Do you ever use the horn on your car?

[Skippy88]

I can't even remember the last time I used my horn. Whenever someone does something stupid I usually just curse at them. After all there is was a video floating around a few weeks ago of a guy getting out of his car with a gun to confront someone who was badgering him.

I will say this being in Miami last year for a few days everyone is honk happy. I swear they start honking the instant the light turns green.

[cherb]

Every now and then, someone tries to get over with me in their blind spot, so a horn is useful here to keep them from hitting me and killing us both.

Also, if I see you on your phone, especially texting, when you should be moving, I will not let off the horn til I piss you off enough to get off the phone in traffic.

[s_bushido]

Only to make it very clear to the jackass who just cut me off that they would have been scraping my paint off the back 1/3 of their car had I not slammed on my breaks. People love to forget which lane is theirs in a particular left-hand turn around where I live (or they're so eager to skip a couple car-lengths ahead that they don't give a shit).

Other than that I'll just tap it if someone's not paying attention to a green light.

[Codyak]

Where do I get one of those?

Amazon, just search for Dashcam's and they have a bunch there. Then I bought an SD card to for it as well.

[Belloc]

I'm getting the impression that most of the honkers in this thread live in "big" cities. Driving around in Omaha, NE and Council Bluffs, IA, I rarely have occasion to use my horn -- maybe someone changing lanes without looking once every few months. Stop lights are rarely an issue, either... people go within 1 or 2 seconds of them turning green.

But both times I've been to Chicago, there are constant soundings of car horns coming from everywhere.

Now, I realize that bigger cities have a lot more traffic, but jeez! I mean, someone honks at almost every green light, even when people start moving right away. It's almost like everyone has conditioned themselves to do it as soon as the light turns green. The city might as well install a horn at every light, just so people don't feel so inclined to do it.

Of course, it's not really a surprise. It seems like the vast majority of drivers never bothered taking driver's ed. That, or they didn't learn anything. I kind of wish driving tests were mandatory every 1 or 2 years.

Back on-topic: I use my horn occasionally at green lights, if someone isn't going. I'll use it when people fail to check before lane-changing. I'll use it, occasionally, when animals are displaying particularly poor judgment while crossing the road. I can't stand having to use it and I can't stand hearing other people use it, either.

[FrenchieKDC]

I rarely honk, but it's mostly because I forget about it. The times I have honked is when someone was an idiot driving and I end up almost hitting them, requiring me to slam on my brakes to a full and complete stop instantly. Though I didn't do it every time (maybe 4 times total in all of my years driving), this kind of stuff happened at least twice a day when I was living in Nashville. People there do not seem to care if you, or they, wreck.

[Elegiac]

Liberally. If someone is ahead of me at a green light and isn't paying attention; BEEP.

Seattle drivers are so....bad.

[Adam Jensen]

Yes, usually when some assclown pulls out in front of me, forcing me to slam hard onto my brakes to avoid him.

[poser765]

I am amazed you made it 10 seconds. I'll wait ~2 seconds.... max.

.

Seriously if you honked your horn at me when the light has only been green for 2 seconds...max...the last thing i am going to be doing is moving for you.

People need to lighten up behind the wheel.

[Pancha]

I have yet to use it, but it's considered extremely "rude" in Norway to do so. At some points I really want to do it though. People in roundabouts ...

I've lived and traveled in a ton of Asian countries, and I can clearly say that it's different there. In Vietnam for instance, using the horn is pretty much used just to say that you're on the road. No one seems to care though. Hanoi was a complete mess with people honking all the time. Nice place, just not very relaxing I did have somewhat of the same experience in South-Korea as well, but not to the same extent. Singapore was quiet. So no, I don't use it, but it is clearly dependent on the culture.

[Adam Jensen]

I am amazed you made it 10 seconds. I'll wait ~2 seconds.... max.

Other than to tell texters to gtfo at green lights in front of me, I don't really use it. Most of the time shit happens too fast on the road that I'm focused less on alerting them to their mistake and more on getting away from them. What it really comes down to is that I should be doing both, but I generally don't.

Human reaction time + vehicle reaction time + overcoming inertia means we're not going to move instantly. Especially if we're several cars in line.

[v2prwsmb45yhuq3wj23vpjk]

Why would you yell at someone for that? What if the cigarette caught something in the trash can on fire? That probably wouldn't be too safe now would it?

OT: It is pretty well known that the horn is the least used "feature" of a car that is used, yet it costs $800-$1500 USD to install the horn in a car. If people don't use the horn that often (or if they just dont want a horn in their car) why should the federal government require that a horn be installed in every car? If it wasnt a requirement of the federal government, it could be an option and save people approx 1k on their car purchases.

Food for thought..

Many trash cans in public have ash trays. Even if it didn't, she should extinguish it and then throw it away, not just leave it on the ground.

I am amazed you made it 10 seconds. I'll wait ~2 seconds.... max.

Other than to tell texters to gtfo at green lights in front of me, I don't really use it. Most of the time shit happens too fast on the road that I'm focused less on alerting them to their mistake and more on getting away from them. What it really comes down to is that I should be doing both, but I generally don't.

Holy crap you're impatient.

Liberally. If someone is ahead of me at a green light and isn't paying attention; BEEP.

Seattle drivers are so....bad.

I feel like you're probably the bad driver if you're using your horn so much.

[Hiricine]

I am such a wuss on the horn I'll literally hit it for less than .05 seconds to tell someone stopped at a green light that its time to move. Other than that I don't even look at the thing.

[Felicia]

We have a lot of old people where I live. So yes, I do use the horn :P In the last week, I've seen a guy turning left, but he wasn't in the left turn lane at a light. He was blocking intersection traffic, I honked at him. I almost got blind sided by an old lady that didn't check her blind spot, no blinker. Honked at her, too. And I honked at a guy that was j-walking through horrible traffic, and was expecting cars just to let him through. Honked at him, because I almost hit the asshat.

I use it when someone is being stupid, and I want to effectively announce my annoyance :P I'd yell and scream, but it gets you no where.

[Seiken3]

Here in the part of Norway I live, there are almost a "taboo" if you use the horn. Or so it at least feels like. I've never gotten any concrete answer when it comes to when it's "legal" or when its "illegal" that you use the horn.

But yeah, I use it now and then. Mainly to raise awareness around me. But... *Shrugs* People drive nicely most of the time, so I don't really use it. :P

[Splatter]

A car horn is also a safety/warning feature. My wife was looking for a carpark at the local mall last week and some other woman just started backing out of a carpark right toward her. My wife hit the horn and held it on until the other woman stopped. The other woman got out of the car an apologised for not seeing my wifes car or looking where she was going. Saved us a couple of thousand bucks on repairs/insurance hassle. Here a car will not pass a safety check if it does not have a working horn and as such is not legally allowed on the road.

[Hatecrew]

I use mine all the time. I live in LA and you just see the dumbest drivers out in the street. I'm considering getting a louder horn to make even more of an impact whenever I need to tell the DERP in front of me to drive and stop texting/using phone!

[Palmatum]

I use it quite often... Apparently idiots and bad drivers alike congregate near me.

[muto]

Ya I honk at everyone that doesn't use turn signals or drives like a maniac such as cutting people off.

[Deleted]

Delayed response is what I would say....think of it when it's too late