Tuesday morning. Angry Adam was in a hurry to get his kids off at the train station. They were ecstatic because they were going on a school trip. Angry Adam however was very stressed. His wife was abroad and he had a shitweek at work, strained because there was a big issue with one of his top clients. He had an 8 o’clock crisis meeting while his kids had to catch the train by 9:35. He would barely make it, but he had no option.

As his 8 o’clock meeting ran out, he felt his stress level rise. He had timed the meeting for 45 minutes but it was already stretching towards 9. The drive to the train station was at least 15 minutes, if traffic would permit. Moreover, he had to gather some stuff for the kids to take on their trip, things he had forgotten to do the day before. As the meeting reached 9:05, he had to tell the client he really had to go but promised to call back before noon. The client was sharply pissed but had no choice. He rushed towards the kid’s rooms to gather some stuff together and by the time he could leave for the train station it was already 9:14. His kids were egging the balls from his scrotum.

When he neared a busy cross junction, Angry Adam stepped up on the gas pedal to catch the lights. If he’d make it through there, he’d have a chance to make it to the train station on time. A few yards in front of him he saw a red Honda Civic turning up the road. He thought to speed up to indicate to the elderly person in the Civic he would take priority, but she took to the road anyway. ‘Bitc…’, he barely managed to keep to himself. The lights would only stay green for another few seconds, so he strongly hoped she wouldn’t hold him back. She did. Just as they neared the lights, the lights turned red and she put up her blinkers to go left. As this was a junction where people going left usually tend to hold up traffic behind them, Angry Adam felt his toes pierce through the soles of his shoes.

When the lights hit green she advanced only slightly, blocking Angry Adam to pass through. He honked at the odious woman to let her know he wanted her to move along further so he could pass. She didn’t. She gave a glimpse in her rear view mirror and then kept looking forward stoically. He honked again, trying to squeeze through. She didn’t move an inch. He thought about brushing against her bumper but he refrained, it would only make matters worse. He got psychotic, there was no way of communicating his intentions to the woman. If she’d only know what kind of rush he was in!

It’s a true story. It happened to me. Recognizably it’s a daily story for many people too. It doesn’t take us long to feel our levels of frustration rise as soon as we’re in traffic dealing with other people. It’s the physical condition we find ourselves in on an almost daily basis, encaged in our vehicle, with no way to read the intention of others. This article is not about forms of aggression or awareness of the fact that I’m a better driver than all the rest (which clearly I am). This article is about ways we could communicate more efficiently in traffic. 

Of course there’s a lot to say about the marginal conditions of this story. Sure, I could have stopped my meeting earlier, I could have arranged the kids’ stuff in advance or I could stop bitching altogether and de-stress like a yoga guru on mushrooms. True, but in how many occasions are we truly prepared? It’s life, and life puts us in these conditions continually, at least it does with me. So being rushed happens all the time. But when you’re stuck in your car, and you’re dealing with this kind of stress, it only mounts up when you can’t let other people properly know how tense you are. A honk has different meanings in different cultures, but the limited range of what it can do doesn’t translate the variety of reasons it can be, in no culture. 

If you want to know if the kids finally made it to the train station? They did. Fortunately for me the train had a delay, just enough time to make it. 

The Honk.

It’s somewhat strange that for an interaction which millions of people take part in every day, there is only so much we can communicate our intentions or frustrations with, let alone our feelings. We have such a rich arsenal of vocal and body language, yet when we are caged in our vehicles, we only have a few modes of communication to rely on.

The honk is by far the most communicative part of the car. We love it, only when we’re the ones to initiate it. Yet the honk only has one sound. How can one sound capture the hundreds of emotions we try to relate? In the real case above, Angry Adam – who acts as a proxy for me – was pressed of course, but the woman had no idea and through lack of proper context, created her own default one, which is always that of ‘me against the irritating smart ass in the other car‘. So honking at her resulted in a linear reaction: ‘Obnoxious jerk! I’ll drive extra slowly just to piss you off!’

Let’s assume another situation. Imagine your kid had an accident and his situation is extremely critical. You can’t wait for an ambulance so you rush to the hospital yourself. Imagine what a standard honk does in those situations. Everybody in front of you blocks you because they think you’re some kind of speedy asshole. It’s a bad idea driving in those conditions yourself, but it’s parental instinct.

