Horn or finger?

EastCoastMojo wrote: I keep a paintball gun loaded with bright pink paintballs to let other drivers know they are my favorite dumbass of the day. Little pink paint on their fender makes them easy for others to spot and avoid as well.

Have you seen the rigs people have made that auto-track targets? Neat stuff, and all doable with off the shelf hardware. So you get a roof mounted paintball (one of those wild thousands of rounds per minute ones if you want max fun) and designate a target on a touchscreen.

I still think a building roof mounted one would be awesome for security. Don't even need to load it, just use it in conjunction with a motion detection light with another light to bring attention to the piece of equipment that is tracking them...

Driving in NY without a horn is about as plausible as driving without wheels.

The horn is employed pretty often to alert the clueless that they are drifting, sleeping, or just directionally challenged. I installed the extra loud Hellas to make sure they notice (sometimes they still don't, but I can't go much louder without the resonance frequencies starting to shake my car apart). I particularly enjoy seeing the effects when the offender is on the phone with the window open.

The finger is quite rarely used. I save it for the extra special cases, such as when the soccer mom with a carload of urchins has just tried to kill me - then she gets the fun of explaining to the chilluns why they shouldn't be flipping the bird to Grandma at the dinner table. This pleases me.

Very seldom use the horn. I flash my headlights sometimes. Or I just hold up my hand, to say "what". I have become a relaxed driver, Just shake my head at the dummy, and drive on.

02Pilot wrote: The finger is quite rarely used. I save it for the extra special cases, such as when the soccer mom with a carload of urchins has just tried to kill me - then she gets the fun of explaining to the chilluns why they shouldn't be flipping the bird to Grandma at the dinner table. This pleases me.

+1 for you sir!

EastCoastMojo wrote: I keep a paintball gun loaded with bright pink paintballs to let other drivers know they are my favorite dumbass of the day. Little pink paint on their fender makes them easy for others to spot and avoid as well. Nah, just wishful thinking. I usually give a thumbs up to mess with their heads.

Great idea! It's like Gallagher (the Sledge-O-Matic guy) once said, everyone should be issued those suction cup dart guns that shoot darts with flags on them that say "dumbass." If you get too many of them on your car, the cops pull you over and give you a ticket for being a shiny happy person.

iceracer wrote: Very seldom use the horn. I flash my headlights sometimes.

My friend's dad does that. IIncluding for "cutting him off", which, from what I've seen, means any time somebody changes lanes in front of him up to and including a quarter mile away.

This has conditioned my friend to believe that light-flashing is something only shiny happy people do (his dad is quite the person of shiny happiness in other respects, too), so when he is in the left lane stuck behind someone, he doesn't flash to pass, he just tailgates about two inches off of their bumper. His conditioning tells him that this is far more polite.

I use the horn when deemed necessary... light taps to get attention at a light with someone daydreaming is the norm... if someone does something really stupid like tries to merge into me without looking I'll lay into the horn... and rarely but depending on my mod I might let the V fly... cause ya know... doing something from not this country makes me feel superior or something lol

I have a pickup truck with a step bumper, receiver hitch and a $500.00 blue book value..

You'd be surprised how often a dog will run in front of my truck, causing a panic stop.

I've never given someone the finger while driving, and I can't remember the last time I touched the horn. You'll never see these people again, it's not worth getting all worked up about it.

I am in the camp of "it is just traffic, don't get too worked up about it" but when someone is clearly in the wrong, is doing something stupid or reckless and they make eye contact with me I smile slightly, tilt my head to the side and do that weird "shame on you" finger thing that makes no sense yet everyone knows what it means.

Keeping anger out of the situation softens the resolve of a person that just knows they are in the right. Their facial expression usually go to the universal "I'm sorry" look within seconds.

The horn on my miata is currently... out of order.
Sarcastic applause is my go to, unless they've got BC plates, in which case they get the bird.

Funny that in the 'rat rod inspired' satin black 75 Nova, the horn works, but never needs to be employed.
Traffic seems to mostly shy away.

I know someone who was given the "horny finger"...

novaderrik wrote:

914Driver wrote: You may note that some are so blissfully ignorant that they won't hear a horn or recognize the National Symbol of Displeasure.

wet, heavy snow sticks to the car... light fluffy stuff blows right off.. those people are in Europe, where they haven't learned the difference yet..

I did some questionable snow clearings when I was a teenager, but that's ridiculous. I remember once after an ice storm dumping a bunch of antifreeze on the windshield and scraping the crap out of it to clear it up, then just rolling the windows down and driving off, thus beating the other high schoolers out of the parking lot who were scraping all of the windows. at least my way gave me complete visibility (along with a frostbitten left ear).

