Why do drivers sound the horn to vent their anger against other drivers

Whitewavemark2

Highway Code.

Only use your horn to warn others of your presence.

Never use your horn aggressively

Never use your horn when stationary

Never in a built up area between 11pm? and 6am? Unless someone is in clear danger.

I know that is in the highway code but what are you do do eg if parked and stationary and you see that someone is reversing straight towards you? I would sound my horn and i bet that 9/10 drivers would. The 10th would get hit!

cangran

Although I don't drive or cycle (too scared to in London!), as a pedestrian, what I often notice are drivers who seem to feel entitled to the whole road and regularly use their horns in a way that suggests no one else (cyclists especially) should dare to hold them up for a nano second, or who sound their horns when in a traffic jam without knowing what the cause is ahead. Annoying!

Oh yes the people half way down the queue blasting on their horn with no idea what the hold up is. Absolute idiots.

My husband sounds his horn around an uphill tight bend in a very small lane ( Ducks Lane - to give you an idea of its size.)
I don't sound the horn, I keep right in to the hedge and go up very slowly in first gear. I have never had a problem with that, even with the fastest of cars coming around the bend, down the hill. No one else that I have ever encountered on that bend have sounded their horns either.
As his passenger I am always in dread that there are going to be a couple of very startled horses and riders coming round the bend.
He never sounds the horn in anger,

I rarely hear car horns when I am out driving but when I am at home there seem to be a number of visitors who can't say goodbye when they leave without 3 sharp blasts on the horn. Very annoying at midnight.

I am in agreement with you infoman. I hate the horns. I live in London and if you don't rush to go over the traffic lights as soon as they are green, despite the fact that people are still crossing the road in front of you someone hoots you. My heart races and I am sure I will have a heart attack one of these days with the constant hoot tooting. It is totally unnecessary. A horn is for warning not for continuous use.

This site is great. I visited MN., oh there are some anger issues there.
If they had the car horn facility, I’d have used it on MN. So rude with language making the air blue.
Perhaps it’s an age think. Using car horns, I don’t hear too often.

I’d be careful about getting out of your car with so many drivers with road rage and similar. Many, eg those on a minimum wage, are in a hurry, others could be delivering drugs, or running late and with no patience. We recently went out to start our car and the catalytic converter has been stolen.. There are apparently highly organised gangs who cruise the area looking for certain cars. With the price of petrol going up there could be similar looking to siphon off fuel. Be careful.

Grannynannywanny

I liked a story I heard years ago about a woman who was taking a couple of attempts at a very tight parallel parking manoeuvre on her local high street. A very impatient driver waiting to pass blasted his horn. She calmly got out of her car and said to him “how about you park my car and I’ll hold my hand on your car horn for you”

Love this!

Well I sounded my horn at a driver at lights, waiting to turn right. She was at the front of a long queue and we all sat there during one lot of green. Then they went red so we all waited until became green again and we waited, no attempt to move forward even a little bit and get in position so I sounded my horn. It did the job and I make no apologies for using my horn

Although I don't drive or cycle (too scared to in London!), as a pedestrian, what I often notice are drivers who seem to feel entitled to the whole road and regularly use their horns in a way that suggests no one else (cyclists especially) should dare to hold them up for a nano second, or who sound their horns when in a traffic jam without knowing what the cause is ahead. Annoying!

@infoman I agree with most of the posters. What on earth do you mean by your post?

Would you rather see angry people get out of the vehicle and rant, rave, punch and stab then!!! ????

The horn is primarily a 'warning' as the Highway Code states. Examples of this are cutting the other driver up, overtaking inappropriately, stepping off a pavement without looking to see if traffic is coming round the corner and so on. Many a car crash or accidents to pedestrians have been avoided in this way. A lawyer friend of mine tells me a judge deciding who is at fault in a car crash or accident, will often start off by asking if the horn was sounded as a warning. It is drivers who use it incorrectly who are in the wrong.

