Blinded by the (fog)light.

[ethel]

Does anyone in the UK (or elsewhere they're fitted) actually know when they should & shouldn't have their foglights on?

We've had a bit of fog out our way these last few days but this morning it was particularly dense for the majority of my commute from The Sticks into West London.

The traffic was as heavy as usual - ie, for the majority of the route on a busy dual carriageway/A Road, yet a significant proportion of my fellow road users were blinding each other with front, and particularly rear foglights when their vehicles were in plain sight of one another.

Perhaps it's ignorance, or maybe excitement at being able to make the pretty orange light come on on the dashboard for once but surely logic (and the Highway Code) dictates that if you can see another vehicle within, say 100 feet of yours then you don't need the foglights on?

Please don't get me wrong - I genuinely believe that foglights can when used appropriately be a significant safety aid - for example, to get to the main road from my house I have to drive along a number of poorly-lit, narrow country lanes and use the lights at both ends of the car to improve my forward visibility and warn anyone approaching from behind of my presence.

However, as soon as someone's caught me up or I can see someone clearly ahead &/or the road is well-lit, I tend to turn them off so as not to dazzle them.

I don't know about anyone else but driving behind someone for any length of time when they have the 'afterburners' lit is incredibly distracting and can also create the additional hazard of masking brake lights at a crucial moment.

Perhaps a bit of education might not go amiss - the dot matrix signs at the side of main roads could, in addition to displaying out of date information regarding traffic jams also be employed to remind drivers that when it's not foggy any more, they might want to switch their fog lights off..

Sorry, rant over..

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

The rest of us feel the same -

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/219207-fog-lights/page__st__100

[ethel]

Sorry, in my rush to vent I didn't check..

Glad it's not just me then..

[Salut]

Ethel, I totally agree. The clue is in the word 'FOG' light. The number of muppets driving with all their available lighting on seems to be increasing: as such other drivers are met with an oncoming wall of light. Our local PCSO has said that there is nothing legal or illegal about the use of fog lights, just recommendations. Sorry to say but I feel that fogs lights are the most hazardous form of lights misuse there has been for some time.

[2SkodaFamily]

My usual rule of thumb is that if I can see an unlit tree at the side of the road 300m away, then it's a fair bet I don't need my fog lights

[mdon]

Our local PCSO has said that there is nothing legal or illegal about the use of fog lights, just recommendations.

This is why pcso's shouldn't give legal advice of any sort as they have no idea what they are talking about, if people use fog lights when visibility isn't reduced to 100 yards or less it is an offence for which they can be reported for or be given a £30 on the spot fpn.

With regards to people using fog lights when in poor visibility and not switching them off when people catch up, I can see your point and if in standing traffic or very slow moving then yes they should be switched off but if in free moving traffic then I don't switch them off, people should stay well enough back so that they do not dazzle. It would mean constantly Turing the fog lights on and off all the time.