I seem to mumble under my breath and move on. I think to myself, some people have real problems to deal with and this is not one of them.

I started thinking that way a couple years ago when my 4 year old nephew got sick and had to go to Mott's Childrens Hospital, about two hours away, the week of Christmas during a snow/ice storm. On that day I didn't care much if you flashed your lights or honked your horn at me, I had to go be with my family.

From experience I'd just let it go. If they were an shiny happy person today more than likely they were an shiny happy person yesterday and there's a pretty berkeleying good chance of them being an shiny happy person tomorrow. Calling one out will not likely change anything in their behavior and in todays 'rules don't apply to me' world just might incite them to further stupidity. Don't need that E36 M3 anymore.

Basil Exposition wrote: Really, guys? I can see the horn honking for waking up people at a stoplight or to alert lane drifters, but what has the finger ever accomplished for you? Do ya think those folks have learned some sort of lesson? They are still going to drive like idiots. I'll admit I used it a few times in my younger days. In the best case scenario, I was ignored and maybe at first I felt superior, then later, immature. The worst case had people chasing me down trying to run me off the road. Nowadays, I keep my hands down and just shake my head.

I'm with Basil on this. I only have so many give a f**** and I'm not going to waste it on them. Anything you do will be ineffective and will only serve to make them defensive, angry and depending on what you do could put both of you at risk. A one fingered salute cannot possibly be adequate instruction to improve their driving. Usually they know (if) they've done something wrong and will either accept that or due to a lack of self-confidence give you a single fingered salute in return.

Understand though, I use my horn frequently, usually to assert that I have the right of way, if I'm not confident that someone can see me or to get their attention.

People can make mistakes, it happens. If you think someone didn't see you, make sure your headlights are on if it's raining or dark.

Rufledt wrote: I did some questionable snow clearings when I was a teenager, but that's ridiculous. I remember once after an ice storm dumping a bunch of antifreeze on the windshield and scraping the crap out of it to clear it up, then just rolling the windows down and driving off, thus beating the other high schoolers out of the parking lot who were scraping all of the windows. at least my way gave me complete visibility (along with a frostbitten left ear).

I saw one teenager the other day sticking his head out the window of his Jeep at 55mph on the way to school because his windshield was completely covered in snow. Also notice the people who don't clear their cars off usually don't have their headlights on either. SUVs are often the worst offenders because many people don't bother with the roof blinding the person behind them.

I used my horn today.

There is a right-only turn leaving a shopping plaza near my house. The turn out is curved and pretty much points you in the direction you need to go. Somebody stopped there, proceeded to put on their left hand turn signal (which was surprising in the first place) and wait, since traffic was pretty heavy in the direction they were indicating they wanted to go. I waited a minute for them to realize that they couldn't do what they were indicating they wanted to do, but they pulled out their phone and started texting.

So I hit the horn to make them look. I pointed left and shook my head in an exaggerated "no, no, no" motion. Then I pointed right and did an exaggerated "yes". I did this several times.

They went back to texting.

I honked again and repeated the gestures. This time seemed to get it (or were tired of me honking at them), signaled right and went on their way.

Bobzilla wrote:

novaderrik wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: I typically hjave to use my horn on a daily basis to get people back into their lane because they've got both tires over the line and are still coming into the line I'm currently occupying. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

the PIT maneuver was invented for these situations..

which still damages my vehicle.

drive a vehicle that you don't care about- one that has real bumpers.

I have to exercise the horn in the miata regularly to ensure my survival. I have some inattentive driver try and merge into me at least weekly while commuting on the interstate. Thank goodness the horn is relatively loud. So far it has successfully caused each one to return to their original lane prior to making contact with my vehicle. I have fewer "near misses" on my motorcycle.

Smile and wave. Just smile and wave.

Can't use the finger anymore, kids are old enough to repeat that "greeting", and I'd really rather they didn't pick up the habit. The horn isn't nearly as entertaining as it used to be. Had an air horn on the previous vehicle and, after that, nothing ever measures up.

Depends on if the offender is in front of or behind me...or in the case of the berkeleytard who parked his ginormous GM whatevertheberkeley SUV in a "compact car" spot next to the 5 this weekend, "beside" me; in which case, you get the "Spit Sink." ...assuming I have not recently purchased eggs at the grocery store.

I used to do the horn... then the finger.

but nowadays.....I just don't care.