This morning, on a blind corner up a steep hill the tanker in front of me suddenly cut out and stopped. He turned his hazzard lights on, so clearly there was a problem.
Faced with either waiting indefinitely, or chancing the corner, I chanced the corner, as did a stream of cars behind me.
Afterwards it occurred to me to wonder whether sounding the horn would have been of any use in warning any unseen oncoming traffic. Should I have sounded it continuously, or in pulses, or would it just have been a pointless gesture more likely to anger the tanker driver and everybody else?
In fact, apart from as a sometimes irresistible way of swearing at people, what use does the horn have? Unlike a headlight flash, which is pretty directional, a blast on the horn radiates to all and sundry. How often are you distracted by a horn that may have come from anywhere, and was probably just someone tooting to a mate anyway?
Anyone got any thoughts ?
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Better to use your headlights on continuously on full beam, and creeping forward very slowly or getting past the hazard at highest possible speed, in the situation you describe. Even then, you are chancing it.
As far as the horn is concerned, it seems now guaranteed to annoy people in any situation - especially when used by taxi-drivers using it (rather than the doorbell) to announce their arrival at your house.
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As far as the horn is concerned, it seems now guaranteed to annoy people in any situation - especially when used by taxi-drivers using it (rather than the doorbell) to announce their arrival at your house.
Also annoyingly used by some visitors to announce both their arrival and their departure, and presumably also to demonstrate to the whole street that their horn is still functioning !!
I say my final goodbye by means of a silent couple of flashes of my hazard lights ~ doesn't annoy anyone, and doesn't wake up anyone's children either.
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CP,
If you ever have the opportunity to drive in the 3rd World, or being more PC "developing countries" - you'll find the horn an invaluable tool for helping you get the various bovine, canine and feline species that are usually obstructing the road to move! Occasionally, a human may need a bit of prompting too!.
In any one of those major cities i.e. Cairo, Nairobi, Delhi, Karachi, Colombo etc. the sound of blaring horns is the norm.
I remember when my Dad first drove in Colombo after 30 odd years over here, he never used the horn at all and got "told off" by many other road users!
Chad.R
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Chad R - I agree with you about the 3rd world. What puzzles me though is that with multitude of horns that seem to be sounding all at once, how does anyone know which horn is being blown to attract whose attention where? But still it seems to work.
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What has to be understood in third world motoring is that the horn (a) exists (b) works when blown. That is quite sufficient reason alone for it to be used on a continuous basis.
In the Philippines this is well understoodd:
* Buses (extremeley loud like the Queen Mary) Continuous blasts at 5 sec intervals until bus is full (can take a while) and be very noisy when 8-10 buses are doing it underneath one's offcie window. Thereafter as for Jeepneys, below
* Jeepneys: must possess hunting type horn for attracting attention of passengers waiting. Normal loud air horn thereafter as for taxis (below). Latter must be used every 100 meters regardless and come what may. This is an important part of knowing how to be a jeepney driver.
* Taxis: a short blip at least every 100 meters. Further blips when over/undertaking, when pedestrian is seen walking who looks like a foreigner, or when female shapely rear end clad in denim one size too small is sited (this is extremely high incidence in this country and merits several prolonged blips) or when you are occupying the piece of road he wants to be on. It is not necessary for you to actually to be able to move, you are there and thus you are depriving him of where he wants to be. Thus he tells you this via the horn. Simple.
* Large trucks, very loud air horns every 100 meters or when anything else moving is seen (people, carts, tricycles,) or simply when horn has not been sounded within last 60 seconds.
The driver's mate often operates this and has wide decision-making powers in this regard. May also be garbage truck outside waiting for your garbage (commonly at 0530 Sunday morning) or Kenworth 18-wheeler 3" from your rear bumper at 110 kph despite the fact it is impossible for you to (a) go any faster, (b) pull over. Same rule as for taxis in the event the trucker wants your bit of road.
* Gov't vehicle: Known by its "woop-woop" sign. Anything and all things are expected to give way, since anyone in gov't is very important. The lower down the organisational tree, the more important in fact. Thus do auditors and legal assistants add spice to their dull lives. If you do not move, then the woop-woop will be played continuously with added lighting effects on the assumption you may be deaf.
