Honking: What it's really for and what it really means

Nobody likes getting honked at. But why? Imagine you're peacefully driving down the road and somebody honks at you and speeds off. Usually, you either get all huffy and mad or you're confused and startled. This happened to me just two days ago and I was kinda shocked how I reacted. Instead of being upset, I stayed pretty calm. I thought about why they were trying to get my attention, but didn't notice anything nearby. I concluded that they must have been upset that I was going under the speed limit (whoops). Also, weird, because I never do that.

Why did I react this way? I believe it's because I really understand why cars have horns and what it should mean when you hear one! Four years ago I visited Taiwan with a group of students and stayed with a host family there. For a week I did everything with this family. I even drove to and from work with the father. I noticed I would jump every time a horn honked, which was a lot. The father noticed this and we ended up talking all about how they use the horn over in Taiwan. He told me it was just to warn other drivers. Once I even saw a man honking repeatedly as he drove down a one way street. My host dad told me he was warning cars at the upcoming intersection that he was coming because the road was so narrow and it was hard to see oncoming traffic if you were trying to make a turn.

Maybe this doesn't seem all too amazing to you, but I remember thinking, "Americans are so stupid! And angry!" To me, honking your horn is what you do when you are angry or annoyed, not when you're trying to keep others safe. Yes, sometimes we give a little beep to let you know the light turned green, but even that bothers some people because we are so used to honking being a sign of impatience or irritation.

I reeeeally wish we all gained an understanding of this concept all at the same time so we could stop angry honking and start helpful honking. The problem is, we have been conditioned to react to honking a certain way as well only honking when we're mad. Let's change that! Maybe you can start accompanying your helpful honk with a happy wave!

I found this lovely definition of a vehicle horn and it was very helpful: The vehicle operator uses the horn to warn others of the vehicle's approach or presence, or to call attention to some hazard.

It's there to keep us safe! What do you think about my horn honking philosophy?

Side note: Sometimes I have strong opinions that I want the whole world to not only hear, but agree with and act on......since that's not realistic, I think I will just share them here, with you. I thought about coming up with an acronym for these posts. Maybe, Anna's Strong Opinion or A.S.O. Definitely not Anna's Strong Suggestion....Or maybe just IMO or IMHO since most people know that one already. What do you think?