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

This one was about 20.
But also completely irrational.

www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/van-driver-punched-man-face-6920464?fbclid=IwAR0mmj2XjCsLMRWBhdBMoOE7ionVMaNqG-bBEEejFKs86pMFxSQ2KHKCMf0

Never seen him before and I hope we don't meet him again!!

Completely agree. He sounds like a candidate for anger management training before he ends up in serious trouble.

I managed to turn up a side road and come back; he took his time to go but I then went into his space as a huge 4x4 had gone into the space i wanted originally!!

Aggressive people like that make me wonder if he has a family - heaven help a tiny child with a father/step father like that.

He probably drives aggressively as well. Idiots like that shouldn’t be on the road.

It shook me up, Grannynannywanny, particularly as I was the driver - trying to reverse out of his way on to a road where other cars may have been coming round a corner! He was extremely aggressive and shouting, gesticulating, wouldn't listen to an explanation of why I tooted.
Prat!

DH thought he could calm him and explain but the youngster wasn't having any of it.
He did get very wet though ?

My goodness Callistemon21 that was a thoroughly unpleasant start to your day.

This morning I beeped my horn as a warning to another motorist and then was subjected to a verbal road rage attack!

We'd gone to a local shop where there are 3 tight parking spaces outside - two were occupied so I decided to reverse into the third, which meant stopping behind the other cars first which I thought were unoccupied.
Suddenly the reverse lights of the nearest car went on so I gave a quick couple of beeps to warn the driver I was behind him and I tried to reverse back out of his way. Before I could move the young man leapt out of his car, yelling, swearing and gesticulating and wouldn't listen, then he banged on the passenger window. DH wound it down to reason with him (I wouldn't have done) but he started screaming at us, asking why I'd hooted at him, wouldn't listen. I said it was a warning while I tried to get out of his way, gave us the middle finger etc. He was in a right paddy.

I managed to turn up another road and he took his time leaving. It was very unnerving, he was beside himself with rage.

However, all the time he was swearing, gesticulating and jumping around outside our car it was pouring with rain and he was only wearing a t shirt and jeans so he got soaked.

Shandy57

ha ha GrandMattie that was my immediate thought. In India it seemed to mean I'm coming and you need to get out of the way as I'm driving down the wrong side of the motorway!

I always thought in India that the horn was used for information. There never seemed to be any evidence of road rage there even thee we the roads were unbelievably chaotic

I used to drive a little Peugeot 206 convertible. It was so low that I don't think lorries and higher vehicles could actually see me in their mirrors and I used to regularly get cut up by them changing lanes in front of me - especially on roundabouts, so I had to use my horn often to alert them of my presence. I now drive a bigger car and hardly ever have to use my horn. And yes, when I was carved up like that, beeping was not only necessary but I also beeped for longer as I was so angry (and scared!) It was an adrenalin think I think when you get a scare!

In New Zealand, drivers flash their lights at you when they are angry.
If you get a beep on the horn, this means "thank you" or, more appropriately, "cheers mate".
It takes some getting used to! Lol.

Grannynannywanny

Love it cheered me no end ????

Urmstongran

It’s annoyance at someone’s bad driving. A warning to ‘buck your ideas up’. You should hear the drivers in Spain! They lean on their horns and get a resounding blast back!

Never mind the drivers in Spain Urmstongran, they're positively restrained compared to those in India! You don't need an alarm clock as even in a high rise hotel room you can hear when the cacophany starts, as soon as the rush hour gets going!!

Lol, is this for real?

I wonder at the opposite. when I learnt to drive you hooted your horn as you drove over a hump backed bridge to tell other drivers who could not see you that you were there. Nowadays I still do that over some of our little bridges in the dales where you cannot see anyone coming at all but not many other people do.

A couple of weeks ago I was leaving work, wanted to turn right at the mini roundabout - started pulling out and was part of the way across when this idiotic driver was coming down far too fast - I blasted my horn (so hard I hurt my hand) and braked, they seemed so shocked they actually stopped then at the next roundabout (proper one about 6 car lengths away) they made sure they were a distance away from my boot and aware of the cars coming up wanting to turn right . We are always careful on that mini roundabout, turning right into work can be just as hair-raising as drivers coming up don't seem to take any notice and drive straight across without looking.

Shandy57

ha ha GrandMattie that was my immediate thought. In India it seemed to mean I'm coming and you need to get out of the way as I'm driving down the wrong side of the motorway!

Or perhaps to get the cows, goats, chickens etc to move to the side of the road.

My problem is whenever I've wanted to toot, always because of a precarious situation, I've never found the horn in time. I think Nissan, and I've had various models over the years, hide theirs!

I do sometimes beep to warn someone, and perhaps to tell them they've been silly/dangerous. But better that than road rage or swearing. An elderly man once shouted "f***ing w**ker" at me from his open window....he could have just beeped his horn

Sirens and pressure horns are illegal, and that is the only way, aapart from shouting, that they can vent their frustration.

I have no idea where the horn is on my car - mind you, I have only had it 5 years

There have been several occasions over the years when I've been 'tooted'.

Once I was waiting to go onto a small roundabout at rush hour. It was a complex junction (only a few yards away there was a second mini roundabout and 5 roads all converged together in that small area). If I had moved onto the roundabout I would have ended up blocking the traffic coming from the right which would have gridlocked the entire junction. So I waited (and waited and waited) until traffic had moved enough for me to proceed. Someone behind me (in a hurry to get home after a long day I assume) obviously felt I should have moved quicker as I was on the receiving end of several long blasts on the horn, repeated frequently until I moved.

When walking down the road I never pay attention to the bip-bip type toots - unless I'm at a junction trying to cross e.g. One time walking home from work I was 'bipped' and ignored it as usual. A work colleague the next day said - I tooted you last night to wave at you as I passed by but you didn't respond. I tried to explain to her that you don't use the horn like that but she just looked at me blankly as though she didn't have a clue what I was wittering on about!

Oh, and I've been tooted by a car that cut me up. He also "gesticulated wildly" at me. Apart from thinking 'a-hole' I ignored him - yes, it was a male driver. Needless to say, I was in the correct lane and driving to the speed limit at the time.

My mother got agitated after she'd stopped to let an elderly man cross the road on zebra crossing. She was young and impatient. He was so slow.

She beeped her horn at this poor guy and he got startled and fell over.

She never used her horn again.

You obviously have never traveled in countries where people continuously sound their horns. Sounding a horn is a warning to some who maybe about to make a dangerous error/ manoeuvre or have just done so. Many drive around in a dangerous way with no care or consideration for others on the road. Personally I think we should use our horns more often instead of being afraid to do so.

lixy

I don't use my car horn except when I lean on it by accident getting out of the car - it's in the middle of the steering wheel. The windscreen wipers are on the stick where the horn used to be in my old car so I do a good line in washing the windscreen to show my irritation!
Pet hate is people hooting at learner drivers - we were all there once.

I once did the same with the windscreen washing lixy! I've never lived it down as my family were with me at the time