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Sat 21 Jul, 2007 12:07 pm
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Q&A | Honking can be illegal | Lake City hazards
By Charles Brown
Seattle Times staff reporter
Q: Here's one worth giving a toot about: The other day Mark Cruz, of Renton, was waiting to turn left at a green light in downtown Seattle. The car in front of him was sitting under the light, turn signal blinking, but had not budged even though all oncoming traffic had passed.
Cruz honked his horn to urge the driver to move. "Then I was pulled over by a Seattle police officer on a motorcycle. He let me off on a warning for honking at the car in front of me.
"Dumbfounded, I said, 'Of course I was.' What am I supposed to do when someone just sits there at a green light?
"He then told me that use of your horn is only for emergencies."
Only in Seattle? "This seems so far-fetched. I have a hard time believing it," said Cruz. In Southern California, where he grew up, honking horns weren't unusual. And he's lived in other places, including back East, before moving to this state about a decade ago. He'd never heard of a horn rule.
"I have always used my horn with regularity," he said, assuming his horn to be as indispensable as his turn signal and headlights.
What should a driver do when the car up ahead won't move? "Can you please tell me what the law in Washington is on the use of your horn?"
A: While it's true that drivers in the Northwest pride themselves on being more genteel than in some other parts of the country, it's also true that this state has, shall we say, a horn rule.
The officer was not out of line, said State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins. In fact, Trooper Kirk Rudeen, also of the Patrol, referenced a state statute (RCW 46.37.380) that says a horn should be used only when reasonably necessary. "Honking at the car in front of you to go because the light turned green is not considered proper use of the horn," said Rudeen.
So what to do? "What we tell people is unless it's an emergency situation, just be patient and polite," Rudeen said.
But Lowell Porter, former State Patrol chief and now director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, points out that what's considered reasonably necessary, or an emergency, could be a judgment call, subject to interpretation.
A horn might alert a distracted driver. Or it could incite road rage.
Should you get a ticket for honking, could you challenge it in court? Of course you could. But a court's view of horn honking here might not be the same as, say, in the heart of New York City, where many folks view honking as a way of life.
New York has a honking law similar to this state's. Is anyone paying attention? Maybe very few. "Probably 99 percent of the horn honking here is unnecessary, a way for motorists to vent their frustrations," said John Corlett, government-affairs director for AAA New York. From time to time, New York City police do crack down on noise violations, he said, "but I don't think the law deters anybody from honking their horn here
Does this fly in NYC?
I think it would really depend if you gave some one a little beep to get them to pay attention or if you were just laying on the horn in anger.
Those horn layer oners for tiny little things make me nuts.
I hardly ever use my horn.
Only, like has been said, if someone in front of me didn't notice the light had changed, and even then, I'll wait a few seconds, and then just a light tap.
Or like if someone is back up and going to hit me, to let them know I'm there.
Would THAT be considered an emergency?
I think blowing your horn at someone because you don't like what they did is moronic.
Re: Laying on the horn in Seattle
martybarker wrote:Does this fly in NYC?
It was notably quieter in New York the last couple of trips there. The horn-honking used to be non-stop. This trip we really noticed it if someone honked.
You don't hear a lot of horn-honking here in Toronto. I think most people understand it's for emergencies only.
If I'm in the car with someone who honks unnecessarily, I get pretty pissed at them as it's considered quite rude here. Little beeps don't go over well either.
Maybe it's cultural?
ehbeth, just curious...
what do you do if the person in front of you seriously hasn't seen the light change, and it's likely they will sit through the entire green light without noticing?
Sometime people zone out
How do you get their attention? Like, "yoohooo? yeah hi, no problem, I guess you just didn't notice the light changed" that kind of little beep.
Canajuns are more likely to drive around them - which is a whole other problem.
I can't begin to tell you how many claims I've seen where the accident starts with someone doing a left turn from the right lane, or a right turn from the left lane
oh, I just thought I'd go around them.
(I'm generally a light flasher - comes from a lot of time on the road where the only other vehicles are transports - got used to signalling my intentions with the headlights)
I'm a horn tapper too if someone ahead of me doesn't notice the light. I'll give them a few seconds first. Definitely a horn tap is better than an obnoxious honk.
(New York City)
I once proposed the following invention: a speed controlled horn. If you are traveling at less then five miles an hour, it doesn't work.
A honking horn can get you a $300.00 fine on some streets of this fair city. (And I say Hooray!) All we need is more frigging noise because you are going to miss a light.
