How Long do You Wait Before Honking?

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You have the option of paying attention to traffic while waiting for the light. I can tell when the light is changing to yellow (even when I cannot see it) because I observe that traffic is slowing down.

As a result, I go when the light turns green--because I know nobody is going to run the red as they're slowing to a stop.
 
after about 2 full seconds they get a courtesy tap on the horn "BIP"

By 5 seconds they get a full on "HONK!"

It's just frustrating to be 3 cars back. You could have made it but Axl Foley is up there waiting 'til the light turns yellow to shake the BHPD.

Typically, the light won't turn green until the other lights have been red for a bit. Most of the time there are already cars stacked a few deep. If all the perpendicular lanes are already full, I don't worry about hesitating before entering the intersection. A red-light runner will have to crash through a bunch of stopped cars to hit me. I still pay attention. Some doofus could hop the median and go around all the stopped cars to hit me. I'd hope I'd see that coming.
 
I give a 'moderate' horn blast in severe traffic/rush hour conditions(not laying on the horn mind you or anything close to it), but a 2 second hold(max) if someone was looking around in their car while the light was green and traffic was clear or nothing was preventing them from going for at least 3 seconds. I generally try to wait 5 seconds or so, though...also no repeated honking. Hey, they may actually be having a heart attack! Just sayin'...
 
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If I notice the driver ahead of me using a cellphone, I give them about .1 seconds. Then there are a lot of fools who will time it so they are blasting their horn at you at the split second the light goes green, before you even have a chance to move. If this happens, I will wait at least 5 seconds.
 
3 seconds max.

Back in my younger days... I used to have an air horn hooked up in my old truck. I think that thing gave people heart attacks when it went off. Anyone that pulled out in front of me got to hear it. Some people almost drove off the road.

I notice that the stock horn on my truck isn't really loud compared to my Honda. The Honda's horn sounds so irritating but it gets people's attention.
 
Originally Posted By: bobbob
I Hate to honk but sometimes you must. You are the second
car at the red light, it turns green and the first guy just
sits there, how long do you wait before honking? Thanks


After the second time it changes to green.
 
If they're obviously not paying attention, immediately. Otherwise several seconds.

On a related note, I've noticed for a long time that it seems that the longer the wait for the green left turn arrow, the longer the first car takes to go (especially when I'm the third or fourth car in line). I always keep an eye on the cross traffic light to turn yellow and when I get the green I quickly look left, then right, and then release the brake and proceed while looking left again - no big delay, but on the lookout for red light runners.
 
It depends on what part of town I'm in. Near our home ('burbs), I'll give a tiny toot after ~3 seconds. Near my work (not-so-good part-of-town), I'll wait all day.
 
If you are in New York, you wait about .1 second :-) And if you are in Mumbai, you wait -3 second! They start moving as soon as the other side gets yellow.

- Vikas
 
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what I wanna' know is why it takes so long for some drivers to get from brake to gas when the light does turn green.

It's not a safety thing either because they are entering the intersection. They're just doing it at idle speed.

I've been stuck behind some people that were more than halfway across the intersection before their right foot found the accelerator.

Makes you wonder how fast they can go from accelerator to brake. You are going to need some LOOOOOOOOONG braking distances if it takes you 5 seconds to get from one pedal to the other.
 
> what I wanna' know is why it takes so long for some drivers to get from brake to gas when the light does turn green.

I spoke with a supervisor once about this. She says they are teaching her kids to count to two before proceeding on the green.
(I prefer to look for cross-traffic, as blindly counting then going isn't going to save me from the drunk or inattentive driver.)

In any case, accelerator, brake, steering wheel, mirrors, horn, gearshift. Don't limit yourself to just one strategy. But hey, maybe a dog just entered the crosswalk before them and I don't see it but they do.
 
I generally wait 3-5 seconds to honk because if I am the first car at the line I generally wait 3-5 seconds to go because of all of the red light running down..More then a few times I would have been killed if I took immediately off after the light turned green as the red light runners were flooring it as their light was turning red and already red..Some of these red lights down here are very long due to left turn arrows at every major intersection so red light running is very rampant down here in the jungle.
 
I remember this one time, I was sitting in the turning lane waiting for the green arrow. There was a cop next to me waiting to go straight, her light turns green but she was busy looking down at the computer. The woman behind the cop was to afraid to honk so she sat there for a about 20-25 seconds before the cop looked up and drove off.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
Us Canadians are a little more patient, I wait about 5 seconds
smile.gif


And even then, I just give the horn a tiny little toot, not a full out blast


Not all of us Canadians! I honk within a couple of seconds, but just a short honk to wake them up.
 
Once I felt pretty bad as I honked to wake up a guy to a right turn on red.
The guy in the left lane turned left on red with a cop right behind him...lol.
 
Originally Posted By: Patman
Us Canadians are a little more patient, I wait about 5 seconds
smile.gif


And even then, I just give the horn a tiny little toot, not a full out blast


Well, Canada's a diverse country with a lot of regional variation on this matter. The range would be 5 or 6 minutes in rural Nova Scotia to 0.001 milliseconds in the GTA. Except Burlington, where the average would be 0.002 milliseconds. We're a lot more mellow in Burlington. LOL. BTW, these figures are not scientifically determined; I kinda pulled 'em out of my...you know.
 
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