The joy of the beep !

I don't bother beeping at people over silly stuff, it just causes agro. If they were going to damage my car or cause an accident I would though.

Twas Not wrote: »

That's untrue. I regularly beep motorists and cyclists for dangerous road use such as veering out of lanes, bad roundabout management and being stopped inappropriately on the side of the road for no reason other than tapping an iPhone

Does the horn echo under your bridge?

You wouldn't sound the horn on our pajero in any situation, you'd sound too much like a ponce and embarrass yourself!!

I used the horn a lot more when I was on a motorbike, sometimes it was the only way to stay alive. I still use it now that I'm in a car but less so (I'm also less at risk).

A couple of times I've even been grateful for being beeped, the field of vision in a car is so limited compared to a bike it took me a while to get used to it especially on cold (condensation) mornings. I like to learn.

The road rage it induces in Ireland though, means that it's best to restrict it to when it will serve a purpose. Unfortunately, the numbskulls who need the most warning are also the most likely to misinterpret the gesture.

These are definitely not included in the Rules of the Road;

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

. I only use it to say hello to people ..............................

Mycroft H wrote: »

I use it .................. to say hello to the neighbor.

RandomAccess wrote: »

Places not to use the horn,
Pulling up outside your mates house and your too much of a lazy ****er to get out and ring the bell.

...and Taxi drivers :mad::mad::mad:

Every one should have one of these

No Pants wrote: »

To warn them of my presence. I've used it twice; it has worked twice.

You think flashing someone notified them of your presense? It didnt. At best, you got lucky and they looked in their mirror at the last second and saw you. Beeping the horn gets the attention of the driver who is not looking in their mirrors, which is its very point; there is no point in using something that relies on the driver looking at your car, when its blatently obvious they werent looking to begin with.

No Pants wrote: »

I have already spotted what was happening and taken action before flashing. There was no longer any danger.

So your flashing prevented nothing then? Im assuming the other car continued to drift into your lane after you had backed off?

Fair enough; I stand by my thinking that you got lucky that the other car remembered what their mirrors were far and noticed you. Had they not looked in their mirrors they would not have known of your presense to cancelled the manoeuvre. You might not be so lucky the next time. I can tell you of countless incidents where I am absolutely certain that I would have ended up in a collision had I not put my hand on the horn in an effort to prevent another motorist from blindly turning in on me. Just last week I was nearly wiped out on the M1 by a bus that suddenly decided he wanted to overtake something while I was in the process of overtaking him; had I flashed my lights at him rather than put my hand on the horn it is very likely that I would have ended up in a mangled heap of metal on the side of the motorway...

Beeping to prevent an incident from occuring is not distracting to other motorists, and even if it is then its better to have them momentarily distracted by your beeping then potentially caught up in your high speed incident because you didnt feel that being assertive was the correct response to prevent said incident.

I must say I use it relatively frequently. At least once every couple of months. Typical situations involve:

1) Lane drifting on multi-lane roundabouts. If you're about to cut off my exit from the roundabout because you didn't follow the road markings and/or make me jam on 20 seconds after pulling away from a green light to enter the roundabout, you will get a short blast of the horn to put you back in your lane. I understand you might be confused and need to go around the roundabout, but unless you're indicating I'm going to treat you as a drifting idiot and direct you to where you should be using my horn. It's safer for you, safer for me, and safer for anyone behind me who shouldn't have to suffer rear-ending me because of your lack of attention

2) Driving up to within 10ft of a truck/bus/micra in lane 1 on the motorway, breaking to 90 km/h and then pulling out in front of me doing 130km/h in lane 2. I knew you were going to do this 200m ago, because I drive on the motorway a lot. I can see you are completely clueless, otherwise you'd have pulled into lane 2 ages ago when it was clear. I know you are going to be halfway into my lane before you even attempt to indicate, and that this will be a wild brake-swing-indicate maneuver. You, sir/madam, will get a reminder that I'm coming up too fast for you to pull this ridiculous stunt. And that you should wait for an empty lane. It's not my fault you boxed yourself in, and pulling out is effectively brake-testing me.


It might be scary/startling at times for those that need the warning, but I think its safer all around if people are encouraged not to make stupid moves. Someone didn't beep at me on a dual carriageway when I was learning, and I completely misjudged the distance/speed of traffic in lane 2 as I attempted to overtake a van with a trailer. I was indicating in plenty of time, had an L plate up, but the driver thought it was more appropriate to power through than to warn me, so I ended up 2 feet into his lane before I saw he had just entered my blind spot. This was completely my fault, but I could have taken him, me and probably the van and trailer out. No-one can tell me that the horn is a waste of time after that. Scares without incidents are good, they make us better drivers