Road runner : A little-known law: Honking often illegal

We know the unofficial rules. You do a short, swift honk if it's a simple "I don't think you're watching, but the light changed." And you may go for a longer, more insistent, urgent honk if you're aiming more for "Now I know you're not paying attention, and we're all going to miss the light if you don't go. Get a move on!"

But in either case, you are breaking the law.

You didn't know that, did you? It's not something most of us know. I sure didn't.

A reader wrote me last week to tell me how she learned about it.

Dee Bonnie said she was waiting behind a car in the right-turn lane at Oracle and Ina roads. The driver in front of her was talking on a cell phone, frozen in place, oblivious to the fact that it was safe and legal to turn right on red (no oncoming traffic).

So Bonnie honked. The driver turned. Bonnie turned. Bonnie got pulled over.

The highway patrol officer said, "Using a car horn for anything other than a traffic emergency is against the law," Bonnie said. He let her off with a warning ticket.

Because she'd never heard of such a law, she wrote to see if it was true. I also had never heard of this law, so I checked with the state Department of Public Safety, which runs the highway patrol.

It's true. Arizona state statutes (28-954) spell out: "If reasonably necessary to ensure safe operation of a motor vehicle, the driver shall give an audible warning with the driver's horn but shall not otherwise use the horn when on the highway."

For state law, "highway" means any road, street or public way, said Officer Joy Craig, a spokeswoman for the department.

Because it's hard to say exactly what "safe operation of a vehicle" includes or doesn't include, I asked the DPS.

Common sense should be the guide, said Officer Robert Bailey, also a DPS spokesman. If a person is about to run in front of a vehicle, it would be legal to honk while braking to avoid hitting the person. Or if someone is trying to change lanes and doesn't see your vehicle in a blind spot, it would be appropriate to honk, he said.

"The idea of this law as I take it is to prevent road rage and needless noise," Bailey said.

So the next time someone's bumper sticker suggests that you "Honk if you love Rottweilers," or if you want to let your car-pool partner know you're outside waiting, think twice about hitting that horn — or at least look twice to see if there's someone with a ticket book in the vicinity.

Road Q

Question: "It seems to me that our newly constructed roads deteriorate more quickly than one might expect. For example, River Road between La Cholla Boulevard and Oracle Road was completed only a few years ago and already shows signs of premature failure. The pavement is separating and cracking. Is this normal? If so, how can this be? If not, is the company that did the work held accountable?" John O'Reilly wrote.

Answer: River Road is between nine and 12 years old, depending on the section between La Cholla and Oracle, said Annabelle Quihuis, spokeswoman for the Pima County Department of Transportation. La Cholla to La Cañada Drive was paved in 1999, La Cañada to 15th Avenue was paved a couple of years before that, and 15th to Oracle even before that, she said.

"These segments are aging as expected," Quihuis said, given our weather and the amount of traffic on the road, combined with the county's lack of maintenance funding.

Most asphalt can last between 15 and 25 years before what transportation folks call "total failure." Maintenance can extend that, but the county hasn't had funding for maintenance and has more than 200 other road segments that also need repair. The county continues to patch potholes on these roads, she said.