Did you know in some cities honking is considered the HEIGHT of rudeness?

[Bouncy Ball]

I didn't know that until a couple of years ago. I was born in Dallas and grew up there. Honking is just something you do, though we don't do it a whole lot.

There are different types of honks, of course. There's the tap, which can mean anything from "watch out, I'm right here!" to "what the fuck is your deal? You gonna take all day there?"

Then there is the medium honk, which is a general warning.

The long honk is TOTALLY COMPLETELY PISSED OFF.

So I go down to Austin a couple of summers ago to see my best friend and her husband, who are also from Dallas, but have acclimated to Austin. We go to a little pizza parlor. There is a car right in the front and the family is getting in the car, so I decide to wait on that spot. My friends get antsy and nervous, pointing out other spots really far away, but my friend's husband just had surgery on his knee and I don't want him to have to hobble that far. I didn't know what the big frigging deal was about waiting on a spot.

"You're making them feel like they have to hurry," they said.

I was baffled. "And? Good! They need to! I'm not doing anything wrong, just waiting on the spot."

My friends kept shooting nervous glances all around.

Two of the women put a baby in a carseat, then proceed to STAND THERE talking with their car doors wide open, while I am clearly sitting there waiting on the spot, the only one which will be available on the front. They're talking and talking and they even glance up at me, so I know they know I'm there.

So I give a courtesy tap, which in this case means "Hello, in case you didn't notice, I'm waiting on that spot."

In Dallas, that honk would have been seen as downright nice.

Oh my God. My friends HIT the floorboard of my car, yelling "OH MY GOD SHE HONKED AT THEM!!!" The guy who was standing over on the driver's side (but STILL not in the car, because he was too busy picking his nose or something) starts shaking his fist at me and screaming "HOW DARE YOU HONK AT US YOU BITCH!!" The two women looked appalled and self-righteously angry and start screaming about my little tap on the horn.

WHAT THE FUCK?

I was truly confused. It was a NICE HONK!!!! Don't Austinites know a nice honk when they hear one??? My friends on the floorboards were muttering to each other "God, I forgot, she still lives in Dallas."

I told them to get their asses back up in the seat. The people very huffily got in their car (FINALLY) and pulled out and I pulled in.

When we went in the pizza place, my friends were shaken and kept looking at me and saying "I can't believe you did that."

I had no idea.

[DrGonzoLives]

1. It's a requirement around Chicago

I think some drivers get offended if you don't honk at them. You know, the assholes who figure that it's OK to run red lights 15 seconds after they turn red, who just randomly switch lanes, who practically DEMAND that you let them merge and do what they want, though they won't return the favor.

[Bouncy Ball]

2. I could get along well in a city in which it is required.

But the honking as an insult thing really floored me. It was a TAP!!!

[BlueJazz]

5. Good thing I wasn't the driver (in your car)

If they were offended by that little tap...they would have had a heart-attack after the first Polite-Blow when I would have given the other car a 20 second Blast! :)

[miss_kitty]

13. As if this is the height of couth and good manners

"...The guy who was standing over on the driver's side...starts shaking his fist at me and screaming "HOW DARE YOU HONK AT US YOU BITCH!!"

Yeah right. All swole up over a tap on the horn. All hat, no cattle cowboy.

[smbolisnch]

There really is a difference everywhere I think.

Where I live, granted it's not a big city, you only honk if a car is about to careen into another or if you are really, really mad. ie being cut off in bad weather, etc.

We went to visit a friend's parents in Florida, and couldn't believe how everyone honked at each other! Same with friends from Jersey. Talk about road rage! Damn!

[Murphys_Unlawful]

3. In some cities it also means that you're horny, go figure.

[Lavender Brown]

4. Not in Brooklyn

:D

[Bouncy Ball]

6. I'd do well there.

I'm quite liberal with the horn, but no one bats an eye at it here (Dallas).

That taught me my lesson about Austin, though. MAN they were mad.

