ADUK Archive

Gareth, thanks. I think the combination of your post with mine, has crystallised something for me.

There are two stages of thought - subconscious and conscious. You happen upon a situation where a horn warning would be a useful part of the danger avoidance process. Subconsciously, your brain recognises the danger. Consciously (perhaps half a second later), you think "Hmmm, this looks dodgy, I wonder if I should sound the horn?".

If you can bypass the "Hmmm" stage, and just have your hand move towards the horn as soon as you sense the danger, it becomes instinctive to press with the hand as soon as the "Hmmm" moment arrives.

However, this takes practice - which I alluded to in my post. "Practising" sounding the horn sounds like a daft idea, but it works! Nigel, I commend it to you.

Must admit I very very rarely use the horn. In fact I don't know when I last used it. I would much rather take action myself to defuse or avoid the potential conflict that expect the other driver to take some action to avoid me.

It is one of those discussions that come up every so often and some like to use it and some prefer not to. I wouldn't suggest one is better than the other - just 2 options, neither necessarily wrong.

Nigel

adiNigel wrote:I would much rather take action myself to defuse or avoid the potential conflict that expect the other driver to take some action to avoid me.

I think there's three ways to use a horn, and it's the third that is the important one to master. The first is to let someone know that they should keep out of your way because you are coming through. The second is to rebuke someone for having the temerity to get in your way.

Stephen Haley (he whom Nigel isn't a fan of) had a useful turn of phrase when he gave us a talk a few weeks back. He said (I paraphrase):

"We should think of ourselves as a team, helping each other on the way to our destinations. If we stop thinking of other drivers as our adversaries, but concentrate on helping each other to achieve our objectives, driving becomes a much less stressful process".

Maybe that's what Gareth is thinking of regarding the third way...

The way a horn should be used is to warn others of your presence. Good, thoughtful positioning should minimise the need to warn someone of your presence.

Nigel