Ending the Honk Project

It lasted just over a year. My most recent report was here, but my new commute v3 is a completely different beast from the v2 Alliance commute. To close things out, I picked up one last commute honk. It was, perhaps, the strangest one of all.

You see, at the time, I was travelling at 32mph in an area posted at 35mph. It was dark on the predawn route to Alliance before Daylight Savings Time ended. Either I'm a lot stronger rider than y'all imagine or it had a bit of a downhill grade. The motorist passed safely after honking, making a full lane change on the four-lane, median divided road. I have no idea why they felt it necessary to honk unless it was as an imagined courtesy of some sort.

MONDAY UPDATE
To complete things, for any that might be interested, here is the final spreadsheet. Click on image for a much larger version.


Click on this image for a "readable size" version



Honking Commute Year

I’ve been tracking commute-related honking for a full year now. Over that time, I was honked at either on the way to or from work a total of eight times. In nearly 4000 commute miles, four honks were on the morning commute and four were on the way home. Four honks were on roads where passing is common, though technically illegal (double yellow lines). Two honks were on multilane roads that had light traffic at the time of the honk. Three honks occurred on Wednesdays, and two each on Tuesdays and Fridays. Seasonally, it’d be hard to pick a pattern, except honks occurred most often in late August and September, suggesting that some connection with “school is in session” might exist, though only one honk was received anywhere near a school, and that one was well before traffic built up around that school.

The only road where more than one honk occurred was eastbound Westport Parkway, between I35W and Old Denton Road. This segment is a two-lane road in which it is legal to pass a cyclist or other slow-moving traffic, and which has no bike lane, path, or sidewalk anywhere near it. I was never honked at on the Alliance Gateway Freeway or Highway 377 in Keller, nor on any residential street or multi-use path.

The furthest I commuted without a honk was 1120 miles, and the shortest distance between commute honks was 80 miles. Ironically, one of the short spells was followed by the longest one.

Five of the honkers drove pickups. Two of those pickups were white. Three honkers had stickers in their back windows, including two of the pickup honkers. I was able to determine the honker sex in five cases. Two were male, two were female, and one was a honker couple with a male driver.

In all honesty, I’d be hard pressed to claim that more than half of the honks were associated with any aggressive intent at all. While my estimate of how long following honkers may have been held up might be open to question, six of the honks were from people held up for an estimated three seconds or less. In the case of the other two, neither had any safe place to pull over for a cyclist, and neither motorist seemed to honk aggressively.

Cyclist Bias
My route evolved to get me to and from work quickly, without adding undue stress. Route evolution was largely complete prior to the report period and no major route changes took place in the report period. The route involves few roads with shoulders, and doesn’t generally involve long slow stretches where a following motorist might have difficulty in passing. The morning route takes advantage of lighter traffic, and is about a half mile shorter as a result.

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

Horrible Honking Geese

Kermit, in his NEW Attitude as of Sunday. He Now Faces Ahead!

Inspired by both Chipseal accounts of honking geese, and of Ed Sailland accounts of geese, I felt envious today, and I decided that the motorist geese in my life were too infrequent. Still, I was not disappointed, as Kermit and I set forth to see if we could get honked at. Well, I'm not only able to say we WERE honked at, but one of the perps actually did a little hissing as well. In their defense, I should say that they were not totally unjustified, as their apparently aggressive actions were really in defense of their families' best interest. Myself, I tried to stay sensitive to harmonious relations.

At lunchtime, I decided to look for honking geese, out in the wilds around Fort Worth Alliance Airport, since none of my motorist friends have been aggressive anytime recently. Soon, I saw a little path, such as that below. You'll note at the far left of the picture below, a parked car, with its motorist enjoying the scenery, not at all worried that someone would be foolish enough to run her down from behind. In truth, her faith was justified since traffic is very low on the four lane, median divided road. Actually, it's so low that it is almost creepy and I wonder why Fort Worth feels it needs to include bike lanes on the road in its plans. You will also note that said path does NOT actually join to the road. Instead, it is a "get off and go around in circles" path. Even if you are walking, you must touch the grass to touch the concrete again.

This Path is Even Bleaker Than the Picture Makes it Look. NO Trees, But Keep Going...

