In Missouri Is It Legal To Honk To Let Someone Know You’re Here?

We've all done it. We get to our buddy's house and honk the horn to let them know we're out front or in the driveway. So is it legal to do this in Missouri?

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Come to think of it, perhaps that should read we've all done it if we're of a certain age. Yaknow, like we were driving in the period before cell phones. Because I don't know about you, these days I'm much more likely to text "here" or "out front" to the person I'm picking up, as opposed to just beeping the horn.

Anyway, if you did that back in the day to let someone know you were there to pick them up you were breaking the law. If you still do it now, it's still illegal according to Missouri law.

"Every motor vehicle shall be equipped with a horn, directed forward, or whistle in good working order, capable of emitting a sound adequate in quantity and volume to give warning of the approach of such vehicle to other users of the highway and to pedestrians.  Such signaling device shall be used for warning purposes only and shall not be used for making any unnecessary noise..."

Apparently, the use of your vehicle's horn for any other purpose than warning other drivers and pedestrians is frowned upon in Missouri. So it's probably not a good idea to honk at the slow poke in front of you in the drive-thru. Or to ask the trucker to toot their air horn on the family road trip. Not that anyone I know has ever gotten a ticket for honking their horn for any reason.

I may have honked the horn to let my buddy know I was there, but when it came to taking a young lady out when I was in high school... or even later... honking the horn to let her know you were there was considered poor form. Nope, you went to the door, and if you had to make small talk with her folks or roommates you did it.

It's also apparently illegal for anyone other than the driver to honk a vehicle's horn. While I couldn't find it in Missouri's laws, I did find a couple of mentions of it in other places. Like in this article from Only In Your State and on this car dealer's list of Missouri driving FAQs.

The bottom line is, Horns are serious business in Missouri, and you better not honk it if you're not warning another driver or pedestrian. Unless of course we're celebrating a Chiefs Super Bowl, or a Cards or Royals World Series title. Then honk to your heart's content. Only the coldest of cops would give you a ticket then.