I live on a no-honking street. Completely true. There are signs all over it. Fine: $350. Of course, you can honk if there's a legitimate emergency. Some people have pretty loose standards for that, but all in all, there's not nearly as much honking on my street as there is on some others.
I'd really like to see them levy that fine on someone, though. I'm just curious about how that all would go down.
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I got honked at the other day when I was crossing the street by a taxi. It was sitting at a red light. I was crossing on a green walk signal. Right hand turns on red are illegal in the city, so I'm not sure what his issue was. People flip each other off here on a pretty regular basis, but I'm not the angry type. I do, however, have a particularly expressive face, and I can only imagine the total bewilderment that I must've displayed at that moment.
Days later, I still have no idea why the taxi honked at me.
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I've often discussed with my mother how babies crying in church seem to feed off of each other. Remove the right baby, and the room calms down. Get the wrong baby in there, and you can suddenly have chaos.
Honking in New York is just like that. Lots of the time, no one is honking. We're all just going about our day, minding our own business, and basically ignoring each other the best we can. Then, someone honks.
Instantly, someone else honks.
A honking war ensues. Every car in the vicinity instantly involves itself.
They honk differently here in NYC than they do back in the good ol' UT. One quick honk is never sufficient. Apparently, there is some statute or something that specifies the minimum number of honks required and a minimum duration for at least one of the honks.
But as quickly as it started, it's silent again. It's all very odd. I have a suspicion that there's just one really honky car driving around, stirring up all of the other cars, and that the crazy loud honk-fests are just occurring wherever this car is.
Obviously, this car is a taxi.
4 comments:
I think the taxi driver may have been flirting with you.
Some people just have to do something with their hands when they drive. The "hands free cell law" is NY is most likely leaving them with just way too much empty hand time. Honking becomes kind of an exercise to keep their hands limber... Just a theory mind you, but I am sure that same taxi honked at me in the truck. Was it Yellow?
It's hard for me to pick my favorite thing about you (the list is quite extensive), but your expressive face is certainly near the top of that ever-extensive list.
Can't remember the last time I heard a car honk. Or crossed a street in traffic. Or at a stop light. We're living opposite lives...
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