In the other direction, things looked promising for some honking geese...

The Pond at Least Has Some Birds - Looking From the Path Above

Sure enough, one soon came out honking. Others followed, and one even hissed at me. I only got the one shot, as my thumb was over the camera for the rest of the bunch. Even real geese can be more intimidating than the casual reader might imagine.

This was the Only Goose Shot That Survived Steve's Thumb

Their apparent aggressiveness was quickly revealed to be somewhat more defensive - do NOT assume that someone honking at you, as a cyclist, is automatically an aggressive indication. It COULD be just the opposite. The good news is that the flock quickly decided I was not a determined predator, and Kermit and I were allowed to leave without further conflict.

THIS is One Reason They Came Toward Me, Honking Loudly

One little concrete box, so many goose eggs.

As Chandra would say, "peace." As I would say myself, some honks are different than others...

Interesting Project

Click on image for larger version

Thanks to CycleDog, I saw this interesting project over on the Chainguard list. I see little downside to tracking this sort of thing. It's "The Honk Project" with lots of different behaviors and lots of people, but not so much detail. Personally, I see little downside to keeping a log as the author suggests, and it MIGHT do some good:

Hello fellow cyclists,
I need your help with a research project.

I am looking for volunteers to keep track of instances of hostility they experience on the road this year. Attached is an Excel worksheet that will make this easy. You just fill it in, and send it to me at the end of the year, at markortizauto@....

I have also attached my own completed worksheet for 2009, as an example.

A few instructions:

1.Start an e-mail message, addressed to me per above, which you will use at the end of the year to attach your spreadsheet to. Save this in the drafts folder of your e-mail program. As the year goes along, use this to make note of anything you think might influence the level of friendliness or hostility where you ride. Examples would be broadcasts inciting hostility, large cycling events, high-profile crashes that attract public notice, PSA’s encouraging good road-sharing, education efforts of any kind – really anything you think might potentially be reflected in a change in the loggings on your spreadsheet. Also note any conspicuous patterns in your observations. For example, I only was told to get off the road two times the whole year in 2009, and they both occurred within a time span of less than 24 hours. I’m interested in observations like that.2.Enter your road mileage in cell A8. You can change this number as many times as you want. I just want it to show your miles for the year when you send the worksheet to me. The spreadsheet uses it to figure frequency of the various types of incidents you log, per 1000 miles ridden (column O). Please do not count miles ridden off-road or in competition on roads closed to non-race traffic. Extreme accuracy is not paramount, but be as accurate as you can.3.Be conservative. That is, err on the side of presuming non-hostility, when there is reasonable doubt. Log only instances you’re sure of.4.Log only incidents you personally experience, not ones you read of or hear of.5.If you are riding with another participant in this study, and an incident happens to both of you at once, you should both log it.6.If an incident includes two or more listed categories, log it as one of each of the applicable types. For example, if somebody yells at you and throws something at you, log that as both a yell and a thrown object.7.“Buzzes” are cases where a motorist travelling the same direction deliberately passes really, really close – try to log one of these only when you are fairly sure it’s deliberate.8.“Threats” should include only definite ones, and contingent ones if they are contingent on your doing something you are legally entitled to do. For example, “I will kill you” is a threat. “I will kill you if I catch you riding here again” is a threat. “You might find it safer not to ride here” would ordinarily not be a threat, unless you can clearly establish so by context. Such a case should be explained in your cover e-mail.9.An “oncoming MV feint” is a case where an oncoming motorist swerves toward you, but does not come close enough to actually be likely to hit you – just tries to scare you. Try to be sure they weren’t just avoiding something in the road, or dealing with a distraction in the vehicle. If you’re really sure they were trying to actually hit you, log that as attempted murder.

I do not expect to get a scientifically rigorous poll or survey here, nor highly accurate statistics. What I am after is an initial effort that will reveal conspicuous patterns, such as clustering by geography or time.

I realize cyclists in more densely populated areas will tend to report more incidents, simply because they encounter more traffic per mile. I will try to informally take this into account, but I have not figured out any systematic way to correct for it statistically, so I won’t try to do that.

