Riding etiquettes: honking at distracted drivers? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Riding etiquettes: honking at distracted drivers?

hymnz

hymnz

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Is it ok to honk at distracted drivers in front of you to, let's say, alert them?

I had a bloke for over 10 kms in front of me trying to fix the mobile holder. They were slowing down, hitting the brakes, not moving ahead from a red light and swerving within the lane (almost moving into incoming traffic a couple of times).

I understand honking is considered rude but better to be rude and make the person correct their driving than having them cause an accident.
 
There are two schools of thought. Ignore them and make space or honk to get them to pay attention. Honking could get you into a road rage situation as people don't like to get caught being stupid. You lose in road rage. I normally make a plan to bug out and then honk at them and pretend I am holding a phone. If they decide to do something stupid, I have already turned and it would be very difficult to try to catch me.

On a related note, I saw a rider playing with their phone in their lap at a light. How dumb were they? That's a really easy $650 for the cops and highly likely would be on their dashcam.
 
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Worth a shot. Better safe then a etiquette rule.
I haven't found my bike horn to be very robust compared to a car horn though.
 
GreyGhost said:
There are two schools of thought. Ignore them and make space or honk to get them to pay attention. Honking could get you into a road rage situation as people don't like to get taught being stupid. You lose in road rage. I normally make a plan to bug out and then honk at them and pretend I am holding a phone. If they decide to do something stupid, I have already turned and it would be very difficult to try to catch me.

On a related note, I saw a rider playing with their phone in their lap at a light. How dumb were they? That's a really easy $650 for the cops and highly likely would be on their dashcam.
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Agree on the road rage. Didn't have a chance to move to other lane for a very long time and I left 2 car spaces ahead. Everyone around noticed the bloke was driving ignorantly and kept their distance.
GreyGhost said:
Stebel Nautilus fixes that.

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Sounds like a truck horn in India 😅
 
My thought has always been if you honk at someone being stupid, you end up with angry and stupid...
I tend to stay away or change course, cause you can't fix stupid...
 
I do not honk. I put distance between myself and the issue.

If the person is already being erratic, startling them is not what I want to do.
 
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Jampy00 said:
My thought has always been if you honk at someone being stupid, you end up with angry and stupid...
I tend to stay away or change course, cause you can't fix stupid...
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Yup. Honked at the woman beside me putting on her mascara in fast heavy Saturday afternoon traffic on the QEW last Saturday. She got mad at me. And no, you can't fix stupid......but you can mock it.

No idea what the hell this one was doing on Walkers Line. Watching a solar eclipse, maybe? She was in my lane a few seconds earlier going around the corner.

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One of the first mods I do on my bike is an air horn.

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Denali SoundBomb Split Dual-Tone Air Horn

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I usually only need my horn on the highway and the few times I've really required it, it worked like a charm. Most driver's instincts when startled is to return to the position they were in before the horn. That's exactly what I want them to do when they're coming into my lane.

I'm in the I love my horn boat.
 
Havent used the horn on a bike other than to say "bye" to my riding buddies.

Honking is the last thing im thinking about in city driving. I know i can be better though (thumb on the horn, etc)
 
I only use the horn if there's imminent danger to me, ie. Someone drifting into my lane and about to hit me.

Anything else just risks escalating the situation and I'm 5000 lbs of steel down on a potential road rage opponent.

Not good odds.

I'm all about gtfo of a bad situation instead of sticking around and picking a fight.
 
matthew said:
They don't care. Honking won't change it.
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Fwiw, you can call the non-emergency line for cops and report the driver using their phone. If they have a cop in the area (rarely happens), they will try to find the car. If the plate number you give the cops matches the car description, they will mail the owner a grumpy letter. The letter has no fine associated but it lets the car driver know their crap behaviour was noiticed and it shows up in the police computer so when the !$$hat gets pulled over in the future, there won't be warnings and there is a good chance they will get the value-added tickets as well.
 
GreyGhost said:
Fwiw, you can call the non-emergency line for cops and report the driver using their phone. If they have a cop in the area (rarely happens), they will try to find the car. If the plate number you give the cops matches the car description, they will mail the owner a grumpy letter. The letter has no fine associated but it lets the car driver know their crap behaviour was noiticed and it shows up in the police computer so when the !$$hat gets pulled over in the future, there won't be warnings and there is a good chance they will get the value-added tickets as well.
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Many jurisdictions have online reporting. Report on Driving Complaint- Toronto Police Service
 
I miss the air horns I had on the Wing.....
 
WestBrantKid said:
I installed a Denali Soundbomb. Very glad I did. I can easily get peoples attention now.
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Did you keep beep-beep as well? If all you have is a loud angry horn, sometimes it is too much for situations where you want to give people a friendly reminder to get going. Angry horn is more likely to produce angry reaction. If you have an a-woo-ga horn, people have trouble getting mad at it.
 
The 1st gen Volt had a "hey I'm here even though you can't hear me" horn on the tip of the left stalk. They removed it for the 2nd gen.

A quick double-tap of a car horn has the same effect really without it coming across as "angry" ... I'd hope the Denali Soundbomb has the same capability.
 
LBV said:
The 1st gen Volt had a "hey I'm here even though you can't hear me" horn on the tip of the left stalk. They removed it for the 2nd gen.

A quick double-tap of a car horn has the same effect really without it coming across as "angry" ... I'd hope the Denali Soundbomb has the same capability.
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I just mean a double tap of a train horn comes across much differently than a meep meep. Both are quick and short but one often invokes fear and anger and the other regret or smiles. I don't know where the soundbomb fits on that spectrum but I assume closer to fear and anger end based on the branding.
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