The Ahem Signal
Reader Jesse asks a question about a situation that occurs regularly in traffic:
I saw a car today stuck behind an SUV. The car wanted to turn right at a red light, but the SUV was sitting there waiting for the green.
It was obvious that the car wanted to turn right, he had his signal on, he would creep up a few inches every now and then, and he was making moves to creep by the SUV, but did not have enough room. And I thought, I’m sure if the driver of the car could politely ask to get by the SUV would let him. But with his other methods of communicating failing (turn signal, creeping), the only thing left would be honking.
Honking is pushy. I thought, what if there were other audible signals? Something less pushy that sounded more like an ‘excuse me’ than a “HEY!” Has anything like that been attempted or marketed?
While I know of other alternative signaling systems that have been tried, I’m not aware of anything on this order. Of course, with existing horns, there’s a certain range of expression — the quick tap generally means something different, or is expressed differently at least — than the long blast.
But it is difficult to send a precise message with a horn, and if the person doesn’t understand what they are being asked to do, confusion and perhaps hostility will ensue. One reason this sort of thing is easier dealt with outside the car is that we can gesture with our eyes – we have white sclera in our eyes precisely for this reason, some have theorized — and indicate what we are asking of a person and boost the chances for cooperation.
This raises another point; in New York City, as no doubt elsewhere, we could use a quieter, secondary horn — sort of an “ahem signal” — for reminding people to move when the light has turned green. Sure, there’s the headlight flash option, but that assumes the driver ahead is looking in the rear-view mirror. Of course, when I see the person ahead is on a phone, the loud blast comes in quite handy.
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Cars, Drivers, Traffic Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
| 
April 24th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
As a bicyclist, I can say that I already have such a distinction. The bell for a gentle “hey, look” (generally to pedestrians or motorists with their windows down) and my Airzound for the 2-ton monstrosities that seek to end my life on a regular basis. However, I don’t think the bell would generally work for cars since drivers are sound-proofed from the world around them. That’s why horns have to be so loud. One possibility though is something mono-tone and fairly high (think “chipper”) pitched. Maybe at a common, happy note like C. And maybe electronic.
Regarding the original post, though, I have to say that most of the time when I observe such a “creeping” of a car by another one, the person is impatient and has the attitude of “how dare you hold me up?” When you’re behind a car at a light waiting to turn right and there’s not room, here’s a simple solution: wait patiently.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
How about a bell like the Ice Cream has. The old fashion bicycle bell doesn’t get much negative reaction.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
In Auckland where we share a bike lane with buses (don’t ask), I think it would be great if buses had a way to let us know they were approaching (they are very quiet when they slow down to the cyclists speed). Perhaps they could have something like a cat-bell that alerted us to their presence without scaring the bejeezus out of us.
On a similar subject, one of my pet-peeves is people that honk at each other as way of saying hello or goodbye. I find the act selfish since everyone in earshot is expected to look since the purpose of the horn is to alert people of an impending collision or similar? Maybe we need a whole range of horns: hello, goodbye, ahem, LOOK OUT…
April 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Hello/goodbye is bad enough, but the horn hooked to the door locks/alarm is worse. Walk through the parking lot and hear HONK!, panic momentarily, then realize that it’s just someone unlocking his doors.
April 24th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Having a softer alternative to the horn sounds like a good idea, but any cyclist can tell you that “polite” noisemakers frequently provoke _no_ reaction from the people with whom you’re trying to communicate. This problem would be further aggravated by the soundproofing and sound-systems of current automobiles. You almost need a horn to reach through all that insulation and the 7-speaker sound system.
It may be a moot point for many drivers, anyway. Edging around a car stopped at an intersection to make a right turn is illegal where I drive. If the road has n lanes, it’s illegal to position your vehicle as though there are n+1 lanes without sufficient cause (being in a hurry doesn’t count).
April 27th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Jerry Seinfeld actually had a skit on this very subject. Thought there should be two horns, one that is polite, and one that was pushy. He also had another car horn joke about men trying to get women’s attention. Both of them were really funny, as I remember. – Lee
April 27th, 2009 at 11:52 am
The streetcars in Germany have a gentle warning sound that sounds much like a bicycle bell. In fact, one time I was walking and heard a *ding* *ding* behind me. I turned my head, expecting to see a bicyclist, and discovered I was about to be run over by the Strassenbahn!
April 27th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Or the right turning driver can just be patient and wait. We don’t need more noise on the streets.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Honking is pushy, but I don’t know what a good alternative is. I think the best option is to make honking more socially acceptable.
Tyler Cowen disagrees, only because horns are obnoxious.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I disagree. I think another signal, and the extra thought in using it, would be pretentious.