Tuesday, May 25

Honking Report Update

Since my last report, here, there hasn’t been a whole lot to report. The only change is I got honked at on the second of February. That honk was notable because I managed to note three digits of the license number (it’s a training thing), and because it was on the afternoon ride home, which is a first since I’ve been tracking things. FWIW, that makes a grand total of four honks during my commute since I started keeping track last September. If we’re looking at honkers by sex, so far, the score is one male, one female, and two “unknown.” Three of the four drove pickup trucks. Two of the honks were when it was dark. Two were during lighted conditions. The longest commute stretch between honks was 1120 miles and the shortest was 80. The non-commute honk total remains unchanged from the last report at three. All of those honks came during the Christmas break. Perhaps motorists were crabby during the Christmas shopping and have since mellowed out. Who knows?

Quite frankly, at this point, I can’t really state there is any particular pattern to things.

I do have a few notes. Specifically it is not always easy to determine if one is actually GETTING honked at! I encountered a number of circumstances where honks were heard, but I was able to determine that I was clearly NOT the target of the honker. I also encounter occasional honks that appear to be misguidedly helpful attempts to let me know where a motorist is (why DO they do that?) rather than anything more involved. These are those really really brief one or two “beep beep” honks. I’ve concluded it would distort things to count those. Finally, while I DO count non-commute honks, and will continue to note any of those I encounter, I have concluded they should not figure in the data evaluation, because I don’t track the non-commute mileage, and conditions vary wildly. For example, two of the three non-commute honks were encountered outside Sanger. Should we thus conclude that Sanger is the honk capital of Texas? I think Pondero would disagree, and so do I.

My previous honk summary. It didn't seem worthwhile to publish a revision since there's been
only one addition since last December

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should stop the honkers and ask them to fill out a detailed questionaire explain why the honked and what they think their honking has accomplished. :) I'm sure they'd be more than willing to share their views.

Steve A said...

The initial honk - I did interview the honker, but it did not occur to me to ask the perp what she thought her honk might accomplish or if she simply thought the sound of her horn might be pleasing. I shall add that to the interview list. In heavy traffic, catching back up with the honker is more likely than they imagine. Maybe that's why it happens more often in situations where the perp is confident he/she won't face the target afterwards.

GreenComotion said...

Today I got honked at by a guy riding a sporty motorcycle, near work. Go figure!
Peace :)

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