Q I have noticed an increasing trend in the last few months. If you are the first car waiting at a stoplight when the light turns green, and if you do not immediately fly into the intersection at a breakneck pace the moment the green appears, the driver behind you feels it appropriate to, without waiting half a second, immediately blast their horn without bothering to employ the courtesy of the three-second rule.

P. Hennings

Mountain View

A The what rule?

Q The light changes, and while I take two seconds to look left and then right, the person behind me is impatiently laying on the horn in an effort to make me go faster and get out of their way so they can speed to their destination faster. This practice is not working for me.

P. Hennings

A I gather that.

Q Unnecessary honking of horns is not only illegal, it is quite frightening and causes my stomach to flip-flop end over end. People, please. Wait at least three seconds before you blast your horn at me to make me go.

You know what is going to happen. We are all going to arrive at the next intersection at the same time anyway, so what's the big deal? You cannot wait three seconds? Tell you what. You stop being annoying, and I'll keep on driving safer than you nine days a week. Dopes!

How can we make people stop honking at me? I would say it's a very recently increasing trend. People just did not do this 10 years ago. Not even five years ago, nor one. This is really so new, it is a 2012 thing.

Has it happened to you, too? It's not a comfortable experience. I am such a mellow lady, if I had one peeve, this would be it.

P. Hennings

A I must confess, this is the first time I have received this gripe. But I get the following complaint a lot.

Q I know it is not polite to honk your horn on the freeways because you might startle the driver in the other car, but what about all those cars in parking lots that have the horn honk when they lock their cars? My condo faces a parking lot and it startles me every time someone "locks" their car.

Sometimes they have to do it more than once because they didn't hear it the first time. Why do car manufacturers feel that horn honking is the only way to tell you if your car is locking? It is just adding to noise pollution. Please tell drivers to be more considerate of unnecessary noises in and out of their cars.

Barbie Guthrie

San Jose

A And ...

Q I live in a tight compact condo complex where the bedrooms of the units all face parking or garage areas.

It is extremely annoying when neighbors set their car alarms at all hours of the day or night, with the resulting one to three short honks of their horn right across from several bedroom windows. There ought to be a law to prevent this constant nuisance. Why can't they just be set silently?

Please don't use my name as I want to remain in my neighbors' good graces.



A And ...

Q What is the attraction with making your car horn toot opening the car and closing the car door? Didn't used to bother me until we got someone doing it every time the person unlocks and locks the car door. One family member doesn't cause the car horn to toot, but the other family member makes the car horn toot every time.

Bruce Gatjen

A There has to be someplace with more horn honkers than here.

Q I wonder if New York drivers keep confusing their turn signals with their horns, given the continual horn noise I heard all over every expressway there. There was so much horn honking that I was shocked to realize that I'd become desensitized to it after a few days.

Allan Hurst


A When it comes to horn honkers, New York is by far No. 1.
