shuttlespanker:
you can also be done for using them in non foggy conditions
if i find any of my drivers with them on un-necessarily, i bollok them, they usually turn them off after that
Thank god for sanity…Anyone who uses front fogs in non foggy conditions is just vain, in a ‘look at me’ kind of way, which just happens to be incredibly sad, as well as breaking the law.
As it happens my son was done by plod not a couple of months ago for having his fogs on (he is vain and likes you to looks at him), 30 beer vouchers to the copper fund.
The topic of foglights rears its ugly head here now and again and the answer eventually appears too. It’s a cracking solution (and I wish I could claim it was my idea )
The vast majority of vehicles nowadays are controlled by complex electronics, so how difficult could it be to programme the on board 'puter to electronically limit any vehicle travelling with fogs on to a max speed of say 40mph? Ideal solution, it’d stop the look at me brigade, and if it genuinely was foggy enough to warrant them vehicles would cease to travel at inappropriate speeds for the conditions.
Simplesk.
You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves (see Rule 236).
Rule 236
You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.
Rear ones on certain cars are a real “Blinder” tho!!! I dont bother flashing them to tell them they are an idiot and need to work out how far 100 mtrs is anymore. TWUNTS!!!
Lycanthrope:
Pillocks in cars think it makes them look cool.
is it any different for the people in trucks
Yes, they think that they are even cooler, because they have they foggies on AND they drive a big lorry
NO NO NO You’ve got it wrong!!! They are actually called Burberries
I saw them reffered to as this in a thread on here or in T&D and it stuck with me, personally I did use them this week just gone going over the tops of windy hiil out by the house on the prayerie ( I know it is spelt wrong just got up!!, feel free to correct as I cannot think how to spell it) I used them as it was Bad but I did turn them off and this was the rears not the fronts…I use the rule if I can still see the car in front then they should be able to see me
brados:
‘…Rule 226 You MUST …’ etc
‘… Rule 236 You MUST NOT …’ etc
But who manages this reasonable sense? We see the ‘Rules’ contravened daily - often to the detriment of other road users & being perpetrated by mobile phone users.
the maoster:
The topic of foglights rears its ugly head here now and again and the answer eventually appears too. It’s a cracking solution (and I wish I could claim it was my idea )
The vast majority of vehicles nowadays are controlled by complex electronics, so how difficult could it be to programme the on board 'puter to electronically limit any vehicle travelling with fogs on to a max speed of say 40mph? Ideal solution, it’d stop the look at me brigade, and if it genuinely was foggy enough to warrant them vehicles would cease to travel at inappropriate speeds for the conditions.
Simplesk.
Great idea, that would sort out the posers at my firm. I am astounded by the number of them that drive around EVERY night with the front fogs on, even in summer. Doughnuts!!!
I’ve only ever found front fogs useful once and that was down an unlit country road in the middle of the night when the fog was so bad I couldn’t see more than 20ft in front of me. The lights are obviously closer to the ground than your headlights and therefore light up the road better and also the edges, which is exactly what they’re there for. At all other times, using front fogs does not help one iota.
I’ll only use rear fogs if I’m struggling to see the tail lights of a vehicle not too far ahead of me, or if I can’t see the headlights of a vehicle not too far behind me in my mirrors. It’s difficult to define ‘not too far’ but it’s usually around the distance of 3-4 street light spacings on a motorway.
Personally, I only use rear fog lights if I can’t see lights in the mirror, as for trucks covered in lights using front fog lights when there’s no fog, are they scared of the dark possibly? All I know is they look like berks!
What I did a while ago was replace my front foglamps with driving lamps instead. When meeting some idiot with front fogs on and it wasn’t foggy, I’d put my ‘front fogs’ on. Nowadays I can’t be bothered.With sitting higher up you don’t get the glare as you do with a car. There’s that many people out there now with front fogs permanently on that I’d be switching mine on and off on every 4th or 5th car (or truck)! Sign of the times now when such alot of drivers don’t care about other road users.
What’s really worrying is most new cars don’t use the old style mechanical “switch it on and it stays on” switches, they are electronic and whatever you switched on goes off when the engine goes off, so they are actually turning their foglights on on purpose.
I’d disagree with you there Tofer, saying that I only have my own and my wifes cars to judge this on, a Puegeot and a Citroen.
On both our cars our dipped lights come on automatically when needed. The fog lights are done through a flick switch
on the indicator stalk. Flick forward once for front fogs, flick forward again for rear. Flick back to switch them off.
When I switch off the ignition the fogs go off and don’t come back on again unless the switch is moved.
The default postion for the switch is off. Simples.
The switch you describe
old style mechanical “switch it on and it stays on” switches
means the driver has to remember to switch them off before they switch off the ignition or the next
time they put thier lights on the fogs come on. A Ford I had was like this. I’d say that was more of a problem.
That was the point I was trying to make, most cars will turn them off when you kill the engine, my 51 plate astra does it, my 52 plate punto did it, hell even my 1998 rover 820 did. So the idiots you see driving around with fogs on have not forgotten to turn them off, they have purposefully switched them on.
cruisin comet:
Funny really.Motorbikes dont have rear fog lights and you dont hear of people running into the back of them when its foggy.
Some do some BMW’s have rear foglights, ive always wondered why motorbikes in general don’t have them having riden in really foggy conditions where visability was way down, couldnt make out bridges on the motorway and thoguht i wish i had rear fog lights incase some numpty comes flying into the back of me because they havent seen me till the last moment.
tofer:
What’s really worrying is most new cars don’t use the old style mechanical “switch it on and it stays on” switches, they are electronic and whatever you switched on goes off when the engine goes off, so they are actually turning their foglights on on purpose.
you are describing a rocker switch which is on or off and only changes with human interaction which means they have to remember to turn them off. which they dont!
)