So, what if we had honks with different sounds? The standard one which says ‘you’re an asshole, move out of my way!’ And the additional ones saying ‘kindly let me through, I’m really in a hurry’ or ‘There’s something wrong with your car, check it out!’. It’s not that hard to do. Then, if we can all agree on the meaning of these sounds, poof, we have a few additional interactions. These sounds don’t even have to be different. We could agree on using one honk for a certain message and two honks for another. We could design the honk so that when you push it softly, it produces a soft sound but when you press hard, you get to the ‘I’m really pissed’ sound. Then the really useful one, the one helping you in the above scenario, would be what we call the stress-honk. Of course we couldn’t use that all the time. But what if we had a credit system with a limited amount of times to use it, which is only when you really need it? Say, you had 5 credits per year. People would really think twice when to use them but the others would at least know it’s a serious situation and they better act accordingly. OK, for convenience, I didn’t exactly address the traffic rules we need to abide by. Apparently overspeeding in any condition is prohibited, but when your kid’s in a critical condition, who the hell cares?!

Fair is fair though. There have been trials in the past to experiment with different honk sounds. There were several types, including an air horn, an exhaust horn, and an electric horn (similar to current models). There was also the klaxon horn, which emitted a very loud and harsh sound. It quickly became the standard, as it was built into the Ford Model T’s. These car horns typically play an A and F tone combination. However, automakers have experimented with optional tonal packages, such as a C and D combo introduced in the 1970s. Still, it’s been more profitable to mass-market inexpensive horns from third-party suppliers that play notes A and F. Convenience over context.

The Lights.

Next to the honk, we have lights and blinkers, the other obvious way of communicating. In our culture, flashing your lights can have several meanings. You can flash them a few times to indicate the other forgot to put up his lights, or if you’re annoyed by his manoeuvre. You could flash them twice at somebody, meaning you’re kind enough to let them pass. Really, it depends on the context and the other driver will almost always deduce its meaning from that context. Unless you’re unaware of the context, then you might have no idea.

We can do more with lights too. Again, I’m pretending not to care about any current applicable traffic rule, and just spill out my thoughts. But apart from the few intentions described above, how can we properly communicate to someone that it’s safe to overtake you? Or that she should take another road because the cops are ahead? Or that you’re just in your Mozart-mood and you really don’t care gearing up to the minimum allowed speed limit? What if we could use colors to convey our emotions? There are regulations on the brightness and tint of light colors, which is all fine, but how bad would it be to just flash in another color to relate some kind of message. When flashing red for a second, that means danger’s ahead. If we could then combine that with the different modes we can use the honk with, we have a whole new language we can work with.

The Gestures.

And then there are the bodily gestures of course. When all else fails to get our message across, there is always our body. We can use our hands to virtually assault a pedestrian, shout at a passer-by that she needs to get off the freaking crossway when you’re speeding through the red lights or just spit at that old fart who just gave you the finger. There’s a rich arsenal and most of us will understand. But isn’t there a way to agree on more cultural – and diplomatic -signs? And which organization would be responsible for deploying it worldwide?

Gestures are very much culturally-driven. The Germans are quite reserved and will only use gesture when they think you’re an asshole whereas the Italians use them at every occasion, telling you you’re an asshole in any occasion. 

There are already some hand signals we need to know in case the lights don’t work (although I didn’t know them, I looked them up). You need to extend your arm downward indicating you’re slowing down or stopping, keeping your arm straight to indicate going left or in a 90° angle upwards to indicate you’re going right. 

It goes without saying that the hand is the most obvious part of our body to use in traffic. We often won’t be heard when we speak and mooning while driving is a bit of a stretch that might invite unwanted fist-fighting (if not something else). But I feel there’s a plethora of messages we could get across using our hands or fingers alone. When someone has a tire running flat, how do you properly communicate that? I used to work in a disco for years and when people wanted to order drinks, they used hand signs too. It worked wonderfully. Still water was illustrated by tapping your fingers on the top of your other hand. Sparkling water was twirling your fingers upwards. And a Carlsberg was hinted by shaping a T with your 2 hands (for Tuborg, the old name of Carlsberg). So why wouldn’t we be able to do the same when in traffic?

So without further ado, some suggestions:

– A flat-running tire: shape an ‘O’ with your hand first and then hold your thumb down.

– Failing lights: extend the fingers of your hand and then squeeze them into a firm fist.

– Stop messing with your phone and pay attention: hold your hand in a phone-like posture and then hold your thumb down, doing an ‘angry mommy’-face.

– You’re kid has just fallen out of your car and another car has just crashed trying to avoid running over your kid. The man in the other car might be seriously injured:

Of course you could only be able to use your one hand, as you’ll need your other hand to hold the steering wheel. People with only one hand can form the same gestures using their tongue. Please don’t try doing it with your feet however.

The above article is a manifesto for better traffic design. I understand I brutalized many governing traffic and product rules and I’ll be happy to be corrected about them. I’d also be very happy to be invited by the governing organizations to see how we could possibly design them better within the frames of regulation. Because let’s face it, in a world of rich communication, how is it possible that we’re still so poor at communicating at each other when in traffic?