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So far three out of my four “big ideas” have been about driving related matters, and this post will make it four out of five!

This time it’s a plan to deal with those annoying people on the roads that beep their horns, purely because they’re impatient. This week I was trying to turn right off of a main road, onto a side road, on a relatively blind corner, so had to look very carefully before I moved. Just as I was about to go, the guy behind me beeped his horn as if that might make me hurry up

…and then it came to me:

Every time someone in the immediate vicinity beeps their horn, all drivers should stop for a full five seconds – not long enough to cause major problems, but definitely long enough to annoy someone impatient – before continuing with their journey.

The highway code says:

The horn. Use only while your vehicle is moving and you need to warn other road users of your presence. Never sound your horn aggressively. You MUST NOT use your horn

• while stationary on the road
• when driving in a built-up area between the hours of 11.30 pm and 7.00 am

except when another road user poses a danger.

Technically, the fact that a horn has been beeped means that someone is letting us know they are around, so you could argue that stopping to look and see who is alerting us to their presence is the correct thing to do anyway.

If they do it when stationary then that’s a direct violation, but as the person “in their way”, we can take longer to assess our surroundings to make sure our decision to pull away is a safe one.