I considered including a category for attempts to startle, but decided against that because those tend to be so numerous as to be burdensome to count, and many are just ill-considered playfulness by kids, as opposed to serious hostility. There are so many borderline cases that I feared excessive “eye of the beholder” distortion of the results.

I would like to continue to do this over a number of years.

I want as many responses as possible. Ideally, I would wish to have a fairly uniform geographical distribution, but I probably won’t get that, so I’m just going for raw quantity, and I’ll take what I can get.

Please forward this message as you see fit. It’s perfectly all right if I get responses at the end of the year from people I never heard of before.

Thanks in advance for your help with this project.

Mark Ortiz

His first Excel download, the blank worksheet, is here
His second Excel download, which is one that might relate to his own experience, is here
The original message is here, including links to both Excel worksheets. As you might expect, there's a considerable thread of messages about the original one, reproduced above.

YE 2009 Honk Report Raw Data

Click on image for much larger version

This data represents roughly 1100 miles of commute cycling plus unknown, but nontrivial non-commute mileage around North Texas. At this point, it is somewhat early to derive any trends. Interestingly, contrary to my expectations, five of the six honks were in the morning.

The mileage represents roughly 12000 cyclist/motorist interactions, about 3/4 of which occur in the afternoon commute portion that experienced no honks whatsoever. Past experience suggests this is NOT typical and that afternoon commutes will ultimately experience more honks.

So far, none of the honks have occurred in the heavy traffic which represents a relatively small portion of my total commute mileage. Past experience suggests this may, in fact, be typical, except when being overtaken from behind by a heavy "wave" of traffic.

The last honk was notable because the honker never did pass and, instead, patiently followed me for about a half mile before I made my right turn. Based on our relative "not on the road at the same time" speeds, this suggests the motorist may have experienced a delay of nearly a minute, which is FAR longer than typical.

MONDAY UPDATE:

Clarifications and observations after looking at comments:

The data represents the period from 25 September through 31 December 2009, per the post reported here. It's quarterly data. Total mileage for 2009 was around 6000 miles, of which 1100 is in this report. Raw honk numbers can be somewhat misleading. Even in this period, the longest distance between honks was 800 miles, and the shortest was 5, so these are clearly not real uniform. Had I not gone on the Sanger ride, my count would be 4, and Pondero who was along on that ride probably doesn't remember either honk (neither seemed hostile). Certainly some places you can ride are more prone to honk generation than others, just as more mileage should generate more honks per month. Some honks are clearly much more hostile than others, as well This report should become more meaningful as time passes and additional history is collected. Since it is principally commute data, most of the honks will be 6-7:30AM and 4:30-6PM. If you, reading this, mainly rode during the day on bike paths that don't intersect roads, your honking data would look pretty boring. If you, on the other hand, mostly rode in the main traffic lane with a bike lane in clear view to your right, you'd probably pick up honks much faster. For Apertome's benefit, I'd estimate that my commute, by itself, picks up about 3 honks per thousand miles on average. That'd be around 15-20 honks over the course of a year, with the bulk of them coming from the commute. Of course, the honk project will reveal how good an estimator I am.

If this project has any value, it will be to lend support, or not, to popular theories about honking over a fairly controlled and consistent route that is not selected to maximize or minimize honking behavior from motorists, but rather to get me, as the blog name suggests, from point to point. If this project has NO value, it still serves to keep me a little more "ready" for the unexpected event of observation without advance notice. Personally, I look forward to seeing how things develop.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE:

IT SEEMS THAT EVERYONE IN SANGER DRIVES A WHITE PICKUP! I share Apertome's theory that pickups seem more likely to exhibit territorial honking behavior, though I would hate to suggest that white ones are bigger offenders than red or blue or black. My own theory is that pickups and cheap muscle cars, driven by young males, honk at stuff more than other motorists. I'm conflicted on the coffee theory. Certainly, as far as I was able to notice, none of the honkers were drinking Starbucks (or any other coffee) WHILE they were honking. I also did not see any texting/honking combinations going on.

Kermit Felt Ashamed

Kermit was ashamed to face the camera...

