ckaspar

I hear you all talk about the drivers that hassle you for riding in the street. Living in Long Beach, Ca I had not experienced that side of commuting. Long Beach seems to be a great place to ride. However I, finally, got a honk out of someone when I was taking the lane by my house. I am not particularly pleased that I got honked at nor was I too stoked that one more driver does not know the law regarding bike riders. I was proud though that I have logged enough miles to finally experience what a bunch of you guys talk about. I could have sat on my butt at home and watched TV on a Sunday afternoon but I wanted to go for a ride and got honked at. I was pretty pleased. lol I just waved him around pointing to the next lane over. He followed for a bit then shipped around and sped off. I am now at about 600 miles since I got the bike in mid-March. Pretty stoked!

Guitarfool5931

Lol. This happened to me on a small neighborhood street the other day but it turned out to be my sister on her way to work. Haven't gotten honked at yet. Congrats on the 600 miles btw.

jon c. 

We ride in a rural area and we're pretty sure whenever we get a honk it's a good natured greeting. Of course, we could be wrong. But it's nice to maintain the illusion in any case.

I do plan to commute on rare occasions starting sometime soon, but at 25 miles each way I simply don't have the time to do it regularly. It will be interesting to see if perception of the occasional honk changes.

lhbernhardt

I find it interesting that a car horn intrinsically exudes a belligerent "get out of my way" one, while a bicycle bell conveys a more polite message. I wonder if this has to do with the musical pitch of the bell vs horn, or if it's a conditioned response - we associate car horns with animosity, while we associate bicycle bells with Peter Pan's pal. When I ring the bell as I'm approaching a walker on the MUP from behind, I sometimes get a "thank you" from them, especially if they are also walking dogs. I only use the bell when I approach from behind so as not to startle these people by blasting by unannounced at 30 kmh. But with the car horn, it's difficult/impossible to convey a "friendly" tone. And if someone is approaching from behind in a hybrid vehicle, and rolling on the newer "quiet" tires, just their blowing by unannounced could be seen as belligerence. I figure they'll need to come out with a "horn" that's not as psychologically grating, but still pierces thru ambient traffic noise. And can be heard above the earphones the oblivious ped is wearing.

Luis

slcbob

I'm making a new commitment to be happy and positive, so I'm interpreting all honks as nice friendly greetings and all hand motions as waves, even if they don't use all their fingers. Ha ha.

As far as the bells go, I've found more than one multi-purpose trail user who thought a bicycle bell was a four letter word being shouted at them. I'd say a rough break down, for every 100 dings, is something like:

5 thank yous
8 startles
2 hey, why are you dinging me? WTF?s
30 didn't hear it since their ear buds were pumping
55 somewhere between vague awareness and water off a duck's back

ckaspar

I get your point as far as the honk but I am sure it was not a nice little toot to say hello. It was a "let me lay on my horn a sec to let you know I am pissed" honk. I just rode along.

Bander

Welcome to the club

tarwheel 

I rarely get honked or yelled at around here, and sometimes drivers give "friendly honks." However, some guy in a red BMW laid on his horn and shot me a bird last Sunday near the end of a long ride, but I chalk that up to the stereotypical BMW prick. I had to make a left turn with no turn lane, checked my mirror and the Beemer was probably 100 yards back, so I signaled and took the lane. I probably slowed his trip by 1 second at the most, but apparently that was too much for him. Fortunately those sorts of incidents are rare around here. NC must be a relatively friendly place for cyclists or perhaps I'm just more courteous and careful than a lot of riders.

Prabuddhadg

LOL. Here in Bombay, or should I say, here in India, if nobody is honking, that can only be because there is nobody driving behind you. Whatever you are driving or riding, a car or a motorcycle or a bicycle, it is a matter of minutes before you get honked at. In a normal commute of say half an hour, you can be honked at anything like 20-30 times.

unterhausen

I have bigger fish to fry than worrying about honking. I take it as a signal that I'm not riding far enough out into the lane.