Quote:
Originally Posted by MBeige
I just remembered one thing. People here do NOT know how to communicate with the horn. Almost all of the time I hear somebody honking, it's either too loud and too long to make it sound good (assuming their intention was good). In other words it's either they're angry or they're impatient, it almost becomes offensive.
Living and driving from another country allowed me to learn how to toot the horn in a way that it is not offensive but actually communicates your intentions. A simple beep beep (rapid succession, not pressing the horn too long) should be enough to get her attention. It's like saying "wake up" or "let's go". When it's a warning, I hold the horn pad longer, especially if it's imminent. If it's just a reminder (somebody swerving out of their lane unintentionally for example) a simple tap of the horn usually gets their attention. Since my horn is pretty loud already (I've upgraded from factory stock to Bosch FSA2 supertones) I try to use them conservatively and more sensibly than when I had stock horns.
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I agree with MBeige about "horn communication" - here in Holland I think it is probably politer to just drive into someone than use your horn - you can very easily get a disproportionate reaction from horn use even when you give a simple blip if the car in front doesn't seem to know what a green light means...
However in somewhat warmer European countries such as Turkey (OK it is also in Asia), Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Italy the horn is regularly used much more like 'hey everyone I'm here - I don't want to hurt you'!
Taxi drivers in Cyprus seem to use it to say hey everyone I'm for hire.
It is nice however to read all of your experiences and reactions - waving a gun out of the window and throwing grenades indeed - you know what over here I think that just might work as the person / gun density is pretty low here (unless you go to Switzerland of course)
But hey seriously I think we should all be driving with as much patience as we can muster at any one moment in time.
As long as humans are in control of the vehicles all we can do is to do the best we can - I guess "they" will put computers in charge of it all in the end.