Environment
Stop Honking!
Honking can result in high levels of victim distress and depressive symptoms.
Posted December 27, 2024 Reviewed by Tyler Woods
Key points
- Honking can result in high levels of victim distress and depressive symptoms.
- Honking is meant to avoid or signal danger, but countless people honk aggressively and incessantly.
- Possible solutions include dampening car horns and educating drivers about the dangers of honking.
- At the very least, drivers should avoid honking at pedestrians and cyclists.
After a long day at work—or an even longer day with the kids—it may be tempting for many to release frustration on fellow drivers or pedestrians by means of the car horn. But honking the horn is a bad idea unless absolutely necessary. Levels of noise pollution and pedestrian distress are good reasons to lay off the horn. In fact, concerns over honking have reached a crescendo in recent years, with opponents of the practice pushing for further driver education and regulation.
Tool of Abuse
There are good reasons to honk your horn; reasons that align with the original intention of the tool—dating back to the car horn’s invention in 1908. At the time, car horns came in the form of Klaxons, which were often attached to Model Ts.
“The horn was originally installed in vehicles to warn others of danger and to avoid dangerous situations while driving,” wrote Korean investigators in a study published in the Mechanical Engineering Journal.
This probably remains the only good reason to honk, according to experts, and drivers who are reluctant to use their horns keep this reason in mind. But, not all drivers are judicious in their propensity to beep away.
Another reason to honk the horn is to express gratitude, although this behavior is rare. Instead, most drivers lose control and honk out of aggression.
Aggressive honking is behavioral in nature and can be traced back to a variety of stressors. One classic study published in Environment and Behavior found that as ambient temperatures rise, so does the incidence of honking. Predictably, drivers without air conditioning who drove with their windows down were the most likely to honk. Of note, the study was done in a particularly warm clime: Phoenix.

Depression and More
One major issue with honking is that it contributes to noise pollution, along with the other disruptive noises of traffic, including the machinery used in roadwork. One population-based German study demonstrated that such residential traffic noise can increase the risk of developing severe depressive symptoms by 29 percent in adults exposed to ≥55 dB of such noise compared with those exposed to <55 dB. Depressive symptoms were higher in those with lower levels of education and insomnia at baseline.
Even more concerning, pedestrians—who are often the victim of an angry driver’s ire—are particularly perturbed by honking. Remember that pedestrians and cyclists lack barriers from the outside world when crossing or in the street and are thus particularly vulnerable.
“It was found that many pedestrians had experiences of being honked at by a single honk, two short honks and a long honk. Such honking mostly aroused negative psychological reactions such as feeling startled, a sensation of noisiness, and feeling irritated,” wrote the Korean investigators.
No Right on Red
On a regulatory level, state laws govern the use of case horns and thus vary. Overall, excessive or aggressive honking can be ticketed in 41 states. Nevertheless, some have argued that honking your horn is a First Amendment right. Recently, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California woman ticketed for honking, therefore upholding the California ban on honking for any reason other than warning of danger. California officials argued that the ban on honking was “justified by an important interest in traffic safety.”
One option to reduce aggressive or malignant honking involves driver education about the risks that horns pose to pedestrians.
“During the counseling process, drivers should learn the adverse effects of noise on human beings, rules for honking, and the associated penalty. At the same time, the administration has to maintain and control automatic signaling system and divert the traffic through less congested roads,” advised Indian investigators examining the contribution of honking to noise pollution in Kolkata, which is considered one of the noisiest cities on Earth.
Another option that’s been floated is the international reduction of the lower limit of car horn noise from 93 dB to 87 dB measured at a distance of 7 m (23 ft) in front of the vehicle, with the upper limit not being more than 112 dB. Although this proposal was submitted and agreed upon by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 2014, it appears non-binding.
One common reason that drivers honk is when waiting to make a right on a crossroad behind another driver waiting for the light to turn green. To address this issue, some experts recommend banning the ability to turn right on red.
At the very least, all drivers should avoid honking at pedestrians and cyclists. Doing so is not only dangerous but mean-spirited. Nobody wants to be honked at while crossing the street.