Many years ago driving on one of the circular roads round London I was tooted at madly for quite a time until eventually the offending car drive in front if me with hazard lights on and slowed down. I thought I had commuted an offence and it was an unmarked police car. Guy came to my window to tell me he had notice children's shoes flying out the rear windows. I had the windows slightly down and my twin sons in the back were posting their shoes out the little gap. The guy stopped the traffic until I ran back to collect the shoes. Not all tooting is aggressive!

I should have sounded my horn the other day at the idiot who cut me up on a roundabout. He positioned his dirty great 4x4 as if to turn right then barged in front of me to go straight on. At the next roundabout I was turning right, he was turning left and I could see him cursing and gesticulating at me. How dare a mere woman driving a little Honda try to stop him barging in! I responded with a hand signal that was NEVER in the Highway Code!

The last time I used my horn was on a well used country road. I came on two cyclists, and one actually pulled out alongside his friend but onto the opposite side of the road! I beeped gently and he pulled back, allowing me to overtake. I feel completely justified in alerting him to my presence ( and his error).

When I read the OP I thought it was a little odd, given that it such a widespread practice. Then I read the last sentence and thought, aaah. I get it now.

Mollygo

infoman ???

I don’t understand your post.
What does the horn is there for emergencies mean?
Do you only sound your horn constantly when you’re on an emergency run to the hospital?

When someone cuts in too close on you, starts to pull out in front of you, or a lorry is forcing you onto the hard shoulder, or otherwise endangering you, a prompt reminder often stops it turning into an emergency.

Mollygo I wished my Fiancé had sounded his horn when a lorry pulled out from a lay-by in front of us and kept coming, I was absolutely terrified and thought that we were going to die. Yes you are correct this is one time when a horn should have been used to alert the lorry driver that we were there. I don’t understand why my Fiancé didn’t use the horn.

Some neighbours of ours have locked gates and whenever a certain friend arrives they sit in their car and constantly toot their horn until someone comes and unlocks the gates to let them in.

I find it irritating when someone blasts their horn when passing someone they know in the street!It makes me jump and immediately think I’ve done something wrong!
A while back someone was cutting me up at a roundabout and I shouted in the car because I didn’t know where the horn was!I do now!

Infoman - actually the horn isn't there for emergency, it's a feature on the vehicle to serve as a communication with another driver(s) to alert them to an action you might be about to perform that may have an impact on them or indeed just to alert them to something (like a back light out or a trailing exhaust). Indeed when taking a blind corner (even where there's a mirror) you should sound your horn to make oncoming vehicles aware of your presence.

I agree, used incorrectly in a moment of impulse to vent at someone who's cut you up can be annoying if you're on the receiving end, but if that were it's only function it wouldn't be a feature on the car in the first place.

I find its the hand gestures you receive too drives me nuts. If you maybe are not quick enough to move off, some impatient folk just love to show you now what they think rather than blast their horn...

GrowingOldDisgracefully is correct - in Law, it is an "Audible warning instrument" i.e. an auditory means of warning others of possible danger. It doesn't have to be a horn, it might be something else.
My pet hate, as referred to above, is drivers too lazy to get out of the car and ring the doorbell when they are picking up someone. Usually the same people signal their farewell when they have dropped the person, by means of a totally unnecessary 'peep-peep'. Grrrr! Mr. Driver (as it usually is a man) have you not thought there might be someone on night-shift trying to sleep; someone very unwell; a small child whose mother is trying to get him down for a nap?

My dad used to say that they had a horn where their brake should be!

I am glad I sounded my horn last week or my mini would have been wiped out by a Volvo driver who had NO IDEA I was behind her and began reversing into me. She got a piece of my mind as well . My dad, a police officer, said use your horn to alert others of danger !!

As others have said, the horn is not just for emergencies. It can and should be used to warn others of your presence, if you think they may not be aware of you, and so prevent an accident. Eg if you are driving down the road and someone starts reversing a car off their drive into the road and may not be able to see you because of parked cars or other obstructions. As a motorcycle rider, it is horrifying to find how many car drivers think I am invisible! I was taught, particularly by the trainer on my advanced course, to let people know I am there. Tbh, the sound of a motorcycle horn is akin to an apologetic fart, but I still sound it when I think it will save my skin. On the other hand, my car horn is magnificent!