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Comment by johanvts | Hacker News Reader

It is illegal to honk in Denmark unless theres a dangerous situation ahead. Honk any other a time you can be fined about 130€

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It’s actually illegal in Washington State as well. I’m sure that’s fairly common in a lot of states and countries. But of course it’s also not enforced here.

> It’s actually illegal in Washington State

Woah, didn't know this. It's not like it really changes anything when someone lays on their horn while passing me on my bike. But at least I can feel some righteous indignation now.

> righteous indignation

That's just the default for me while cycling.

If I recall correctly, either in my state or a state I visited, it’s technically a legal requirement to honk while overtaking a cyclist. Nobody ever does that, though, since it comes across as rude.

RCW 46.37.380 calls out alarms specifically as being allowed to use a horn, and makes no mention of how often you're allowed to use a horn outside of the highway.

I'm curious which law covers it outside of that that makes it illegal to use.

Granted, I'm sure you're right if it does exist. There are some cars with ludicrously loud exhausts around here that gleefully violate RCW 46.37.390 that are ignored by cops.

Heck, it’s a $350 fine in NYC.

If actually enforced, this would immediately close NYC’s multi-billion dollar budget shortfall.

I did not know this! I’ll have to dig through the owners manual and figure out how to turn that off.

Do you have a link to the RCW?

Another dane here: Despite this, the horn is used just as much as a fuck-you-horn as anywhere else. I doubt anyone has ever gotten a fine for it, except maybe if they had been really obnoxious with it next to a police officer.

How do you let people know you’re about to execute a particularly impressive road manoeuvre and they should pay attention?!? You just need to yell or?

(I have probably driven 95% of the km I’ve driven in various SE Asian countries)

I remember a case where a person was pulled over by the police for flashing his lights at oncoming traffic to warn of a speed trap.

I think his defense was that fining him for it interfered with his free speech.

I wonder if honking is a free speech issue :)

Pretty much all these laws main goal is to be a pretext for an otherwise illegal fishing stop. So pretty much all of them can be overturned if someone with deep enough pockets to prople the defense up the court system waits around long enough to find a case with a sympathetic fact pattern.

Same in the Netherlands but costs between 90 and 370 euros depending on what you did.

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