what is the point of a car horn?

[Big hub]

i think car horns should be removed from modern cars, all people use them for is a vocal middle finger, they serve no purpose, if you have time to use the horn you have time to avoid the problem in the first place.
Recently crossing a dual carriage way, a car in the outside lane, a good distant away put his hand on the horn and kept it there for a good time after he had passed, all it did was to scare the st out of the people on the inside lane.
We are getting like Italy when all you can hear is the blare of Fiamm air horns.

[GiantCardboardPlato]

I once used it to beep someone who ran a red light at pedestrian crossing at a crossroads, obviously to alert other road users to the danger. Happily it caught the attention of police waiting at the lights on of the other roads , who promptly stopped the red light tt and told them off.

worth it just for that tbh.

[WarrenB]

Only time I tend to use my horn is if someone doesn't notice a green light. A quick toot, they apologise and everyone gets on with their day.

Couple of days ago I was on a roundabout, someone was starting to drift into my lane so I backed off slightly to avoid a potential collision and gave a quick beep to let them know I was there. They swerved in front of me, brake checked me and then sped off in their original lane.

[boyse7en]

I never use mine in anger, but use it regularly on the blind corners of the single-track roads that proliferate around my home. In Devon the horn is especially useful due to the high hedges meaning that you can't see across junctions etc.

[mmm-five]

I use it when going over single-lane hump-back bridges, where you can't see the other side. Give a toot, and if I don't hear a response I start to drive over...still cautiously though.

Same goes for a couple of tight corners we have in side streets, where everyone parks right up to and across the corners.

[Bennet]

Legitimate and worthwhile reasons to use the horn are rare, but when you need it, you need it.

I hate to say it, but horns also go some way to making the roads "self policing". Imagine the insane selfish stunts people would pull constantly if no one could even honk the horn at you.

[ARHarh]

10% of people round here beep there horn when they approach a corner on a country lane. Can't imagine what good it will do, much better to just slow down a bit. Then what about the people who have to beep the horn at midnight when they drop their friends back home.

Or that time we wired a mates car horn to his ignition. Made a noisy trip home for him that day.

[LuS1fer]

I use it for people on phones while driving.

Sadly, my Insignia has a pathetic toot where my son's 23 year old MR2 gives a strident twin tone.

[Hol]

I honestly couldn’t care less that a subset of people who deliberately drive like s and cut other road users up are upset at people beeping them.

[Catastrophic Poo]

I prefer the Indian use.

Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep Beep beep beep

[CLX]

Don't forget that some people need to use it as a last 'goodbye' as they drive away from the house they were visiting.

[HealeyV8]

The best use I've experienced is to stop some unobservant person reversing into you.

[CalisenQX]

Also useful to scare pheasants off the road

[speedking31]

When in a petrol station and the vehicle in front starts reversing to change lanes without checking that there's nothing behind. I guess that's a dying use case these days

[RB Will]

Use it to make the wife jump when she walks around the front of the car to get in

[Ohio7274]

Is quite handy at times when the car in front starts reversing into you without looking. Clearly they don’t always look but a quick toot soon wakes them up and avoids a shunt.

[captain.scarlet]

I can't remember whether it was a tip I was given or read somewhere, but I've tapped at my horn on narrow country roads with blind corners/bends.

It has been reciprocated by the vehicle coming in the opposite direction.

At least both know to slow down in such instances and make provision for providing clearance for one another.

Those have been good instances of road manners and horn usage.

At the polar opposite, you could have a narrow road, straight or with bends, and some people expect you to move over into the brambles for them.

If I'm safely on my side or can't move any further to the left because I know my car paintwork will get ravaged, I simply slow down or stop and let the arrogant motorist opposite face the consequences of their actions.

[Chubbyross]

I thought I never used one until mine packed up for a couple of weeks. Driving a Caterham in London is tricky enough but when you don’t have a warning system to let other drivers know you’re there is really quite scary.

[oldaudi]

I use mine to wake up people who are staring at their phone and have not noticed that the lights are now green
At people who don’t see their filter light change green
Voi scooters who drive down the middle
As I’m reversing out of the father in laws drive. The mother in law is 82 with a pacemaker, I can see day light between the floor and her slippers every time. “Maybe next time” I say to the children

Edited by oldaudi on Friday 2nd June 09:07

[J4CKO]

Its literally know got a Pavlovian response and it means "fk YOU" and for some that is its only meaning, couldn't be possibly someone warning you there is a vehicle nearby and to exercise caution, and you should only react furiously like a stupid dog when the post arrives.

I tend to avoid its use as it tends to escalate a situation so I try to temper my desire to make a point for a quiet life, that Nissan Note driver who pulled into my lane for no apparent reason at 50 mph when I was doing, er, more will still be a derp if I blow my horn or not, and doubt it serves any educational purpose as after 60 plus years and they still do that there is no hope for them, and its not my job to try and educate other motorists, just myself.

I had a woman flick me the bird from a Merc E class convertible a while back, going down a narrow, hedge lined road, I beeped to alert anyone around there was a car round the next (blind) bend, she comes round the corner with a finger aloft, so I can now use the horn as insult for cars I cant see as well as ones I can ? quite a skill that.

Dash cammers love the horn, I think on one of the Sunday evening "RIP Grandad" videos I counted a record of 27 seconds for one cretin, I think a car had come onto a roundabout in front of him (usually a bloke) and had had to accelerate hard to catch it and then does a wounded premiership fanny impression, the driving equivalent of rolling round clutching your knee with a career ending injury, only to get up, limp for two steps and carry on as if nothing has happened. For every second beyond 0.5 you are adding more bellend points and 27 seconds is quite an achievement, the first 0.1 seconds of the horn make the point, the other 26.9 are superfluous and should be punishable by being rolled in nettles, naked for however many seconds beyond 1.