[BrklynLiberal]

14. Absolutely right. You have to keep your hand on the horn to keep waking up

the driver in front of you!!!!

[Lavender Brown]

17. Somebody was outside my building a few nights ago,

honking to tell someone ON THE FOURTH FLOOR to come out. I almost screamed out of my window, "Use the buzzer DAMMIT!" :D

[BrklynLiberal]

39. DAMN! they do that a lot in NYC!! I hate it!!

[KurtNYC]

7. I met a Texan from Austin

He said, "You know why people don't honk their horns in Texas?"

Me: "Why?"

Him: "Because people carry guns in their cars."

Makes sense to me. This was during a discussion about how a California convience store clerk had told him his belt was unusual. "People don't tell each other how to wear their clothes in Texas."

Why? (see reason above)

[Bouncy Ball]

9. Eh.

I don't think people carry guns quite a bit as people think, though we do have a concealed carry law. It's funny, when you live here, you never think about it.

Maybe in Austin, they have more crazies with guns, though I can't imagine them having more than us in Dallas! Austin is a FAR more liberal city!

[givemebackmycountry]

8. Hey Bouncy I am from New York City

We honk at anything even cops, firemen, and ambulances.

We can be in a twenty city block traffic snarl, no where to go, bumper to bumper as far as the eye can see, and we will still honk.

You can be dead, lying in the middle of the intersection, and we will honk just before we run you over.

"Hey the guy was dead, so fuhgeddabodit"!

You know the old John Mendoza (the comic) line?

"You ever see a New Yorker give mouth to mouth resuscitation?"

He bends over and yells...

"Hey gid up before you fuckin' die!"

Yeah, were brutal.

[Bouncy Ball]

11. But I love that about New York.

There is a certain tenderness about it, if you think about it. You are all encouraging survival of the fittest in each other. Which is, in and of itself, caring.

Honking at policemen, firemen, etc? Wow. That's defintely beyond here.

[KurtNYC]

15. I think that is every bit as much a charicature of NYC as

my Austin story.

Most NYers don't own cars, so the people out there honking and running over pedestrians are really from outside of NYC. But NYers can SAY almost anything to each other.

[crispini]

10. That's funny, I'm from Dallas too,

and I would TOTALLY agree with your assessment of the three types of honks. There's "hi!" there's "hellllllOOOOO," and there's "FUCK YOU!" Guess it's a regional thing, although I had no idea it was so different in Dallas and Austin. :shrug:

[Bouncy Ball]

12. I know, right? Who knew?

Now be forewarned when you go to DemocracyFest in June in Austin. NO HONKING or people will FREAK out on your ass!

LOL, weird, isn't it? How did that happen there, I wonder?

We gots all kinda honks here! LOL

[flamingyouth]

16. The courtesy tap is very Seattle

Although we even hesitate to use that. Our biggest problem here is that people often feel they need a freaking engraved invitation to make a turn or change a lane. You don't hear much honking here compared to other cities (and I used to live downtown, so I'd know).

[tjdee]

18. They were assholes to start with--had little to do with the honk.

If you see someone's waiting for your spot, you move your tail a little. The fact that these people were leisurely acting like they were the only ones there--major indicator that they don't care about people they don't know. They further show their classlessness when the man screamed and cursed at you. Cursing at a lady? One you don't know?

Reason #98598508392047071989 I'll never step a foot in Texas.

Though, if I knew they saw me, I wouldn't have beeped.

[GRLMGC]

19. L.A .here

Seat of roadrage. You'd be in the right, here.

[Bouncy Ball]

22. I think we're rapidly catching up with you on the roadrage.

Taking to the highways around here is like having a death wish at times.

[Lady Effingbroke]

20. I live in Houston, and I am very sparing with the horn.

Rarely use it except in two cases:

1. Life-threatening emergencies (i.e., some maroon drifting/swerving into my lane).

2. When the light turns green and the "lead driver" is sitting there with their head up their ass, I will occasionally give a brief "courtesy tap", alerting them that it is now time to pull it out and hit the gas.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. We do both of those here

but I think Dallas on the whole has gotten a bit "honkier" in recent years than it used to be. So we might be honkier than Houston now.

