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Comment by whalesalad | Hacker News Reader

You gotta honk. I honk ALL THE TIME now. It’s just enough of a jolt to send a signal to everyone around you that it’s time to snap back to attention. It works marvelously. I don’t like doing it... but it really works. If the light turns green and no one has moved for a few seconds I give a little tiny honk and like clockwork you can see brake lights in every lane turn off and people begin to activate.

I don’t think we can solve this with enforcement. We gotta start thinking outside the box. I have no advice... I wish I did ... but it’s an epidemic. Its a symptom of a much larger issue, I think, so we need to try and treat that instead.

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As a cyclist I used to use an air horn (Air Zound brand) for exactly the same purpose. Distracted drivers aren't looking, but fortunately their ears typically work whether they are paying attention or not!

Some people consider honking rude no matter the reason, but I think honking for safety is exactly the reason horns are added to vehicles. It's not rude at all, in fact, it would be rude to not honk as far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately the added honking causes huge quality of life issues, especially in urban areas and at night.

Self-driving can't come soon enough.

Maybe petition your city to pedestrianize more roads? I've been successful at that in two places I've lived previously.

We're working on it but progress is so slow and halting. There was Times Square, then Herald Square, and now just this past year we're seeing removal of most vehicles from 14th St and a temporary removal of vehicles around Rockefeller Center for the holidays. Progress is still way too slow though. I'd love to see Broadway being fully pedestrianized from Columbus Circle down to at least Union Square; imagine how transformative an effect that would have on the city. (And tourists would love it!)

Speaking as someone who lives in Manhattan, you won't get much sympathy with this complaint. Yes, honking can be annoying, and yes it's overused (especially by trigger happy taxis).

But it's the only way to actually get someone's attention sometimes. If you live in an urban area you should know what you're signing up for. People are going to honk, even if it's annoying to the rest of us living in the city.

I live in Manhattan too. "Just suck it up" isn't the correct response. You even admit that it's annoying, so why roll over and resign yourself to it? One asshole with a loud horn making lots of noise on the streets at night can easily wake up hundreds of people. How is this remotely acceptable? It has a real measured public health burden. We can and should do better; getting proper sleep is important.

And by the way, the vast majority of horn use is illegal.

I agree with everything you're saying. All I'm saying is you won't find much sympathy. People really like honking, and it's probably not politically tenable to legislate that away.

I think the average person is more sympathetic than you are, to be blunt. You're projecting here.

Loud honking (especially at night) is a common complaint that New Yorkers frequently empathize over. Keep in mind that fully 78% of households in Manhattan don't even own a car, so way more people are annoyed by honking than ever do it.

And it's already illegal, no further legislation needed. The issue is with enforcement.

You still seem to be misunderstanding me. I'm personally sympathetic. I'm saying most other people just don't care much. If they did, they wouldn't honk.

A honk is also the sound a road makes when it stretches to accommodate your car between two cars that don't appear to have enough space.

I've started doing this. If I see somebody blatantly looking at their phone while they pass me, I do a nice double tap.

I do the same.

You don’t need to contribute any more to the noise pollution, just pay attention to other drivers, keep safe distance and be patient. A lot of the problems including distracted driving come from the lack of self-control of most of the people.

> just pay attention to other drivers, keep safe distance and be patient

Negative ghostrider... being patient is why traffic has gotten to the point it is today. Too many people have become comfortable with the status quo and that is why things move at a snails pace.

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