Hooting as you go round corners - outside our house

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We live on a remote country lane and there is a blindish corner outside our house. People quite often hoot as they go round the corner - and it irritates me. I genuinely don't understand why people hoot when they go round corners. There are often kids on ponies riding along this lane - hooting doesn't make any difference as to whether they're there or not. They're not going to have time to move. You also get the occasional loose sheep etc too. Basically, AIBU to be pissed off about people hooting at this corner (I think it's antisocial twattery to hoot outside a house too, but we are behind a hedge so it's possible eg delivery drivers don't realise the house is here).

You are all being unreasonable for using childish words such as "toot", "hoot", and "beep"!

It's called sounding your horn! 😂 I remember an altercation on the road where one bloke came up to me red faced and angry telling me that I had "no right to sit there bibbing" at him. Bloody bibbing! FFS. As a result I seem to now have a complex over using the wrong word. In my mind, it now falls into the same camp as "holibobs" 😖

Other than that, yeah it's completely legal, normal and good practice when approaching blind bends on country roads.

Hang on, do you all actually refer to it as "hooting" the horn? Not beeping? That's fucking hilarious.

I said “sound the horn”. Is that ok?

I slow down and sound the horn briefly on blind bends. That’s what my (excellent) driving instructor taught me to do many moons ago.

YANBU to find it annoying but YABU to criticise drivers for this assuming they slow down too.

In Hanoi people seem to hoot constantly though. They seem to just do it when driving along. The roads were noisy chaos!!!

Same here. For all of you saying its good driving, in my experience these drivers use it as an excuse to not slow down for these corners. They just beep and go round as fast as they can because of course everyone heard them coming and got out of their way didn't they?!

I came here to say this…

my dad always did, and he grew up on those country lanes. It’s pretty scary when there’s a blind bend.

I'm not sure there is such a direct relationship in the code. Rule 112 says nothing about blind corners (or any other layouts except built-up areas). Rule 146 covers blind bends and says be prepared and adjust your speed. Rule 154 covers country roads and says reduce speed approaching bends, and be able to stop in the distance you can see. 125 and 126 reiterate this in general terms for all roads, and 144 blanket-forbids driving dangerously. Regarding horses, rule 214 says do not scare animals by sounding your horn when passing them.

Two vehicles approaching a blind bend from opposite directions and following the rules would not pose any risk. If you assume another vehicle might be approaching and not obeying the rules, rule 147 requires you to be patient and understanding. If you can avoid danger by slowing down, that is the probably the correct action. However, if they still pose a danger to you, you also need to warn them of your presence. This brings 112 back into play.

It doesn't seem that the code expects dangerous driving to be routine, though it does allow for the horn to be used in protection from it. However, my experience of UK country roads is that dangerous driving is indeed routine. While I don't think the horn is seen as routinely appropriate at a blind bend by the code, it shouldn't be surprised at it being used as such.

This. I can't believe one third of voters don't know that.

I recall learning to drive. There were a fair amount of country lanes near the test centre. I was always taught that on a blind corner, when there was daylight, to use the horn. These were lanes used for driving tests. A big part of that is showing that you follow the rules.

I beep going around blind bends, as do most people I know here, it’s to warn oncoming traffic I’m there. I don’t drive fast though, driving fast is obviously an issue on blind bends.

Isn't there a village actually called Dangerous Corner? I've driven through it, somewhere near Appley Bridge in Lancashire.

Could you get one of those convex mirrors installed so that it isn't a blind corner?

You could get a sign made. A standard triangle with a red border showing a black icon of a bed with someone asleep in it (z z z) and the words "please don't hoot" underneath. However that would be unreasonable without first providing the convex mirror.

Yes that would be helpful for a horse rider the other side of the blind bend as it alerts us to the danger so we can hold back & not meet the vehicle head on on a blind bend.
The same goes for a cyclist using a bell or calling out. Yes a car horn can spook a horse & you should avoid using it around horses if possible but a blind bend on a rural road would be an exception.

Keep it a short toot not a big blast & slow right down (and be prepared to stop if you do see a horse)

Yes its common sense to do this, courtesy and safety

I would never buy a house on a corner in any case, not just in the countryside

Why did you OP?

Its literally what you're meant to do. I was taught it in advanced driving. Just a quick peep, when driving slowly, to warn anyone the other side.

You have my sympathy OP. I remember hooting-round-corners being a thing when I was growing up as I lived in the sticks near a dodgy corner myself. It was a minority pursuit even then, though, and tbh I thought it had basically (and rightly) died out as a practice. I drive along tight, winding lanes on a daily basis and I can't remember the last time I heard anybody do it, which is just as well as if everybody round here was a Highway Code-quoting, horn-tooting spod it would be bloody awful racket. Despite it not being a thing round these parts my local roads are not a mass of mangled wreckage, so I agree with the MNer above who said that it's a bloody stupid practice and that while it may be in the HC it shouldn't be.

If there is no central line because it’s so narrow then it’s a safety thing - on motorcycles we do it for safety anywhere the driver in the opposite direction would hit us. (Dh has been knocked off in this scenario by a van going way too fast on a blind bend)

To warn others you are approaching I do it tbh

Why would it 'die out as a practice'

Did the roads lose their bends?

@ElaineParrish

in India you hoot as you pass lorries, it’s very noisy! Lorries have please sound horn painted onto them.

british roads are quiet, ordered when th very safe driving compared to most of the world

I don't know, I am neither a social anthropologist nor a historian of the motor vehicle. I just remember people doing it when I was young but thankfully virtually never experience people doing it now.

Why would anyone ride a horse on a road they know has a blind corner? Why are they willing to risk their horse (or them), getting injured?

as a child there was a lane that the drivers used to hoot going round the corner
it was to warn other cars .