake up a sleepy driver or say hello. A longer horn, or a series of beeps can mean “look sharp!” and a long, continuous horn or many long beeps can mean “accident imminent unless you take action!!!”
Until loudspeaker systems are incorporated as part of the standard package or cell phone numbers are painted on the rear bumper, I think we’ll be stuck with the horn for a while.
I agree with the folks who wrote that a quick little tap “B’beep” is a car equivalent of an ahem and a sustained lean-on “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP” is construed as sharp displeasure or alarm.
If the recipient can’t discern the difference, that’s their problem.
In Denver a horn honk seems to mean, and is taken as meaning, “Move it, you jerk!”
However, a few year ago (yike! 5 years!) I was driving around Cleveland, where the honking was much friendlier and meant things like, “Watch out! The lane you are in is going to suddenly disappear and become a parking lane only!” which of course I didn’t know. It really seemed much friendlier and more in the spirit of what the horn was intended for.
The last time I used my horn I intended it to mean, “You are signaling a turn to go the wrong way onto a one-way street,” but the fellow interpreted it to mean, “You’re turning too slowly, move it!” So he turned, meanwhile sticking his hand out the window to wave one finger at me. I guess within a couple of seconds he realized what my honk really meant.
Huh? It’s not that bad. People get pissed off, but 3/4 of the idiot-ass Escalade driving cell-phone talking soccer moms deserve to be honked at while they drive 40, straddling the center line in a 55 mph zone.
I usually punctuate the horn with a middle finger, myself.
Honking has always been considered rude in these parts (the Deep South). Here, a horn should only be used in the most extreme circumstances, say to alert someone when you are in their blind spot and they start to pull over.
I’ve a new car. Pathfinder. The horn was apparently designed for a large ship. It’s freaking loud.
I also have one of those automatic key fob unlock/lock things with a ‘panic’ button on it. I hate it. The panic button that is.
Recently, at a hotel with my Wife, I heard sombodys ‘honk, honk, honk’ car alarm go off.
What an idiot says me.
Well, that idiot was me. I had leaned against a countertop in my hotel room and the key fob thing in my pocket got pressed and set off the car ‘alarm’.
I’d like to have one of these. Only it seems that I need to generate steam on my motorcycle, unless someone decides to come up with an electronic one.
I seldom use my horn, even with the boneheaded maneuvers people make when I’m riding. I try to maintain situational awareness, so that I’m not surprised when people suddenly cut in front of me. I don’t give them a you-could-have-killed-me-you-jerk honk, since that’s not my temperament. But when I’m right next to them and they try to change lanes into me, a honk usually (but not always) puts them back in their own lane.
I think the problem with different set of sounds for the horns would be that every asshole driver out there will think everything is an emergency or people with road rage will use the “fuck you” horn consistently.
It wasn’t a blast of the horn, just a nice friendly tap to say “Hey buddy, it’s time to put your foot on the gas!”