I would hazard a guess that most of the time when people use their horn it is inappropriate. It is only meant to be used in a moving vehicle to warn other road users of your presence. It is not for:
- showing how annoyed / irritated you are;
- getting the attention of your mate so you can grin and wave at him;
- alerting the person you have come to pick up that you are parked outside their house.
OK, I admit that this is more of a rant rather than an AIBU but in the course of a ten minute walk just now I have seen two complete idiot horn users, both made me angry.
First one was at a set of traffic lights where I was waiting to cross. The lights changed to green. The single decker bus at the front of the left hand lane started to turn left and then stopped. The man in the van behind couldn't get past and proceeded to lean on his horn over and over until the bus moved whereupon he roared away shaking his head and muttering. The reason the bus stopped was obvious to everybody else around. There was a lady on a mobility scooter who hadn't finished crossing the road when the light changed so the bus stopped to, you know, avoid running her over. Of course the van driver didn't see the reason for the delay but in his impatience he made a complete dick of himself.
The second was just a few minutes later. I had to walk across the entrance to a car park. When I got to the kerb there was nobody turning in or out, nor indicating that they were going to turn in (I am not the sort of pedestrian who wonders about with their head in the clouds and steps out without looking). However, when I was half way across the entrance a car zoomed up to turn in and the driver proceeded to sound his horn at me to get out of the way. I mean, how dare he sound his horn at a pedestrian who at that moment had the right of way anyway.
Am I right in thinking that it it is much rarer to spot cases where the horn was used properly than improperly?