To think this was disgusting behaviour

[rudeteenager]

Driving down a residential road, 2 lads about 16/17 stroll out in front of me, headphones in, clearly not paying attention to the road. I obviously slow right down and beep loudly to alert them, they barely respond or look up but I see them smirk at each other. Next thing, I hear an incredibly loud shout of, "fuck off!!", look briefly to my left to see a teenage girl of about the same age gesturing at me and shouting profanities. I mean, was that hugely necessary? Absolutely disgusting behaviour. I have a 17 year old daughter and if she behaved that way I'd disown her! What is wrong with some young people today?!

Anyone moaning about the 'youth of today'... this is not a new phenomenon.

Perhaps those youths grow/grew to be equally uncouth adults. In which case the issue is 'some people', rather than 'some young people'. I'd be just as surprised by an adult yelling profanities. It seems unnecessary regardless of age or gender.

You started with the aggressive behaviour by loudly beeping and the girl was aggressive back because she was standing near your car and had to listen to it.

I strongly disagree that beeping is aggressive. Sometimes it's necessary as a warning of your presence to oblivious pedestrians, as has been stated by others on here.

lol at "she had to listen to it". Sure, a noise she doesn't like that isn't even directed at her, justifies a loud "fuck off!" with hand gestures. I'll remember that next time I'm around any sort of noise in public that offends my ears 🤣🤣

Interesting point. I was sort-of on the side of the OP, but you're right. If I'm beeped or hooted, it is VERY RARELY because somebody things I'm in the wrong (as pedestrian or driver), it's 90% of the time a f🔱c-ing creep trying to hit on me.

Sure, she could. If she fancies being run over😬

@NPET
I don't doubt that. But, if you were standing facing a road, waiting for your mates to cross, you witnessed them walk almost in front of an oncoming car and then heard a beep, looked and saw a female driver behind the wheel.... would you think "trying to hit on me"? Surely the context of the situation before your eyes would dictate the reason for the beep?

In the "trying to hit on me" scenario, surely we should be educating young women to just ignore it. These creepy men like to get the reaction. It's part of their stupid, idotic, sexist fun. Ignoring them is the best response, IMO. When they go low, etc etc..

Just be grateful your dd isn't like this OP.

Oh I am, infinitely so. I have actually just told DD and she was as shocked and appalled as I am. Her words were "I can't believe she shouted that at a grown woman, as if you'd dare do that" 🤣

Agree completely.
BUT it all depends on whether she just reacted because she's so used to being beeped at by men.

I don’t understand why you felt the need to beep at them. They were crossing the road and you’d slowed down, were you hoping to hurry them up?

It was rude of the girl sure. If it was me I'd thought that was weird and forget all about it in 5 mins.

Misuse of the car horn such as to express annoyance, startle animals or hurry other road users can lead to fines

No, they weren't crossing the road, they'd basically walked out in front of me, without looking or seeming aware, and whilst wearing headphones. Very different.

@LostFuse
Ah well, good job I wasn't using my horn for any of those reasons then, isn't it.

I think that what you need to do is write a jolly good letter to the editor. And possibly ask the vicar to address such ungodly behaviour in Sunday's sermon.

I'm delighted to read that so many people here think aimlessly wandering into the middle of the road with no warning to or by vehicles approaching is OK. Might start doing it myself. What could possibly go wrong? 😂

you didnt nearly run them down, because you slowed down when you saw them, and because they didn't get out of your way quick enough you gave them a swift 'beep' of your horn

This. Sorry OP, but your behaviour was rude and out of order too. You should not ' slow down' when pedestrians are on the road, you should stop.

You only need to beep your horn to alert people to your presence to prevent an accident. This clearly wasn't the situation here, from your own OP. You just beeped to express your annoyance.

You haven't behaved well here either and you have no grounds to be on your high horse. You may also benefit from reviewing the Highway Code.

But I do mean, I'd be fucking mortified and embarrassed

I do love the fact that you'd be fucking mortified by your daughter swearing. 😁

Yes this. So much horrible aggression around. I was behind a white van driver the other day in a lane and he stopped at a corner because a car was coming the other way. He yelled out the window "REVERSE YOU WANKER" at me, literally two seconds after stopping. Prick. He stopped a bit further on and I wound the window down and had a quick word. He had the grace to apologise I suppose.

Maybe she thought you were a lecherous older woman beeping at boys in school uniform. Perhaps she hasn't realised yet that this is something only experienced by girls from men.

That is exactly what a horn is for - to alert others of your presence especially if you want to avoid a hazardous situation

Were you in danger of hitting them if you had not beeped your horn? If not, you should not have used it.

Pinning them to a wall for their own safety would do no harm at all.

Grown women beep their horns at teen boys? Really? Really?

They just don't. It's literally nothing I've ever witnessed.

Actually sorry, I misinterpreted your post @5128gap and now see you said it was someting only experienced by girls from men, not that it was common place behaviour from female drivers too. My apologies. Please ignore my post.

I'm not saying that it is great behaviour, but I wouldn't be giving it any more headspace. It's not unusual either, sadly.

I was driving in a town near us about three or four years ago and had to do an emergency stop because of a middle aged looking man who walked out in front of me without even bothering to look in my direction. We weren't going particularly fast and it was a road with several sets of traffic lights along it so I was able to stop. I also gave him a blast on my horn, and also got told to fuck off. Did I care? No, so long as I didn't hit him and he learned his lesson.

Don't be too hung up on it. You'd be extremely lucky if nothing like that ever happened to you in your driving career, whether your toddler was with you or not!

Crikey reading the replies on here really explains why there are so many rude and entitled young people!