(Kinda sounds like I mean we have more white people, doesn't it?)

[Bouncy Ball]

23. Oh another thing I noticed:

we're very aggressive drivers here, too.

If you need to merge into a lane, and no one is letting you in, you just "bulldog" your way in, by inching your nose into the lane and essentially forcing the next person to either hit you or let you in.

It's risky but it works and sometimes is the only way to merge.

Which is why I ALWAYS let one car in front of me. Always. If each car let one in, there'd be no problems.

[Lady Effingbroke]

27. I think we may be a bit less "honky" here (in the "horny" sense) than

y'all in Dallas, but the aggressive driving patterns are the same! If you want to merge onto the freeway, you have to force your way into traffic. I have even said to passengers, "Well, they have to either hit me or let me in" or "Let's see how much they really like their car" as I just "bulldog" my way in front of them, courtesy be damned.

And all this is done WITH NO HONKING. It is just a matter of fact and accepted as an everyday occurrence here. Weird.

[Bouncy Ball]

28. Oh yeah bulldogging doesn't require any honking.

Just nosing on out there! LOL!

[DS1]

24. I would have locked the doors and LEANED ON IT

I love watching people explode/implode over stupid shit

[Kathy in Cambridge]

25. If someone hesitates a millisecond when the light turns green in Boston

you'll hear half a dozen honks. The patience level for slow reflexes is minimal.

[Bouncy Ball]

29. Yikes.

That's not as true here. I think we wait a few more seconds than that, but we're certainly not shy about it if that's what needs to be done.

[DS1]

34. Kathy, I've been honked ~before~ it turned green plenty of times

and twice of those times it's because the people behind me saw that I was looking at something in my passenger seat :eyes:

So, naturally, I waited for a good 15 seconds before moving, not that I like to push buttons or anything :D

[StopTheMorans]

35. try putting your car in reverse, that often helps the situation as well

:evilgrin:

[DS1]

36. Or turn it off and get out the car and look at the hood while scratching

your head :D

[Kire]

26. you could get a ticket for honking at a parked car

in some places.

Horns are for emergencies only.

[Bouncy Ball]

30. Huh.

Not around here, they're not.

And I wasn't honking at their car, I was honking at them. They could see I was sitting there waiting on the spot and they were standing there, doors wide open, just having a little chit chat. They were even ALL in the same car, so why couldn't they carry on this conversation as they drove off?

Also, I tapped the horn, which is considered "polite honking" here.

[Kire]

31. picking your nose is not a threat

that's all I'm trying to say

[StopTheMorans]

32. "Horns are for emergencies only." i disagree, the horn is put there for

a reason. in Boston, it can mean anything from "the light turned green .01 seconds ago, and YOU STILL HAVEN'T HIT THE GAS YET" to "i'm having a bad day and i just feel like honking at random people." where do you live btw? just curious, b/c i don't think that i've seen any major cities where "horns are for emergencies only".

[johnnie]

33. My father once told me

In Cleveland during the 60s, it was against the law to honk your horn. It was because of the riots and stuff that was going on at the time. I know it is illegal to honk your horn past 11:30 here.

[RagingInMiami]

37. In Miami, they honk at you if you don't move your car within a second

after the light turns green. No exaggeration.

[Kat45]

38. Austin folks would have a real hard time driving in Boston.

Almost every horn honk--and there are many--are of the angry variety. And as Kathy said, the millisecond that the light turns green, if you haven't moved through it, you'll get a loud honk. If you wait too long to make a turn (a few seconds) because there are cars whizzing by and you cannot safely make the turn as yet, you'll get a loud honk. If there is gridlock at an intersection and you can't move anywhere, you'll get several loud honks. Though I use the polite honk where appropriate, most people use the loud honk no matter what.