Happy Fourth of July from Seattlest
Seattlest Day Trips to Mount Rainier (in Photos)
Can't Miss It: Weekend Edition July 3-5
Weekend Theatre: July 3-5
Every once in a great while we'll be reading the Seattle Times (we're housesitting and they get it here) and we'll learn something. We can't express to you the shock of it. This morning we were reading their Bumper column (the Times's version of the P-I's Getting There), and ran across this comment from a guy who got a warning for honking...well, here, you read it:
The other day Mark Cruz, of Renton, was waiting to turn left at a green light in downtown Seattle. The car in front of him was sitting under the light, turn signal blinking, but had not budged even though all oncoming traffic had passed. Cruz honked his horn to urge the driver to move. "Then I was pulled over by a Seattle police officer on a motorcycle. He let me off on a warning for honking at the car in front of me.Reached for comment, the"Dumbfounded, I said, 'Of course I was.' What am I supposed to do when someone just sits there at a green light?
"He then told me that use of your horn is only for emergencies."
WTF?! Seattlest believes that custom dictates law, and will continue to (gently) use a horn when someone is woolgathering -- or, you know, updating their iPod, chatting on their phone, hitting replay on the portable DVD, trying to get the top back on their travel coffee mug, or scrabbling around the back seat for a CD -- and not paying attention to what color the light is. We invite Mark to do the same* after first checking to make sure that jackbooted fascist isn't sitting behind him again.
[*Seattlest is not a lawyer. Seattlest's tone of moral indignation should not be construed as legal advice of any standing, even though we've talked to lawyers before at parties and it seems like we could do handle it, you know, it's a lot of reading and checking for precedent and whatnot -- obviously the bar exam is the big hurdle but you get a a couple of runs at it so theoretically it's doable.]
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If someone is sitting at a green light, that *is* an emergency.
Hey Seattlest. Simmer down.
I bet Mark layed on the horn pretty hard.
I bet if he had given a little "courtesy honk", he would not have been pulled over.
I'm interested to find out now, but I bet Mark gave a 2-3 second "MOVE YOUR ASS AND GET OFF YOUR PHONE YOU MORON" fury honk.
Although I agree that even that should not be grounds for a citation or even being pulled over, I do think the honker probably over-honked.
Maybe I'm wrong. Can we find out? This is important stuff.
I don't think he should have honked at him.
He should have just gotten out of the car and walked over to the officer and explained the situation.
Then the officer should have shot out the tires of the non-moving car and given him a damn good reason for just sitting in the middle of the interesection.
But on a serious note, what if there were pedestrians the other car was waiting on to finish crossing the cross walk. Growing up in the south end, I know those people don't recognize pedestrians as entities.
I myself was almost ran over yesterday crossing the street. The green light was in the ladies favor as she was taking a right turn. I was on her right. However, she was looking left at the traffic stopped at the light, as if she was taking a free right. When I yelled, she looked and then got angry with me. I'm sure the fat lady was a great role model for her 3 children. Two of which weren't wearing seatbelts.
TroyJMorris - that's funny you bring that up.
A few years ago I was first in line at a red light. Light turned green but in the far crosswalk, an old man with a cane was only half-way through the walk. So I waited at the line.
Guy behind me honks. I (stupidly) flip him the bird. He proceeds to ram me with this BMW. Seriously.
Then he peels out around me, pulls up in front of me and starts backing up as if to ram me from the front.
Then he thinks better and speeds off.
So, I guess the point is, well, just a good story.
pffft: That's a concern, obviously. We don't want to encourage over-honking. In any way. There's too much honking for the sake of honking going on, we don't deny that. It's HONKmyoillightjustcameon and HONKjesusthislumbagoiskillingme and HONKihatethatshadeofyellow!
However, Cruz says he was "dumbfounded" that the cop pulled him over, which we took to mean as "free of embarrassment for having leaned his horn like that in front of a cop." Still, you make a good point. Our hope is that Mark will show up here and clarify himself.
It's important stuff!
D'oh! These crazy internets! The plot thickens...
I'm betting PFFFT didn't pull out a little bit into the intersection, like he's supposed to, so that BMW could manuever around him. You don't wait at the line, you pull out a little bit so that people can go around. Did you learn anything in driver's ed?
I HATE that.
I understand you can't turn because of a pedestrian, but if I'm going straight, I should be able to drive around you.
DON"T BLOCK TRAFFIC, people!!!
