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I feel this. I'm late to the party. But... I want to counter ask... how do folks feel about honking? Is honking a god-given right? Does this vary from giving th

I feel this. I'm late to the party. But... I want to counter ask... how do folks feel about honking? Is honking a god-given right? Does this vary from giving the finger? How and why? I don't have great answers for all the above. But I seriously wholeheartedly embrace the idea of giving people the finger, and I seriously am fed up with all the honking shit and don't think people are entitled to >50% of it (and should be punished for it). And I don't really see or get how to navigate these two "protests", what maxims to apply, how to see these cases which I think have different judgements as actually different. Maybe it's just the social cost: a personal insult of a middle finger versus a civically-disturbing loud horn blow. And that kind of checks out. This decision feels right on to me (which I understand countries like Germany highly disagree on atm): you're free to express that. Maybe the social cost is that, once you start using a very loud system of alert as a way to indicate anger, you dilute the exigency of this alert system, become a cause of false-alarm that creates a real risk that real-alarm goes unnoted. Maybe that's a good enough case against letting drivers honk, a check. But to go back to the general: this decision is about not limiting, but what are the limits? What are problematic displeasures? What lines shouldn't we accept? If someone flips the bird, how much counter-permission do you have to be a terror? This case suggests flipping the bird back might be a counter-God-given-right, but can we scream our head off back? Can we honk for the next 5 minutes after seeing someone flip a bird at us? Can we drive aggressively?

Beldin 4y ago
Dunno about your jurisdiction; around here there are nuisance laws and traffic laws pertaining to honking that a honker would quickly run afoul of.
denton-scratch 4y ago
In the UK, the Highway Code is clear that the horn may be used only to alert another driver of your presence. It is preferable to flash your lights, especially late at night. It is not permissible to use the horn to celebrate a sports victory, to signal sympathy with a striker's picket, to demand that another driver get out of your way, or for any other purpose than to signal your presence. The Highway Code isn't law, but you are required to be familiar with it to get a driving licence, and failure to comply will predispose courts to find you guilty if you are charged with harrassment, obstruction, intimidation and so on. Dunno how it works in Canada.

Beldin 4y ago

Dunno about your jurisdiction; around here there are nuisance laws and traffic laws pertaining to honking that a honker would quickly run afoul of.

denton-scratch 4y ago

In the UK, the Highway Code is clear that the horn may be used only to alert another driver of your presence. It is preferable to flash your lights, especially late at night. It is not permissible to use the horn to celebrate a sports victory, to signal sympathy with a striker's picket, to demand that another driver get out of your way, or for any other purpose than to signal your presence. The Highway Code isn't law, but you are required to be familiar with it to get a driving licence, and failure to comply will predispose courts to find you guilty if you are charged with harrassment, obstruction, intimidation and so on. Dunno how it works in Canada.