* Make-believe gov't vehicle: as for above, in this case it is someone who sees no reason in a democracy why he shouldn't do the same. Variations on the wannabe theme include Doctor On Call, Media Executive, and Necrological Services (that's undertaker to you)
* CBS Evening News Truck: continuous police pursuit siren howl backed up with continual horn: the film footage of that bus which went over a cliff down the road cannot be late for the 6 O'Clock News;
*Lowered Honda Civic driven by 18 year old. Horn not normally accorded prime importance due to several thousand watts of Eminem giving ample warning of approach from 3 km, however loud trumpet horns may be used on occasion when attractive female sightings are made, friends are seen, or it is 3 a.m. on Sunday morning.
*Small vans, some small school buses, delivery trucks which mainly ply the private residential roads have the Chinese multiple model which can be switched between barking dog, imitation LAPD pursuit wailer, high-pitched whistle, a croaking frog or a simple common or garden toot.
*Horns are totally unnecessary on Mercedes, Nissan patrols, Ford Excursions, Ford Club Wagons and the like which are black painted, have black windows and no license plates. These know you will move over because they have guns inside.
Filipino horns are also quite advanced in that they have sensory capabilities, i.e. exactly 5 seconds before the lights change to green, every combination of horns behind you immediately sounds.
There is also a strange metaphysical quality about horns which I have noticed in driving in every country east of the Bosphorus and as far round the corner up into Asia as Cambodia: pedestrians, cyclists, bullock carts et al will never move out of any vehicle's way until the horn is blown despite the fact you are clearly advancing on them to a point where someone is going to have to make a serious decision to avoid an impending collision. Yesterday I was riding my motorcycle and a man stepped out in front of me 50 meters away. He saw me coming, we established eye contact and he still did it. I kept on my course, surely he sees me coming and will move. Nope, 40 meters, 30, 20, finally 10 meters away from diaster, I gave him a blast from the horn. He jumped out of my way as though poleaxed and yelled obscenities at me!
It is as though the vehicle is only materialised in the consciousness via the horn. Once heard, movement will happen. Without it, most often not. I have never studied oriental philosophy deeply enough to know why this is.
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In Dehli even the elephants are used to it.
In the UK, the horn is usually a guaranteed wind up - it has of course, never been any use with the hard of hearing, of which there are many.
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In the UK, the horn is usually a guaranteed wind up
Yes, I felt that just about summed it up. My thought had been though, headlights can't shine round a corner, but a horn would have been heard.
So it would be better all round if they stopped fitting them to cars?
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In that situation, yes you should have used the horn IMHO. It warns both the driver of the lorry that you are there and also potentially unseen traffic to be on the alert. If it was dark maybe the flashing light idea would have helped as well. However, in an earlier thread I made clear I support the use of the horn even though it gave me aggro in return in one particular instance. How do those who advocate abolishing the horn deal with humpback bridges or blind bends in narrow Devon country lanes with banking either side or hairpins in the Alps? I doubt that they wind the window down and listen for oncoming traffic. Don't use the horn in urban areas at night by all means but it is invaluable for we yokels (teuchters if you're in Scotland).
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I agree with the use of the horn as recommended in the Highway Code. It is just that in doing so, you have to be prepared for the aggro it will provoke, but that is worth it if it prevents an a worse situation. In the situation described in the first post, I just thought that the sound of a horn may not be heard by a fast oncoming vehicle above the noise in their car (engine or road noise, or if they have their windows shut and/or their radios/CD playing.
In the case of obscured bends: Using full beam continuously - not just a flash or maybe even using continuos dipped lights - during the day can be helpful while negotiating a hazard, because even on a bend any oncoming drivers usually can see the reflected light on the corner. I regularly use this method going round a narrow curved street around where I live and it works quite well to warn oncoming traffic of your presence before they see you around the bend.
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On my regular routes there are a couple of railway bridges spanning sharp bends on narrow roads. I would feel very vulnarable entering these without first giving a warning toot on the horn. It is a great pity that what is fitted as a safety aid is so misused that one has to think twice in most situations where it would be of use, by which time it is too late.
More government money spent on useful driving advice please, instead of patronising TV adverts showing a car on which the rear breaks have clearly been disconected hitting a child, allegedly because it was speeding.
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instead ofpatronising TV adverts showing a car on which the rear breaks have clearly been disconected ...
And the front wheels are locked (invalidating everything they say about stopping distances) but the driver keeps the brake pedal pressed anyway. And the message is that 35mph is the wrong speed because it is 5mph over the posted limit, even though the scene has a busy urban street (with a pedestrian crossing?) and kids in the road such that 30mph would be criminally fast. But it's OK to drive into children at 30mph because they might survive.
I was annoyed by that one too Tom.
GJD
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