Particularly for those of you who ride/commute a lot in city centres, do you use horn on your bike? If so, have you had good or bad experiences from using it?
I bike commute regularly into a city centre (London). Cars I can deal with most of the time - they do stupid things, but you can generally anticipate the stupidity and they don't tend to make sudden unpredictable movements. Motorbikes, pedestrians and other cyclists however are more of a problem, they're much more likely to suddenly cut into my path without either looking or indicating first. I have to shout on a regular basis to draw attention to my presence, but it's not always easy to make myself heard over the background noise (particularly hard if the person in question is wearing headphones and/or a motorbike helmet, or is sitting on 600cc of rumbling engine). I often think a horn would make it easier to draw attention to myself, but worry that it would piss people off and lead to more confrontations. I do my best to be a good ambassador for cycling and improve relations with other road users when I can. Sometimes easier said than done!
I bike commute regularly into a city centre (London). Cars I can deal with most of the time - they do stupid things, but you can generally anticipate the stupidity and they don't tend to make sudden unpredictable movements. Motorbikes, pedestrians and other cyclists however are more of a problem, they're much more likely to suddenly cut into my path without either looking or indicating first. I have to shout on a regular basis to draw attention to my presence, but it's not always easy to make myself heard over the background noise (particularly hard if the person in question is wearing headphones and/or a motorbike helmet, or is sitting on 600cc of rumbling engine). I often think a horn would make it easier to draw attention to myself, but worry that it would piss people off and lead to more confrontations. I do my best to be a good ambassador for cycling and improve relations with other road users when I can. Sometimes easier said than done!