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The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Honk your horn, damn it!: Utah drivers should blow their own horns

I have witnessed many automobile accidents in the two years I have lived in Utah that were caused by no-nerve drivers who don’t know how to use their horns.

People need to use their horns while driving. How else is the idiot next to you going to know that he or she is in the wrong if you don’t give him or her a friendly beep?

Proper use of the car horn is a driver’s ed requirement to get a license in my home state of Massachusetts. In Utah, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Each day the streets are silent as many drivers get into accidents without ever using their horns. Wouldn’t it be better to honk than crash?

In the real world, we get told everyday when we are doing things wrong in classes, at jobs and in relationships. Why shouldn’t we tell someone when he or she sucks at driving?

Your boss would never let you get away with repeatedly screwing up, so why should you be allowed to on Salt Lake City’s streets? A cop won’t always see it, but that doesn’t mean you’re not in the wrong.

Is it that Utah drivers want to be “nice?” Would it be nice to stare at your car in a pile of tangled metal from the stretcher where you’re lying with a neck brace? Doubtful. Grow a backbone and use your horn.

Growing up, my mother was the queen of honking. She and I would be having a lovely chat when all of the sudden she would start screaming and beeping at someone near us. She was a woman who knew how to blow her own horn.

I would argue that honking is a semi-polite way of alerting another person that he or she is a moron and needs to get out of the way.

Here are some examples of when to use your horn:

* If someone doesn’t move fast enough after the light turns green.

* If someone tries to cut you off (or flick your high beams and repeatedly honk).

* If someone has the nerve to pull the “New England Crawl” (inching a car out into the intersection till someone is forced to let you get out).

The bottom line is that dangerous drivers will never know that what they are doing is dangerous unless someone else tells them by wailing on that horn. It is far better to make a little noise pollution than to get in an accident.

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