I ride my bike. Yes, I ride it in the road. Not wanting to be splatted, I am anal about the rules and laws. I always wear a helmet, I only ride in the daylight, I stop at all of the lights and stop signs, etc.
Yet it seems like every time I go on the main road, someone - and it’s usually a woman - feels the need to tap/honk her horn at me. Why? Do they think this is helpful? All it does is startle me when I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Do you think I am not aware of the traffic whizzing by at 40 mph? I am well over to the side and not in anyone’s way. Jerk.
And then when they drive by it’s not like they’re giving me the finger or anything. They are just siting there, looking forward, all self-righteous and smug because they done told that biker.
SCUSE ME! TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT HERE! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
I fear many people forget just how frikkin’ loud car horns can be outside of the comfort of their air conditioned, window closed, radio playing cars. It’s one of the things I hated most about driving a convertible.
Depends. If it is mostly women, it’s most likely a show of support. More likely if you’re outside city limits or there’s not a strong cycling presence in the area. A short tap after passing is friendly. A short tap before passing is likely to let you know they’re there. (Most people don’t realize how much a cyclist can hear) A longer shot or a long blast is definitely hostile.
I ride on the road a lot and I appreciate the quick taps of the horn when vehicles are approaching from behind. When going into any sort of breeze (or a cross-wind), it is loud and it is entirely possible to not hear a vehicle approaching (I do wear a little mirror but I’m not always great about checking it). When going with the breeze it is easy to hear approaching cars.
So, is it cars approaching from your rear or ones coming towards you? Coming towards you…yeah, that’s odd but not something I really experience.
Maybe you are riding on busy roads with constant cars? My post above is for rural highways with very light traffic. Like you can ride for several minutes without a vehicle going by.
I ride on a road where there is almost always steady traffic but it’s not bumper to bumper or anything. Like people are really going 40 mph.
I don’t like the honking. In all seriousness I’m sure it’s meant as a courtesy but where I live, honking is (usually) reserved for when you’ve done something wrong. It really startles me.
It is always the cars behind me, and I can always hear them. Really, wguy123, you can’t hear them? I usually have my iPod on, low, and I can still hear everything on the road.
Oh, and it’s a two lane road each way. If they started honking coming at me I’d probably give up riding altogether.
They are trying to be courteous and I appreciate it. And yes, when going into a 10mph headwind and I am going 18mph, windnoise is freaking loud (I’ve considered wearing earplugs like I do on my motorcycles)! I often cannot hear vehicles approaching. If I am going with the wind or slowly going up a hill then I can hear them.
Maybe it is congratulatory? “Hey, you go being friendly to the environment and getting into shape! Let me tap my horn as a happy nod to your awesomeness!”
Well, probably not. Still, you could pretend that’s what they are doing :).
My elderly mother was also apparently raised/trained to courtesy tap the horn when approaching bikers or even pedestrians on a street corner if she thought they were unaware of her. The first time she did it and I realized that was what she was doing I was absolutely mortified. And insisted she never do it again, so as to avoid potentially getting shot here in California :D. Took a few repetitions ( and really more her ceasing to drive ) to kick that nasty habit.
Anyway, cars shouldn’t honk you to let you know they are coming, they should just give you plenty of clearance. Do they “courtesy honk” other cars that they pass? No, they pass safely. They should do the same for you. Although, I don’t think you should use your headphones while riding, of course.
I used to bike everywhere before I had a child, and I often got honked at by cars, often accompanied by “Get on the sidewalk.” It’s illegal to be on the sidewalk with a bike larger then whatever the largest bike size that’s considered a “child’s” bike is.
When I was in high school, I pulled crap like going onto sidewalks long enough to skip through lights, and rolling through stop signs, but I stopped doing that when I started driving, and I realized how dangerous it was to dart in and out of traffic. I scrupulously followed all rules, and rode as fast as I could when there was a lot of traffic. The only cheating I ever did was when I got to bypass traffic jams by essentially passing on the inside.
It’s not courteous to honk, as far as I’m concerned, if it’s going to startle me into jerking into traffic.
Don’t get me started on the people who think you have to pass a bike like a car, by pulling all the way into the opposite lane, and speeding up, so cars will tailgate me until they are clear to pull over. Please. Stay in the lane, pull over to the far side, and slow down slightly.
A) Didn’t mention if I was going down a hill.
B) I never wear headphones while riding except for very occasionally on bike trails that have no motorized vehicles. (I think you got that idea from the OP).
C) I still like the little blip honk. I think it is courteous.
Four wheels also hates 18 wheels. And most drivers hate those going slower than them and aren’t too pleased with those going faster than them either. They hate it when the law is broken, but hate it even more when the law is obeyed. I have actually had a driver tell me with a straight face that the minimum speed is the speed limit. And yes, I know about the flow of traffic concept. Except this driver was complaining about ALL the drivers going slower than the speed limit by a few mph. It was 40 speed limit and the flow of traffic was 35. This was obviously a great offense and the police should have ticketed them all, or whoever the ringleaders of this conspiracy to do only 35 was.
Do what you think is best if your intentions are unselfish. As a driver, you probably know that no matter what you do, other drivers, pedestrians, and bikers are going to get pissed off from time to time. Some will be pissed because you honked, others, will be pissed because you didn’t.
I don’t care whether a driver honks or not, it’s helpful sometimes, but I don’t need it. What does piss me off is drivers who give the short honk to tell me they are turning right in front of me and therefore I should stop for them. Because it would kill them to wait the one second it takes for me to be out of their way.
