Car horns normally conjure negative connotations. They have a bad rap because the vast majority come in one abrasive, angry sound. That sound, to me, says something along the lines of “You, fellow driver, are an idiot and I, righteous driver, am mad!”
But horns are actually important safety features and, when used properly, can also help keep traffic moving. You might, for example, save an errant electric-assisted bike rider’s life with a warning sound.
Auto manufacturers should consider improving what is maybe the final feature they have largely left alone.
Drivers need at least three horn sounds. The first should be a friendly chirp that evokes, “Excuse me, please.”
The “excuse me horn” could make the same sound as some automobiles make when they are locked: “chirp.”
This horn would be perfect for alerting people that are oblivious of a green light or for telling someone they can go ahead of you at a four-way stop.
Out of any car horn changes, I personally want this one the most. When I just want to acknowledge someone or politely let them know a light is green, I feel a loud “honnnnnnk!” is awfully aggressive. The last thing I want to do is add more aggression to our frenzied commuting system.
A second, louder horn would be for use on drivers who almost pull out in front of someone or for someone about to swerve into a lane. This is a “safety horn.”
The offending driver would hear enough to correct their mistake but not automatically feel as if they aggrieved someone. This would be a caution, an alert — a way to avert collisions.
The last, loudest horn would emit a sound similar to, if not more fierce than, the current average car horn sound.
Whereas the other two horns would be prominent on the steering wheel, the “angry horn” would be buried on a dashboard menu or located somewhere next to the fuel door button or emergency brake. This would be the “I’m just plain angry” horn.
Its location would be obscure, so drivers would be less inclined to use it. A driver blaring their righteous indignation beacon would have their audio — radio, music, podcasts and phone calls — interrupted every time they deploy it.
Just how often would we hear that piercing, furious, annoying blaring?
If we really want to get creative, we could also implore automakers to add personalized voice messages to our vehicle horn systems. We could record polite, cautious and angry messages that would play audibly enough for drivers in other cars to hear.
Drivers would have to record these “greetings” before driving and they would have to be standard. Drivers would still have to deploy the “angry” one of the three from the obscure button that also would interrupt their audio feeds.
Make me king of autos for one day and I would immediately mandate three flavors of car horns.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.
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