Cab drivers used to be the worst. Apparently elsewhere in the world you drive with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the horn. People here started telling cabbies "NO horn unless we are in danger. No tip if you ignore me."
MMMMmmm, quietness.
The same for goddamned cellphones. When I get in a cab, which is often, I say "If you talk, no tip. Your choice."
It is ridiculous most of the time. I've been on the street and heard the sixth car in line blow it's horn two seconds after the light turns green. Jeez Louise. Take it easy. Leave earlier. Pipe down!!
It's bad enough we have unending sirens blasting their up and down the canyons, along with the yahoos who believe their MUSIC is so wonderful they have to THUMP ThUmp ThuMp it out into the air through the open windows of their car. I always want them to get pulled over and have to roll up those windows and leave the volume up. As soon as their ears bleed they can go.
Joe(hey, was that the sound of a bird singing?)Nation
If you don't like it, move to Connecticut.
I had a few people get really indignant in Seattle over a little beep to let them know they were sitting through a green light -- generally while fiddling with their cell phone or coffee or whatever. I'm not a big horn blower, but if you're obstructing traffic because you're not paying attention to driving, you're getting a little beep. If you drift out of your lane and into mine, you're getting a big beep. I don't think this is unreasonable.
I can relate Joe(no tip for you)Nation
On the few times I went to Manhatten as a kid and teenager, all the horns blasting seemed needless. In fact conterproductive. After a while, wouldn't you just ignore it when someone blasted at you? Plus, how do you know they were even sounding off at you? Seemed like people who were driving just fine got beeped at all the time. I myself never drove in the city.
ehBeth, re the flashing your lights to let the person in front of you know the light had changed....never thought of that. But, I think I would have some viseral bad reaction to having that done to me.....must be a regional thing.
I have had truck drivers at night flash their lights to let me know it's ok for me to pull back in front of them after passing them, but for some reason, dealing with truckers is a different story, that's their lingo and I don't expect others to use it.
The only other 2 flashing lights things I appreciate is (a) to let someone know their lights are off and (b) when you're on a highway at night (or even during the day) and someone coming towards you flashes to let you know there's a police car up ahead.
One thing I really can't stand is when the person behind you flashes their lights or highbeams at you, because they want you to speed up. That's because 9 times out of 10 there's a car in front of you, like 4 or 5 car lengths away, doing the same speed, or there's plenty of opportunity for Mario Andretti to get into one of the other 2 lanes all heading in the same direction to pass you.
heh, I remember a few months back....There's this strech of 3 lane highway on the way home that ALWAYS bottlenecks during rush hour. You slow down to maybe 25mph.....I was coasting on that road, going the same speed as everyone else, but Oh...My...God...I had inadvertantly left TWO WHOLE CAR LENGTHS between me and the car in front of me. What was I thinking! The person behind me was just going beserk seeing I was leaving 30 feet of unoccupied space.
So, when lights flash behind me, I feel aggression on their part.
When i lived briefly in North Carolina, and worked in the Raleigh-Wake Forest-Durham area, i was usually in heavy traffic when driving--the streets of Raleigh are a nightmare, and I40 is (or then was) completely inadequate for the volume of traffic. But you just never heard a car horn. I've been riding with people and heard a car horn, and they just automatically sneer and say "Yankee."
At the same time, almost all the drivers i saw signaled turns and lane changes, and if traffic were heavy and you were trying to merge or get off on a ramp, people would slow down or stop to let you in or to let you out.
Definitely a cultural thing. When i was a kid, if someone pulled up and honked a horn to indicate that they were there, parents would usually cancel your plans for you, since it was considered low rent to honk for someone as opposed to actually getting up off your dead ass to walk to the door and knock.
It sounds to me like one of those situations that goes from one extreme to another. Did Seattle used to have issues with people laying on their horns over every little thing so they decided to enforce the "emergency only" rule to an extreme? If someone zoned out and you give a little tap, I don't that is being rude - when I zone out, I appreciate some one letting me know I'm being a bozo and usually wave thanks.
Sentanta - that blowing a horn to indicate some one is there to pick you up. I had a date once do that when I was a teenager. I sat in the house and refused to go out. I think I deserve some one coming up to the door to get me - like you said I'm not some poor white trash. When he finally got off his a$$ to knock on the door and complained about me not answering his horn, I politely explained how rude and poor manners he had. We didn't go beyond that date.
Yup . . . where i was raised, he would have never made it to you, the "grown-ups" would have run him off.
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