Originally Posted by
rsbob
sure, but you are using logic. Plenty of illogical people out there. I could see a little old lady thinking, I’ll just give that nice young man a toot of my horn to let him know I’m passing, or have dementia, or let them know I love mens butts in spandex
and to answer the OP’s question, I would only use a mirror to look backwards, never any other direction. But I use Varia and head-checks so will disqualify myself
I've had people give "friendly" honks while I'm riding ahead of them and get totally mystified why I wasn't happy about it. I just don't think people get how conditioned we are to interpret the honk as indicating trouble of one kind or another. Also, it's way louder to a cyclist than it is to a driver inside of another car, so way more startling at close range.