I was just on the highway with a broken horn. Let me tell you, when someone is blissfully wandering into your lane, or otherwise driving recklessly, having a horn is an essential safety device to let other motorists know of your presence.

This is so obvious to even non motorists, that I doubt it's the first time you've heard it.

And horns are getting louder? That's the first I've heard of that. Even Google doesn't indicate that's a thing.

I think you're way off base on this one.

> Let me tell you, when someone is blissfully wandering into your lane, or otherwise driving recklessly, having a horn is an essential safety device to let other motorists know of your presence.

What happens when you use it? Do they suddenly start paying attention and stop driving recklessly? I ask, because I've never used my horn whilst driving; I've only ever used it for alerting someone reversing into me whilst I was stationary.

If I see someone drifting into my lane, then I back off by applying the brakes. If someone is swerving, then I also slow down. Generally I slow down or change lanes but I've never used the horn.

"Horns are the stupidest thing ever. They have absolutely no positive value."

You must not drive. I can't imagine any other way to come to this conclusion.

They drive in a different place than you do.

I don't drive a lot, but at least a couple times in recent memory when I've signaled/started to merge only to realize there was a car there. They didn't honk. Maybe if I hadn't noticed in time they would have, but I suspect they were focused on preparing to brake or swerve.

It definitely might be safer if we had a honkier culture. When you're urgently trying to avoid a collision, you won't have the mindfulness to remember the tools you never use. For many of us, that means we stick with the ones we're used to: we brake and/or steer.

The most frequent use of the car horn here seems to be the light has turned green and the driver in front of you hasn't noticed. I'll bet sizable percentage of local drivers haven't used their horn in a year.

> They have absolutely no positive value.

It was explained to me when learning that they are a "Hey, I'm here" button.

They can be usefully deployed when someone is, for instance, reversing towards your vehicle and apparently doesn't see you. I think that's a good use for them.

They are not an anger button, or a let me through button.

(in response to the below, as I am rate limited:

Well, you can't fix stupid... But you can help along someone who's bit tired and forgot to look and "oh shit someone's just beeped me aaaaaaaaa I need more coffee". I've been on both sides of that and have yet to actually reverse into anyone else's vehicle)

Watching dashcam videos shows how people just keep reversing even after being beeped.

I suppose that's probably more likely in a place like NYC where it seems every car is honking every 10 seconds.

Horns definitely have a use, a fact that was made clear to me when driving a bike in Vietnam (horn is critical to let people know you are passing in a big group).

However, what should be penalised heavily is blaring your horn in frustration or when stuck in traffic. This happens near where I live on a daily basis, and causes my blood to boil. It seems for these people it is almost instinctual, and they will do it at the slightest slowdown or inconvenience.

Not a big fan of enforcement actions, but this is incredibly anti social and provides zero/negative utility. A couple of weeks of police camping intersections and handing out liberal fines might perhaps encourage a change in behaviour.

Say someone is backing up and not paying attention. How else am I suppose to tell them that I am back there?

If you were cycling, you would just say “I am back here.”

"Someone help me! I'm still alive, only I'm very badly burned."

And then you would promptly get run over because your voice is not nearly loud/attention-grabbing enough.

There should be regulation that requires pass through audio setups in cars similar to what headphones have. So that you could hear everything around you just as well as if you were outside of the car.

Honest question: have you ever been inside of a car?

not cycling 30 miles to go to work

Horns have on more than one occasion prevented major collisions potentially saving my life. I really don’t think you drive. They are the opposite of useless.

I do drive. I can't remember the last time I used my horn. If someone is about to merge into me my solution is not to hope they suddenly drive competently in response to a honk, I avoid them.

Or more likely, I've avoided them ahead time because distracted drivers are fairly obvious if you're playing with your phone yourself.

They serve a safety purpose. However for a car that is stopped in inner-city traffic, a horn serves very little purpose outside of people venting their frustration, anger and making things worse. In fact I would think these would be the easiest to target with the sound cameras mentioned in the article. Not to mention a huge revenue generator.