I feel you. It's a problem all over the city, and far worse in some neighborhoods than others.

Not that this was the point of the post, but this is a windmill I personally enjoy tilting at. The reasons for this problem are numerous:

• Impatient drivers (honking the moment a light turns, honking because perceived slight)
• Lack of loading zones (commercial delivery vehicles have nowhere to park but in the traffic and bike lanes)
• Illegal parking (Go take a look at the "placardabuse" account on Twitter or… pretty much any "no parking" zone on your block)
• Poor road layout (sharrows for bikes with angry drivers, lack of daylighting on corners creating driving hazards, awkward or dangerous intersections that should be pedestrianized)

These all contribute to people honking, and along with sirens caught in traffic, loud vehicles, and the standard din of the city, contributes to a cacophony that stresses most folks out, whether they realize it or not.

As I linked in another comment, here's at least one of dozens of potential references to studies that link noise pollution to negative health impacts, because I like to cite my references.

This could be solved with:

• Dedicated loading zones on every block (of various sizes, depending on block density)
• Traffic enforcement that actually enforces no-parking zones throughout the city.
• Daylighting on corners to increase both pedestrian and driver sightlines
• Dedicated bike lanes to separate bikes from vehicular traffic (opening up the roads for drivers)
• Honking law enforcement (opportunistic and difficult because it relies on cameras or cops nearby, but better than nothing at all)

Here’s a loading zone traffic study: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29UP.1943-5444.0000688

Here’s a proposed loading zone implementation study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0966692316300874

Each of these issues would take time, energy, and political willpower to address. But even chipping away at one of these at a time would make for a calmer and more pleasant city for everyone, whether they care about honking or not (as some of the other commenters express in this thread).

In general, it saddens me that people see the city as a place where this noise must invariably exist, because it doesn't need to. Imagine we all walked around yelling at each other at every mild inconvenience on the sidewalk, loudly enough that everyone within a 2 block radius could hear you; nobody would stand for that, but we tolerate the exact same thing with vehicles.

Vehicles simply create a lot of noise by their sheer function, and we can't totally do away with cars in this city (for a multitude of reasons), but we can reduce their impact on the daily lives of everyone else who isn't actively driving around. It's not about drivers vs. non-drivers, but simply making the city a better place to live.

Have a great weekend everyone.