I usually try to stay to the right of traffic so that drivers can pass, but sometimes I have to pass a stationary object. Am I missing something?
Tags:
So yesterday, after several days of practice, I had the opportunity to sound off my aoogah impression as I approached a man walking his dog along a side trail just off Michigan Ave at 9th Street. I startled the dog, which startled the man, which left me feeling bad. When done properly, the aoogah is meant to get one's attention with a touch of humor, without causing fright, which can lead to anger. Unfortunately, my humor is not understood by dogs. I will have to work on my dog whistle.
I asked a rare friendly CTA bus driver and he informed me that they are suppose to do a short beep when approaching bike riders.
the bus honk thing is on their bikes and buses share the road video. i would link, but people can google it if they are truly interested. and i have also noticed their tap is not as offensively loud as when cars do it. maybe because bus drivers give the tap far in advance? i'd like to give the benefit of the doubt that drivers are just letting you know they are behind you. but sometimes they really don't care. i pass by a church on my way to work and occasionally the hearse and funeral cars are double parked in the bike lane so i have to dip into the single direction car lane to go around. some drivers will actually lean on the horn which is so disrespectful. i'm just glad the mourners aren't in their cars to witness such ignorance!
I think part of the problem is that car horns are difficult to control, volume-wise, at least in old beaters like mine. It would be nice if they were velocity-sensitive, give a polite beep when tapped and a loud honk when hit hard or held. I am not a horn-blower, but there are a few occasions when I do want to alert someone to something by giving a polite beep. Often, it comes out way louder and more aggressive than I intended, leading to chagrin and pantomimed apologies on my part. It would be very doable to create horns that vary in both volume and timbre depending on how they are triggered. Maybe cars built after, say, the year 2000 already have this capability.
That's a great idea. Also, there's this: http://www.thankyouandsorry.com/installuse.html
I think sometimes drivers just see a bike lane as the only spot a bike should be and are annoyed when we leave them for whatever reason. I've been honked at a few times merging into traffic (and going the same speed as traffic) in order to queue up for a left turn at a 4 way stop. A SUV honked at me yesterday on a narrow neighborhood road where he had no chance of safely passing me (after being behind me for less than a block). It's obvious that some people's attitudes towards bikers still needs to change. Better education on the rules of the road would help too.
In Chicago in general there is a lot of d***head driving, a lot of aggression and, by US standards, a lot of horn use.
Julie's comment gets at what I suspect is behind a lot of the feelings that are implied by the honking - people see bike lanes and think that they exist as a place that bikes must stay in, whereas in reality they are a place where cars must stay out. So when people see people on bikes in not-bike-lanes and temperament and conditions are right for it, they honk.
The other day I was shopping at Stanley's and walked across Elston to position myelf to go north on Elston. There is a bike box there, not that most people in cars pay any attention to it. Mr. Self McImportance was parked in it in his WK Grand Cherokee gazing into his nerd dildo at the red light, wanting eventually to turn right. I positioned myself in front of him in what was left of the bike box to wait for the green. When the light turned green, or maybe when he looked up from Pocket Precious, he honked at me. I ignored him ruthlessly and went on my way as normal. Slowly.
Most of the horns are short in duration and have alerted me of their presence or I may be drifting in front of them.
I usually don't know what their honking means. It's confusing because it is a poor form of communication.
It usually startles me and I get annoyed so I typically wave back aggressively.
203 members
1 member
270 members
1 member
261 members