monkey nonsense

honking my car horn seems to cause me a lot of problems.

one of the first times i ever used my horn in traffic was at travilah road and darnestown road. yup, i remember the intersection. i was about sixteen or seventeen. as i was pulling up to the light, it turned from red to green. there was one car that had been waiting at the light… they didn’t react to the light so i waited a bit. after what i felt was a reasonable amount of time, i gave what i considered a polite honk. the driver reacted and made the right turn. i followed and soon passed the car on darnestown road. i wasn’t going terribly fast. those who knew me in high school know i drove like a grandma back then and would’ve only been going, at most, five over the speed limit. i think i just passed the car because i felt a little ackward following a car that i had just honked at.

it was a couple of weeks later, after chinese school, that my mom and i were driving. we were turning left onto travilah road when my mom suddenly brought up - one of the chinese school teachers said that you drive recklessly! huh??? i was so confused! who had seen me driving reckless? what did i do that was so reckless? so apparently, the lady who was stopped AT A GREEN LIGHT told my mom that i had rudely honked and then cut her off. ummmmmm… yeah, i honked because you were stopped at a green light and not paying attention to the road! and i passed you legally and safely!! i was pissed ’cause here she was tattling on me, when honestly, i felt i was being a safe driver. luckily, my mom had actually defended me against this teacher and told her that she must have been mistaken as what she was described didn’t match the kind of driver she knew me to be. anyways, it made me paranoid about driving in the area for the longest time… what if other chinese school teachers were around, reporting back to my parents my driving behavior?!!

anyways… today, i was on my way to proctoring a SAT. i was exiting 66 and going quite fast (no more grandma driving for me anymore ;)). there was a somewhat slow car (maybe going 45-50 mph) already on the exit ramp and i was, on the highway, going about 75. i was letting the gradual hill of the exit ramp slow me down and had pretty much drop down to 55 and was approaching the slow car. admittedly, i probably should’ve broke but i didn’t think i’d hit the car or anything. suddenly, the car slams on its brakes! i slammed on my brakes (as in bookbag next to me fell to the ground and binder flew out of it kind of slam-on-the-brakes) to avoid rear-ending the car and instinctively honked my horn. (not the annoying honk, just a short honk) i wasn’t sure whether the car had just realized it had exited at the wrong ramp and was suddenly thinking of veering left back onto the highway or something… why the abrubt braking? anyways, we pull up the top of the exit ramp where there’s a red light and we both come to a stop. suddenly, the car door opens. and a man pops out. standing in the road, he starts yelling profanities at me and asking me if i was in a rush. (well, yes i actually was. but that’s not the reason i honked at him.) during this time, the light turns green and the cars in front of him move. he gets back into his car and starts to drive only to be stopped at the red light again. smooth, real smooth.

was it wrong of me to have honked? i don’t really think so. i wasn’t honking to tell him to get out of my way. i wasn’t trying to tail him; perhaps i should’ve started braking sooner but i felt that i was being reasonable (albeit not necessarily the most precautious) in my driving. i only honked because i felt like i was about to rear end him. it was a instinctive and defensive reaction.

i don’t think it’s smart to slam on your brakes. that is THE dumbest way to handle a tailgater. i’ve taken a defensive driving course and that is just about the worst way to handle it. not only do you increase your risk at getting into an accident (sure it’s HIS fault, but your insurance company may not care!) and getting seriously hurt, but you may just end up pissing off an already unpredictable driver . who knows? maybe i’m a psycho aggressive driver and if you continually threaten to cause me to get into an accident, i’ll just whip out my gun and shoot you down!! this sounds crazy, but crazier road rage accidents have occurred!

i’ve only used my horn minimally in the nearly 9 years i’ve been driving. and i think i know why i avoid using my horn often. i have way too many crazy horn-using incidents.