If you’ve been brave enough to venture out into holiday shopping traffic this week, InventHelp’s Invention Girl is willing to bet you’ve heard a car horn or two. Aggressive drivers are just one of the reasons that I’m doing most of my holiday shopping online this year.

Henry Ford, a well-known inventor, decided to include a rudimentary horn on his revolutionary Model T. In Slate Magazine, writer Dave Johns describes this early horn as a “grapefruit-sized squeeze bulb affixed to a twice-looped brass trumpet.” Cars and their horns have come a long way since then, but have drivers evolved at the same pace?

Ever since first automotive horn rolled off the assembly line, drivers from New York to New Delhi have honked their way through the highways. The automotive horn’s origins are noble – it was invented as a “collision-avoidance device.” But, if you’ve ever lingered a second too long at a stop light, the chorus of horns that blare in protest demonstrates how the horn is more for scolding other drivers than avoiding accidents.

In developing countries like India and China, a new generation of drivers seems content to honk their way to Noise Pollution City. Some cities through the years have banned honking at night, or even all together. Memphis in the 1950s was called “the quietest city” thanks to a tough horn law.

We at InventHelp would like to remind you to be careful with your horn usage as you rush to shop for the latest gadgets this holiday season. It just goes to show you that what starts as a safety invention can quickly become a noise nuisance in the wrong driver’s hands!