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It is Friday and Friday’s are for fun.  I have never before tried writing an educational post on Friday so I guess this will be my first.

I want to share something I learned from my neighbors in the Twin Cities.

On Wednesday as I was driving East on I94 just outside of downtown Minneapolis during rush hour, I pressed the gas petal to accelerate and nothing happened.  I took that as a sign that something was wrong with my car. I was lucky in that I was near the Riverside exit and managed to get off the freeway.

I tried to get over into the right lane, near the side of the road, but my car died and I could not get it started again.  I made it to the intersection, but was in the center lane, almost in the intersection.  I immediately turned on my four way hazard flashers, and started using my phone, GPS and the internet access on my blackberry to determine who I could call to tow the car, and where to have it towed to.

As I sat there, with my flashers on, the cars started coming off the freeway.  They would stop behind me and start honking at me.  At first I found it annoying.  I wasn’t able to get out of my car because there was no place to go, and too much traffic, so I had to sit and listen to the horns.  They would honk at me, and then change lanes and drive off.

I don’t know a lot about cars, so I started thinking that maybe the reason they were all honking at me is because they thought if they honked my car would start.  They were trying to help.  I had never considered starting a car that way but what the heck, they must have had some reason for honking.

Cars kept coming and honking.  Small cars, big cars, trucks, cars with people talking on cell phones, cars and cars filled with people.  Red cars, blue cars, white cars, old cars, new cars, cars with body damage, clean cars, dirty cars, well gee a lot of cars. In each case the driver honked for awhile and then went around me.

No matter how many people honked at me, my car still wouldn’t start.  I finally reached the tow truck driver.  He could hear the honking in the background, and told me that he would get me out of there quickly. I asked him why they were honking, he said that it is the "Minnesota nice thing" and that they were just greeting me.

I guess the educational component of this post is that I want everyone to know, is that honking at a car will not start it.  Hazard flashers on a car are used to let others know that there is some kind of a problem.  If you should happen to see a car, that is not moving, and is parked in a place, like the middle of the road,  it is safe to assume that the car will not move. Stopping right behind it is not a good idea, when possible go around it. If it won’t move and you are behind it, you won’t move either.

I know that I am reaching this conclusion from limited data gathered during  a rather unscientific study but I am sure I am right and do not plan on doing any further research.

I think local drivers need this information.  This post can be emailed, or if you have a blog you can link to this post. Maybe the local news media can help by re-posting it on a news web site.  I just want to do everything possible to get the word out.  Local drivers must get frustrated when they find out that honking at a stalled car won’t start it, or move it out of the way.  . . oh and my middle finger will not stop horn honking, yours might not either.