Correct and legal use of your car horn
Illegal use of your car horn
Final word
Correct and legal use of your car horn
Laws that define the legal use of your car’s horn vary across the country from one state to another. However, they tend to be pretty similar. In general, the vast majority of these laws define the legal use of your car’s horn as when you need to warn another driver of the potential for imminent danger and/or collision. In Alaska, the legal use of your horn is defined as “The driver of a motor vehicle shall, when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation, give audible warning with his horn, but may not otherwise use the horn when upon a highway or other vehicular way or area.”
What that means in the most basic terms is that you can legally use your horn to warn other drivers of a potential collision with yourself, another car or an object/hazard. For example, if you are driving in the lane next to someone and happen to be in their blind spot and they start to merge into your lane quickly where they might collide with you, using your horn in that situation is completely legal and recommended.
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Illegal use of your car horn
Using your horn to do anything other than warn another driver of a present and potential accident or danger is illegal. This means that if you use your horn to express displeasure after someone cut you off or even if you use your horn to quickly and politely get a driver sitting at a green light moving, it is illegal and you technically risk getting a ticket. However, car horn laws are quite rarely enforced in Alaska as well as in other US states. These tickets almost always only get issued when someone is aggressively leaning on their horn or honking over and over.
Regardless, the penalty for improper use of your horn is no joking matter. In Alaska, if you receive a ticket for you will be fined seventy-five dollars plus the applicable fees. So, if you are caught throwing a fit of anger with your car horn in Alaska, it can easily cost you over a hundred dollars when all is said and done.
Final word
Your car’s horn is intended only to signal other drivers on the road of imminent danger that they might not be aware of. This can include when a car is driving to close to yours or when you are driving through an intersection and another car runs the red light or stop sign. Using your horn that way is legal. Any other use is illegal. That includes when you use your car horn to express anger. Illegal uses of your car horn are rarely enforced by police, except when it is excessive.
