I live on a busy street. Fair enough, it was busy when I moved here. But I still wonder why so many drivers use their horns for so many things that they encounter every day. Why honk your horn because you have to pause while someone backs into a parking space—don’t these people ever park themselves? Maybe not, maybe they stay in their cars, driving around all day looking for things needing to be honked.
Or, there’s the idiot who honks because someone is stopped at a green light, but doesn’t think that maybe there’s someone still in the crosswalk. In fact, a woman was just killed at an intersection on our block by a driver who blindly changed lanes to pass a stopped car from the right and ran over the woman just finishing her way across the crosswalk. The report said he was sorry, he couldn’t see why the other car had stopped.
The worst of them all have to be drivers who honk when traffic is backed up. They’ll do in front of houses, hospitals, it doesn’t matter to them—they’ve got a horn and nothing to do until cars start moving, so they honk. What magical powers do these buffoons think that their horn has been attributed with? Perhaps, like Moses, they wish to part the path so they may pass—unfortunately God doesn’t seem to rank their travels as being quite as important to his plan.
Horns are useful to warn someone about to change lanes, or back out of a parking spot without seeing your car. Horns after a particular team wins the Super Bowl, or at midnight on January 1? I’ll go out on a limb and say that’s acceptable too. Even once—but only once—to let someone inside a house know that the car is waiting outside and the driver is too out of shape to get out and ring the doorbell. But honking just because you’re annoyed is in no way acceptable human behavior.
Maybe you’re one of these horn blowhards, but otherwise a nice person. If so, I beg you to think about how annoying random horn blasts are for someone watching TV, nursing a cold, riding a bike, walking a baby, or just looking for peace and quiet.
Of course, if you’re one of the guilty but don’t see any reason that you should change your behavior to suit others, you probably haven’t thought through the mathematical probability that one day you’re likely to honk your horn at a person nursing a hangover he got from getting drunk the night before because he just lost his job, and is on the way to hock the gun sitting next to him in the passenger’s seat. I’m not saying it’s likely you’ll end up in the morgue; I’m saying, it’s a mathematical possibility if you needlessly honk your horn enough times.
Enough. I’ve got to get to the pawnshop.
I agree… although, unlike you, I drive a copious amount on a daily average… I don’t recall the last time I actually used my horn. I don’t think that I’ve used it in easily 5 or 6 years, although, there have been a few instances that I have thought about it, I am sure!