Hmm. What's With the Honking???

[Python]

I've noticed since I've started cycling the amount of drivers who honk their horn at me. This happens whether I'm in a cycle lane or on the road.

Are they for example:

1) Trying to phase me.

or

2) Saying. Good on ya. Wish I had the bottle to cycle.

Any guesses? No prizes will be awarded for answers

[pinkychique]

They are appreciating your pretty rear end. I was once waiting at a stoplight on the sidewalk, when an assumingly very very drunk man (didn't really feel the need to turn and look) decided to yell and obsess over how nice my *** was....needless to say I was very ready to move when the light changed!

I think we're just easy targets when we are on bikes!

[Eden]

Some people do it so say get the f out of my way, but a lot of people think that they are doing something nice for you by letting you know they are coming up behind you - like you can't actually hear their big loud car or something.....

[Kimmyt]

Someone honked at me the other day, I wasn't even taking up the road. It didn't seem like a particularly angry honk, but honks never sound nice. I want to tell people that by honking at us, they're just increasing the likelihood that they'll startle us and we'll swerve a bit into the lane. We know you're there, you're a car, we could hear you a mile away, you don't need to honk.

I gave the girl who honked at me the finger and hollered at her, even if she did mean well, maybe she'll realize that it freaks cyclists out a little to get suddenly honked at on a busy road.

K.

[MomOnBike]

I may be dating myself, but I remember watching a film in Driver's Ed that instructed all us budding young motorists to honk when passing bicycles - to let them know we (superior beings that we would soon be) are there.

Like much of my social instruction, I've always ignored that piece of advice.

So, at least some of us have, indeed, been formally taught to honk at bicycles.

[lph]

What a strange piece of advice.

Logically it should be the other way around - all budding cyclists should be given a large, powerful air horn, and told to honk loudly when approaching cars, to let them know that we (superior beings and all) would soon be coasting by with a big fat grin on our face.

[quint41]

What a strange piece of advice.

Logically it should be the other way around - all budding cyclists should be given a large, powerful air horn, and told to honk loudly when approaching cars ...

LOL! Best thing I've read in a long time!!! Truly!!!

[SouthernBelle]

I may have to get an air horn. Just so I can honk back.

[Jenn]

Uhh... I wanna get honked at!

[Kimmyt]

What a strange piece of advice.

Logically it should be the other way around - all budding cyclists should be given a large, powerful air horn, and told to honk loudly when approaching cars, to let them know that we (superior beings and all) would soon be coasting by with a big fat grin on our face.

Hahah this really makes me giggle, because I KNOW that grin!

It is usually accompanied by outright, joyful laughter, and a loud, 'Haha, Suckers!!' as I zoom past the standstill traffic.

[csr1210]

It's generally pretty friendly honking (or I'm just totally oblivious!). I ride acess roads running along the (rural area) interstate, and mainly the honkers are either locals who recognize me, truckers, and ocassionally the TRAIN. (I really like when the train honks and waves - just seems kinda cool ) I think in my area, it is the complete novelty of seeing a cyclist (I've never seen another one except dh) and a comrade-ship of the road. I don't think it's complaining because I'm not on their road, and for some reason it never strikes me as sexual (as in construction worker hooting) - maybe because there is a fair amount of distance between us)

I figure somewhere along the line, someone will be rude to me, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised. (though I've only got a couple hundred miles under my belt, errr wheels so far.)

Someone honking directly behind me would scare me to death!

[Deanna]

For me, my reaction depends on the honk. Laying on the horn is just rude. A light tap is either trying to be nice or warn me of something (like the time a very wide load was coming up behind me) or it could be somebody who knows me.

[Thorn]

If it is a short honk, I always interpret it a "I'm here" and appreciate it. Sometimes the wind can be blowing so hard I cannot hear myself think let alone the car crusing up behind me (especially if it is a hybrid).

In some countries it is a given. On Mallorca, the cars always give little honks when they're passing you. Initially I found it disconcerting, but I guess I adapted because now I actually appreciate the short honk-ers.

[Geonz]

I've gotten so I swear I can discern a "Get out of My All-Powerful Way!" honk from a "tweetoot... I'm here..." honk from a "Hey! Is that Sue?!?!" from a "You've got something dangling...." honk. I think it is the harmony of the honk with the engine sounds (how fast, slow... the 'wanna accelerate but can't sound) that tells me. I was in church and heard sirens and thought, "Hmmm... they sound like they matter!" ... and thirty seconds later the emergency guys were helping somebody out of a back pew. Maybe just coincidence...
At any rate, I don't let 'em faze me

[limewave]

I've been getting honked at alot lately too. Much more than last year. And it always seems to be when I'm riding with DD. I always ride in the bike lane or on roads with wide shoulders. I don't understand why they need to blast their horns to scare the bajeebers out of me and DD.

Yesterday I was rollerblading with DD in the jogger down a neighborhood road right by the elementary school. Speed limit is 25 mph and there is a generous shoulder. A car came behind me and blared the horn before speeding around us (again, we were well to the right of the white line--he had to swerve off the road to get behind us). What was that about? I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with my behind either.