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Less Horn Blowing

Break the annoying horn habit
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Like several other people posting in this category, I live in a noisy urban area. New York City. It can't get much more noisy than this in the US. I feel that not a minute can go by during the day that somebody twenty cars back isn't laying on his horn because the car at the intersection is waiting for people to clear the crosswalk or some similar scenario. So, in the interest of helping to preserve the hearing of all pedestrians a little, I propose that all cars be manufactured with a horn inside that is as loud as the horn outside (subjectively speaking of course, no need to hurt the driver either). Obviously a difficult challenge would be to make it tamper-proof. Imagine the self control most people would be able to muster if they were forced to subject themselves to the same noise they make everybody outside their car put up with. The horn is intended for alerting people (pedestrians and other drivers) of an impending emergency situation. Of course there are times you need to wake the person up in front of you at the light or other small things that twang your strings, Those are the times you would need to decide just how little would be enough to get them going without making yourself crazy. I drive, so it's not as if I don't understand how frustrating it can be. Some way to force a little restraint seems to be needed.
avatar10, Nov 12 2003

More Horn Blowing http://www.aetv.com...horatio_hornblower/
[DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

[link]






       Convertibles would end up being doubly-loud to pedestrians though. Why not use some other disincentive such as electric shocks, painfully blinding flashes of brilliant white light, abrupt tensioning of the seat-belt, auto-selection of barry-manilow track by the radio etc.
dobtabulous, Nov 12 2003
  

       can I give you a lift (ride) benfrost?
dobtabulous, Nov 12 2003
  

       I like this proposal*, but I think it would be better if the inside-loudness ramped up over the first quarter-second of honking. That way you could comfortably do a friendly “beep-beep”, but not an extended “HOOOOOOONK”.   

       *despite its title, which made me anticipate a rant
AO, Nov 12 2003
  

       How about an easily blown fuse between the horn and the steering wheel ... thus, the more the horn is abused, the more often this fuse must be replaced ...
Letsbuildafort, Nov 12 2003
  

       The convertible issue is easy - the inside horn is disabled when the top is down since dobtabulous is correct in that it would be a doubling of the noise. I fear that "auto-selection of barry-manilow track by the radio" would be more than a disincentive and cause the uncontrollable urge to stomp on the accelerator and head for the nearest hard object. I like AO's idea of ramping up as the abuse increases leaving us the option of a "polite" nudge. I see people on the side of the road with bags of fuses or simply a wad of solder stuffed into the fuse holder.
avatar10, Nov 12 2003
  

       I think you would benefit by breaking that paragraph up into readable chunks, thereby making it much more obvious what the idea is.   

       P.S. I don't think it's going to work - truck klaxons are really loud inside the cab, but truck drivers still seem to enjoy blasting them.
DrCurry, Nov 12 2003
  

       You’d have to make the inside horn much more annoying than the outer horn. Infusing it with the sound of a dentists’ drill scratching a blackboard would be a good start.
AO, Nov 12 2003
  

       I've always thought that cars should be able to do more than one noise. Another button accessable on the dashboard to broadcase a more subtle "chirp" to get the attention of the person asleep in the front of the line would be nice. The noise should be less than a second in duration, and set such that it could not be used more often than every 5 seconds or so.
sycorob24, Nov 12 2003
  

       I think it would be a good way to help people (like me) break the habit. But honestly, I wouldn't buy a car with such a noisy device inside. I don't think anybody would, really. Blowing the horn goes beyond my will... in my city is a necessity to pretty much get anywhere, serious.
Pericles, Nov 12 2003
  

       Horns are annoying. They are poky.
DesertFox, May 17 2004
  
      
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