The Fiat Punto’s car horn has the beep that causes most stress to motorists, according to findings from AXA. In a unique experiment, its horn had the most profound effect on
people’s heart rate, skin conductance and brain activity - key stress
indicators.
The findings of the experiment kicks off a wider ‘Respect on the Road’
campaign that will highlight the effect of disrespectful driving
behaviours and encourage greater courtesy on British roads.The majority of drivers (79%) feel there is a lack of
respect on the roads today and nearly half (48%) view a horn honked in
anger as the 2nd most disrespectful thing another driver could do to
them.
Travel writer Charley Boorman has been brought on board
as the campaign’s ambassador and to urge people to air their views on
the state of behaviour on today’s roads at www.axarespectontheroad.com.
For the stress experiment, neuroscience specialists Mindlab connected
participants to bio-metric monitoring equipment and recorded signals
from their brains to show demands made on memory and to determine the
relative distraction of horns on the top 20 best-selling cars.
Following close behind the Fiat Punto on the stressful car horn scale
was the Vauxhall Astra in second place and the Nissan Extra in third.
Supporting research of 2,000 UK adults has found that almost half (41%)
of drivers feel stressed when others use their horn and a further 54%
think people use their car horns inappropriately.
The majority (59%) think this is because other drivers are too
impatient and nearly half (48%) think it is due to a lack of respect.
43% of drivers say they have been a victim of road rage – the most
common of these being a honk of the horn or hand gesture – and half of
drivers have admitted to using their car horn in an aggressive manner
while driving. There is also a lack of knowledge about when the car
horn should be used on British roads. More than two thirds (69%) of
people do not know it is illegal to use the horn when the car is
stationary, and almost a third (31%) wrongly thought they could use
their horn in built up areas during certain hours of the night. Experienced driver Charley Boorman (right), said, “I’ve driven
on roads all over the world and have seen some of the best and worst
driving you can imagine. In Britain we may be known for politeness but
one thing that drives me mad, is inconsiderate motorists using their
horn whenever they feel like it. As the AXA campaign is trying to show;
the horn is there for one reason – safety – not to make people’s
commutes more stressful than they need be.”
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