[airstrike]

I have this wild pet idea that we should be have a meter connected to a car's horn and at the end of the year you have to pay a bill for the amount you used. Something like $0.10 / second. You'll still honk when you need to but think twice before using it to annoy other drivers.

[flycaliguy]

I like your thinking but the dystopian reality would be a wealthy elite class of honkers giving us all heart attacks.

[teddyh]

Scale it by income: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-fine

[ricardobayes]

Spanish drivers surely go bankrupt after a week :) It's common here to toot the horn to greet a friend. And since everyone knows everyone, everyone toots all the time.

[dgrcode]

Well not everywhere in Spain, but definitely in some places. I lived in a small town where that was the case. Some people used to meet at a small shop just in front of my house and cars would honk all the time just to say hi.

They would then stop the car and actually talk with them, but honking was somehow mandatory

[r00fus]

The unintended consequences of this are clearly bad, but is there a less invasive approach? Are horns actually a required security item? If so, how can we prevent overuse?

[learnstats2]

When I'm cycling, my voice is more useful than a bell (in an urgent situation) - more instantly responsive for me to use, easier for others to locate and interpret, etc.

[learnstats2]

> Something like $0.10 / second

This is a low enough cost that I bet people would use and hold their horn for longer, to show their annoyance in $.

[airstrike]

OK, $0.10 / second growing exponentially at 100% per second or use the Day-fine as someone else proposed