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Show HORN ABUSED BY SOME MOTORISTS Sound of Warning Is of Value When Approaching Approach-ing a Crossroad. Never before in the history of the automobile has there been so much abuse of the automobile horn. Horns are better sounding and more reliable re-liable than they ever were, yet this appears to be of no advantage In regard re-gard to their use. Unquestionably motorists are becoming be-coming a bit vain over the noise their horns make, because experience shows that the horn button Is always overworked where cars are thickest and where horning is least necessary. neces-sary. That is because each driver is trying to outdo the other. Some one horns and the first thing you know they are all doing it. Conversely, because be-cause the audience along the highway is so scant by comparison the born Is silenced. No one on the road would jump a foot when it is sounded. This business of burning the headlights head-lights in daytime during a long tour as a means of wasting some of the electric current so as not ' to overheat the battery would be unnecessary. The horn motor offers a means of wasting current, and, at the same time, of using it to good advantage. Headlights In the daytime are useless because their rays cannot be seen until un-til one is looking straight Into the reflectors. re-flectors. A warning then is unnecessary. Horning at all the curves, crossroads, cross-roads, school houses, upon passing other cars and before reaching the crest of a steep hill where another car may be approaching on the wrong side of the road, furnishes an excellent excel-lent way of not only forestalling damage dam-age to the battery but to the whole car as well not forgetting the occupants. oc-cupants. Word of Caution. In horning generously, however, a ward of caution is appropriate. The careful driver never keeps his horn blowing constantly while rounding a curve or approaching a crossroad. To do so would be deafening himself to the sound of another horn which may be blown as a warning to him. In such cases the effect is the same as though neither driver sounded a warning; warn-ing; and the results are much more serious, because when a driver has given a warning he assumes that he has paved his way to safety and immediately im-mediately puts on more steam. When the cars suddenly appear face to face the drivers are caught off their guard. Their excessive surprise may occasion them to act less sensibly sen-sibly than if caught in the usual predicament pre-dicament as a result of not horning at all. The solution is to horn intermittently. inter-mittently. This matter of intermittent horning horn-ing is of particular value when approaching ap-proaching a blind alley or a crossroad cross-road In the wake of another car. Many drivers have a habit of assuming that if the driver of the car ahead horns at a crossing that is sufficient warning warn-ing for both. But experience proves that it is not. The motorist coming out of the side road hears one horn and naturally assumes there is but. one car coming. He proceeds to cross the main road and precipitates a collision. colli-sion. Coming From Side Road. The man coming on from a side road seldom horns because he feels that he should give the right of way (not according to law, but for safety's sake) to the faster traffic of the highway. high-way. If two or more highway cars, therefore, begin relying upon the horning horn-ing of the machine in the lead there Is bound to be trouble sooner or later. In the city horning is becoming a nuisance. A motorist who recently put up over night at a downtown hotel suffered insomnia because of the incessant horning of cars at the corner. cor-ner. A motorist may think the pedestrian plays no important part In his motoring, motor-ing, but just the same the length of time he must wait at a crossing depends largely upon how long it takes for the pedestrian to cross. A blast of the horn may get the pedestrian pedes-trian "tralfic dizzy" and so prolong the agony. There is a time to horn and a time to remain silent; and It only requires a little headwork to differentiate between them. |