Hey guest at 2:44PM with inter-rage - sorry if it wasn't clear, but when I wrote:
I meant the "far" to imply the crosswalk directly in front of me, not to my right. I was going straight and the man was not in the "near" crosswalk (right in front of me) but in the "far" crosswalk, across the cross-street from me. I thought that implication was pretty clear, but I realize now that it may not have been. Sorry to make you think about things you HATE. ;)
If they didn't want me to honk so much, why did they put the button for the horn within such easy reach? Seriously, it's the second-closest thing to my hands, after the steering wheel itself...
Wow. Pulled over for honking. I'd like to think they have something better to do.
My girlfriend got upset with me for honking twice in the past week.
1. 2 (likely drunken) idiots on the ave in the U-district decided it was a good idea to cross the street in front of me at a light when it was fully green....slowly and yelling and staring me down the whole time. Damn right I'm going to honk at your stupid ass; even if it does no good.
2. We just moved to N. Beacon Hill and are in the process of moving. We went past the intersection of Jackson and 12th in the ID about 6 times on Sunday. There is a "no left turn from 8am from 6pm" sign. At least 4 times people were holding traffic up by turning left. Amazing.
People need a reminder of how stupid they are. That is what horns are for.
By the way, I am a perfect driver and should never be honked at.
I'm as surprised as Seattlest to hear that's inappropriate honking is illegal, but I'm happy to hear that it's a law that can be enforced.
I'll admit I don't drive a car, so what happens with a car-horn wouldn't matter to me except that I live on a busy corner on a street that comes within one idiot driver of becoming grid-locked each afternoon between about 4 and 5:30. Just a few more aggressive honkers would make that period of the day more obnoxious than it is.
If you're honking in many places in Seattle, you're not only demanding the attention of the supposedly inattentive driver in front of you when you lay on the horn, but also of dozens of nearby pedestrians and residents. Whoever you are, you're just not that important to deserve the attention -- not even Seattlest MyB.
Well, seaQwa, honestly I don't know how important I am. But let's err on the side of VIP. Helps get me outta bed in the morning.
I don't own a car either, and I flinch whenever some dern fool lays on the honkifier as a magical way to get traffic to unsnarl -- but you gotta give drivers the occasional tap of the horn to wake up the dazed and confused. I advocate trying for as light a tap as possible, because it never really takes that much. Also, if it turns out there's a pedestrian in front of the other car that you didn't see, you can pretend you just blipped the horn accidentally. It's win-win!
Well, I propose we lobby car manufacturers to make three kinds of horns with appropriate force and volume:
1) "Hey! I know you" horn
2) "Excuse me, but kindly move along" horn.
3) "OH MY GOD! WE'RE AS GOOD AS DEAD" horn.
Troy makes a lotta sense.
I'm with Troy. One blast does not cover all occasions... many times I just need the horn equivalent of *ahem*.
On the other hand...
There are those who stare off into oblivion instead of focusing on driving who, when honked at, honk back all defensive-like as if they did nothing wrong. These wounded-ego people need to get over themselves.
One way to cure a honking impulse: have a car with a weak horn (most Japanese-marque subcompacts such as the Civic & Corolla are examples). Those horns are so feeble-sounding, the sheer embarrassment of honking one would be enough of a deterrent.
Comment #6 - You might want to seriously consider removing your comment, as you are opening yourself up to being sued if Mr. Cruz were to read this. Whatever your experience with Mr. Cruz, it is only your opinion and your opinion stated publicly in a derogatory fashion is either slander or defamation and could potentially cause him to suffer economically, hence the potential for litigation. Just an FYI.
As someone with a heck of a startle reflex, unnecessary honking drives me bonkers (as do fireworks, car alarms, oven timers...). I think people should only honk when someone else is doing something that is endangering themselves or others. I personally honk only once or twice a year. Your horn is not a magic button that makes the rest of the traffic disappear or other drivers become more intelligent. And don't get me started on radio stations that play commercials or sound effects that include honking or squealing brakes.
Post number 17.
1) His post is anonymous.
2) His post is his opinion. Good luck finding a lawyer with any skill to take that case on. Slander is oral and defamation is pretty hard to prove, especially since it said he had "a bit of a temper." In order for any of it to pass, they'd have to show that it wasn't true. Not sure how to prove that someone doesn't have a bit of a temper.
It'd be pretty rare for a court to grant that sort of suit, so it'd have to go into a people's court, and that's a friggin' joke. Hell, I could take you into a people's court and have a 50-50 chance of winning. Then you would have a 100% chance of not paying me one cent.