Today I was stopped at a red light with a sign that said NO TURN ON RED. I was waiting for the light to turn green so I could turn right and a car behind me honked. The guy honked right when both lights were red meaning that the traffic on my left was already slowing down or stopped. So I COULD have turned right a second earlier but I waited until the light turned green. I really don't like being honked at, it really sticks with you for awhile. I don't ever use mine anymore, just because of that reason. I guess sometimes it is necessary if a driver is really holding up traffic in a ridiculous fashion. I think that some people though are too quick to use it. People can get really egotistical when it comes to driving, and they think they're the only ones around that matter.

I love my horn, it's so useful to honk at the other idiots around you so they'll wake up pay attention. (Becuase let's be honest here, there are a LOT of stupid people driving around these days) I don't use it quite as easily as the person you described in your story but I definitely use it sometimes. Just the other day, I pulled up to a red light behind a police car. The light turned green, and he didn't move. I gave it a few seconds becuase I thought maybe he hadn't noticed that it had turn green. But after a while it was getting quite annoying so I gave my horn a tap. Finally then he started moving, but I looked at him again and you know what I noticed? He was talking on his cell phone!

I guess I shouldn't take it so personally. It doesn't help that most horns are really jarring, but they do have to be heard. It was strange, I actually did what you described the other day at an intersection. I was looking for a CD and the the light had turned green and there was traffic behind me. I didn't notice it for about a second or two and the van behind me never honked. I'm sure the driver felt the same way about horns, that they just end up pissing people off. He/she gave me at least a second or two to realize what was happening...and I did maybe unlike the policeman.

Usually at a green light I wait at least 10 seconds before using the horn, which is a lot when you wait

Else I sometimes have to use it in roundabouts, when people think they have priority when entering in these.
This often happens here, near where I live:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=place+simonis,bruxelles,belgium- &sll=50.863459,4.329882&sspn=0.001322,0.002969&ie=UTF8&ll=50.86345,4.3296&spn=0.- 001322,0.002969&t=h&z=19
Cars coming from the right think that the green light at the previous crossroads gives them a permanent priority or something like that, so they do not always pay attention to cars coming from their left in the (oval) roundabout.

Ugh, I hate roundabouts, they're so annoying. I don't think there should be any in the US. No one (including me) knows how to use them. I almost got hit by an Audi the other day when I was pulling into one. I thought that he would stop for me, but appearantly I was the one who was supposed to stop for him. They're just the dumbest things, I don't see why there can't just be a traffic light or a 4-way stop. Maybe for Europe they're useful (as there seem to be a lot over there, especially in the UK) but in the US they are just pointless and confusing.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Swindon_Magic_Roundabout_eng.- svg

I use the horn a lot when towing for communication and when I’m upset because someone performed a stupid maneuver around me. I don’t resort to obscene finger gestures.

That does not exist over here
And I am not sure that it would work quite well, seeing how people drive.
Roundabout are more common in France, but they start to put these in lots of places here in Belgium too, I find these very useful in many cases.
It allows to not slow down the light traffic, unlike what lights do.
And for heavier traffic it often solves the left-turn problems.
I wish that they put one on this crossroad near my work:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=boulevard+de+l'humanite,drogenb- os,belgium&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=53.741627,97.294922&ie=UTF8&ll=50.792751,4.300997&spn=0.001324,0- .002969&t=h&z=19&iwloc=addr
Left-turn for cars coming from north is problematic, there is often a long line of cars waiting, mostly because of all the cars coming from south which left-turn too, but have priority (and also due to cars coming from east which have priority on both other roads)

We don't have 4-way-stops in Germany, too, but there is the possibility, that 4 cars are meeting at the crossing of two smaller street, where there aren't no signs and the "righ first"-rule goes. Then you have to act like at a 4-way-stop.

I use my horn rarely. It sucks, if people are using them to greet some friends, they are seeing on the street.
The last time I've used the horn last week in our village. In front of the supermarket, where the boardwalk was fully parked, an older lady was suddenly going on the road, pushing an overloaded bicycle. She act in such a stupid way, that the cyclist in front of me nearly was falling on the street. She don't took a lok around, just entering the narrow street. I used the horn just 2 meters behind her. She was so alarmed, that the nearly had her bicyle let falling on the street.

Really? I thought it was like for Belgium/France, where it is the one coming from the right which has priority.

Heh, heh, I must admit I have been known to do this a couple of times

This is a confusing round-a-bout, even the GPS was dumbfounded:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Five_ways_intersection.svg

They are not confusing at all, by what you say your problem is rather that you don't know the rules when entering them , the one to be inside of it has always priority, nobody in a roundabout will ever stop for you to enter it, that would be pointless if traffic had to stop in the middle of a roundabout, it would slow down the traffic a lot, so learn how to use them! and they cannot be the dumbest things when they have a logical which is to make the traffic keep moving and avoiding oncoming traffic to stop when they want to make a left turn to somewhere.

What's a 4-way stop by the way?

It is a crossroad where all the roads have a "stop" sign.
In Belgium/France (and Spain I guess) you usually have a main street which has priority on the other streets, or the cars coming from the right have priority.
But with the 4-way stops none of the streets have priority: it is the car coming first which passes first. I still wonder how that actually works (I think it would be impossible in our countries), but I guess it works if they use that

How would it be immpossible? The car that comes first goes first, seems simple enough to me. And mind you that 4-way stops are only at low-volume intersections, any place with a lot of traffic would instead have a light.

In theory and in practice, the roundabout or "traffic circle" is more efficient allowing more vehicles through an intersection in a given amount of time than would be possible with a traffic signal.

However, in the U.S., the traffic circle is only now becoming more common. It has been my observation that these are usually installed at the request of developers in an attempt to gentrify the neighborhood and therefore raise property values.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cottage+grove,+mn&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=41.360684,67.851563&ie=UTF8&ll=44.814379,-92.934463&spn=0.001134,0.002071&t=h&z=19&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=44.814323,-92.934556&panoid=5y9zmeRqYAyvjxjYQzb50g&cbp=12,284.9173038236558,,0,6.011245224- 529233

Due to the way people drive I imagine that many people would want to pass first, and accelerate rather than slow down for that.
In Brussels it is already common that cars pass when the light is "well orange", or even when it just passed red...

Understood and yes in Spain we either have what you say, a main road having priority or the "coming from the right priority".



Totally agreed if you just think of how intersection crashes happen sometimes even having the "come from the right priority" i don't even want to imagine how it would be with everybody haing the same priority, i'm sure that people would floor it instead of slowing down to be the first one to arrive which would therefore cause crashes, roundabouts are indeed sometimes to get on someone's nerves, i get nervous sometimes because the traffic does nto stop coming so you cannot enter it until you find a stretch and drive into it but this happens to me beecause i don't have much practise yet, but i rather roundabouts over intersections.

My god, from the way you talk about how people drive in Europe it sounds like they're on crack or something The image of someone speeding to a stop sign in order to get to go first is just simply ridiculous to me, I can't beleive for a second anyone would ever do that. In fact it is often quite the opposite. It is a common practice for a person who is a at a stop sign to be curteous and wave the other person by first, even if that person has the priority to go first. It's just considered a nice thing to do, I do it quite often at 4-way stops.

Well that's european-latin way of driving