In the slightly blurry photo above, taken yesterday afternoon, look closely and you'll see Kermit the frog is facing away from the camera. Kermit, being a frog, loves the rain, even if it is near freezing. His owner, however, after returning items to the library and stopping for coffee on the way home, is a little more delicate. Kermit didn't want to make his owner irritated with his big ol' grin. It reminded me of why I don't like to ski in the rain. Shortly after we arrived home, the rain turned to snow, but this is North Texas so it didn't stick. Today, it's back to being sunny.

One added note: I've collected more honks SINCE my last bike commute of the year on December 16th, than I did during the last three months of commuting. None of the honks were enough to really take much note of, but they'll duly go into the Honk Report. Two were near Sanger and one was on the way to the library. At least two of the three honks were nothing more than a sort of "just letting you know I'm back here" informative honk that would be difficult to take as much more than a goose "love honk."

Slow Progress is Still Progress

Previously, I noted encounters with a red pickup truck with an "OU" sticker in its back window on Shady Grove Road in North Richland Hills. Most times, when you get honked at, it’ll happen once and you will never encounter the vehicle or driver again. Getting harassed by the same motorist repeatedly over time is rare. Unfortunately, Forester’s advice about this unusual situation in Effective Cycling has proved completely useless so far.

I encountered my OU truck friend once again Friday morning. This makes three encounters. I'm happy to report that I think we’re making progress. Perhaps there IS something to that “safety in numbers” theory and I’m simulating it by simply repeatedly encountering the same motorist over and over. See if you don’t agree

• First encounter – motorist honked with his extra loud and irritating air horn and then stopped after passing so he could threaten to back over me. This incident taught me to be more cautious about making even friendly waves to motorists. It also made me realize that if you are controlling the lane, that's not necessarily good if a motorist decides to jam his truck into reverse and crush you. Under those conditions, a position along the fog line gives you a better chance for escape. Luckily for me, that's not a frequently encountered situation and this guy did not actually go beyond shifting into reverse.
• Second encounter - motorist honked with his extra loud and irritating air horn and then slowed down considerably after passing, before deciding not to stop so he could then back over me. No threats the second time.
• Third encounter – NO HONK! All the motorist did this time was do one of those aggressive sounding “gun your engine accelerate things” as he passed. He was accelerating fast enough that I wasn’t able to take down the license number for possible future reference. How come these guys don't stop in front of me when I'm prepped to memorize a license number?

I never imagined a honkless pass would be cause for a blog post! At this rate, we’ll soon be Facebook friends and gather by the fireside to sing "Kumbaya" together. By the way, this guy MUST be very influential in the motoring world because nobody else honked all day, either. Perhaps I need to send him down to Orlando for a few weeks so he can calm down the motorists in the CommuteOrlando area.

singalong song

PS: Entirely by coincidence, when checking Shady Grove Road in Google Maps, I notice that part of what Google Maps labels as Shady Grove Road is actually part of a Walmart parking lot. I sense another in the "Parking Lot" series coming up. Perhaps Rantwick's mom would approve of parking lots as long as Google thinks they're really streets?

Honker Data

This is the current level of inappropriate honking and other motorist harassment...

Honk No.	Date	Approx Time	Cyclist Lane Position	Bike Lane/Path in vicinity	Cyclist Lane Change or Turn?	Intersection?	Location	Details
1	9/25/2009	7:30AM	LC (Roughly right edge of LH tire track)	No	No	No	NB Heritage Pkwy 1 Block N of Westport Pky, Fort Worth	4 lane road with median, avg speed about 40-45. Middle aged female honker works at Daimler Bldg & drove small Japanese hybrid. Light-moderate traffic. Stated she honked because I was in middle of lane when I asked her why she found it necessary to honk at me back there (I caught up to her when she pulled into the Daimler parking lot). When I noted that the law said it was proper for me to be there, she indicated "we have a difference of opinion." I stated "check the statutes."
2	9/30/2009	6:30AM	LC	Yes	No	No	WB McDonwell School Road 1 Block E of Liberty Elem, Colleyville	2 lane road with double yellow center line, speed about 30-35. Unknown sex/age honker drove white Chevy Avalanche. Honk occurred after occupant was unable to pass for about 3 seconds due to oncoming traffic. Honk was relatively short and occurred as vehicle passed. Other passing characteristics were fine. I'd characterize it as "I'm a bit irritated you held me up" honk. No other traffic WB.