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You ever been to San Francisco? Up there they issue you a gas peddle, a brake, and a horn. Steering wheel optional.

If they hit the brake more than the horn up there, I’ll be surprised.

Everyone honks, and honks, and honks, and honks...

I live/work in NYC and so I've got a pedestrian horn (my mouth). While pedestrians are supposed to have the right of way, the cars always try cutting around you while you are crossing, and once in a while some idiot will pull right up to you and honk - expecting that it will intimidate you into crossing the street faster so he can go.

When that happens, I stop in my tracks, turn toward him, spread my arms wide and yell "HOOOOONNNNK"!

And once (when I was younger, and happened to be wearing steel-toed shoes at the time) I kicked the back side panel of a car that had just cut me off while closing the street and came to close for comfort. To his credit, he did stop half a block away (maybe he thought he hit me), so I just looked back at his car and yelled "YEAH, I KICKED YOUR CAR" - at which point he drove off.

NYC traffic cops aren't much better - they seem more interested in moving traffic along then in the safety of the public. I frequently see traffic cops waive a line of cars waiting to make a left turn onto the Manhattan bridge while streams of people are still in the process of trying to get across. And when I was one of them, I used my pedestrian "HONK" at that idiot cop - like you said, it meant "Hey, I am here". I got a funny look from the cop - but I think she got the message.