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Car horns were originally installed in vehicles for safety. However, many urban areas in several countries face noise problems related to the use of car and motorbike horns. To propose measures to suppress the use of horns, relationships between horn use and factors including driver awareness and behavior, traffic environment, and the transportation system should be investigated. The present study therefore conducted surveys to grasp the current circumstances of horn use and traffic at urban intersections in Taiwan. The relationship between horn use and the traffic volume of standard-sized vehicles was found. According to an analysis of horn use during traffic signal cycles, in many cases, horns were honked after entering intersections to turn left. In particular, horns were honked when the driver waited more than 4 s for the car in front to start moving after the green light allowing left turns was turned on. An analysis of noise levels at intersections showed that the maximum noise level value (L_Amax) could be reduced if vehicle horns were not used. Multiple regression analysis also indicated that L_Amax values increased with the frequency of horn use. The equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level (L_Aeq,10min) did not change with driver horn use, and increased with the traffic volume of motorcycles.

Humans represent sounds to others and receive information about sounds from others using onomatopoeia. Such representation is useful for obtaining and reporting the acoustic features and impressions of actual sounds without having to hear or emit them. But how accurately can we obtain such sound information from onomatopoeic representations? To examine the validity and applicability of using verbal representations to obtain sound information, experiments were carried out in which the participants evaluated auditory imagery associated with onomatopoeic representations created by listeners of various environmental sounds. Results of comparisons of impressions between real sounds and onomatopoeic stimuli showed that impressions of sharpness and brightness for both real sounds and onomatopoeic stimuli were similar, as were emotional impressions such as "pleasantness" for real sounds and major (typical) onomatopoeic stimuli. Furthermore, recognition of the sound source from onomatopoeic stimuli affected the emotional impression similarity between real sounds and onomatopoeia.