The use of front fog lights

[Welly]

It has been misty, sometimes foggy of late but why oh why do drivers insist on switching on the front fogs at the slightest whiff of any mist in the air? are people so thick that they think these extra lights will help at all?

It seems like every other car coming towards you on the roads had its foggy's blaring away at you

I conducted an experiment last night on a quiet and very dark road (it was misty kinda moving towards being foggy). I travelled along at 40/50 mph and experimented by switching the front fogs on and off over a few hundred metres each time. The extra lighting did nothing to improve visibility in fact the increased foreground lighting made it more difficult to see into the distance so they had a negative effect overall.

My 22 years driving experience tells me that the only time foggy's are useful is in *thick* fog with very little visibilty, then the lights will cut underneath the fog and light up the road/curb for you (becoming more effective if you could actually turn off the headlights separately).

I've given up flashing my lights to others or foggy-flashing them it's just a losing battle

[plod]

I agree

I tried mine out yesterday, and did nothing to assist


What I do hate is two fold
One is the fact that people put their REAR fog lights on at the slightest hint of fog, when you are only supposed to use them when visisbility is below a couple hundred yards or so, and secondly, that people can't see the bloddy great orange light blaring on their dash once out of the fog, or for that matter seemingly for the next 4 days after the fog has cleared.
If you put your fogs on, when the visisbility doesn't justify it, all you are doing is dazzling the feck out of the person behind.
Similarly in queues, fogs aren't justified, "what you can't see the person 6 feet in front of you if the fogs weren't on" ........give me strength!

[Welly]

Yes the rear fog seems to stay on until the summer

I believe this is a result of our wimpy nanny state.......it's foggy so lets all put fog lights on without thinking about the realistic effect similar to when an Ambulance comes our way....lets all slam the brakes on

Many motorists have lost a sense of realism out there, a bit like the woman I saw the other day driving her RWD BMW way too fast on an Icy road how it stayed in one straight line god only knows

I suppose we could add to the list all those drivers who sit there with the foot brake applied dazzling the poor sod behind I've taken to holding up my hand in a pathetic attempt to show they are dazzling me

[waue1978]

that people can't see the bloddy great orange light blaring on their dash once out of the fog

I did that the other day, but in my defense, it was hidden behind the rim of my coupe steering wheel.

[FarmerPug]

I think they are good enough they light up the road a bit more, good at showing up the sparkle of ice. I had an issue with a woman in a BMW she couldnt get out, she had to be pulled out by a peugeot. It was one of them 135 coupe things.

[puggy]

Ah the old fog light question again , as an extremely old fart of the forum i
have a different view on this . I still dont consider todays fog lights as being
such , to me they are driving lights . Years ago fog lights were either tinted
yellow or heavily diffused white one's and the way that you used them was to
drive on side lights with the fogs on and thus you didn't get masses of reflection
from dipped beam which made it even harder to see. I consider todays lights
very good for when you are driving down narrow lanes they help you to see the
edges of the road

[mjb]

In my view, front fogs should only be used with sidelights, and on the likes of country lanes where visibility is down to about 15 feet ie. when they actually do a useful job. Rear fogs I only use when I can't see (or have difficulty seeing) anything behind me or when I've got an idiot up my backside with his main beams on

Any normal road driving on roads which goes against the above instantly labels the driver a tw@, an inconsiderate arsehole and a menace to other road users in my mind.

[Captain Jack]

What I find far more annoying and dangerous are people driving without ANY lights on in fogs.

[Doggy]

1960's Jaguars had the perfick setup - rotary lighting switch, with positions OFF, SIDE, HEAD, FOG i.e. you couldn't have the head & foglights on together.

Another novel appraoch was the Fiat Strada, in which the rear fogs would only work if the dipped headlights were on. If it's clear enought for main beam, you don't need fogs.

Nowadays we're cursed with rear fogs you can't use without being a bl00dy nuisance with the front ones.

I did that the other day, but in my defense, it was hidden behind the rim of my coupe steering wheel.

Oh, can I quote you on that?

I consider todays lights Very good....they help you to see the edges of the road

Kerb crawler

[puggy]

[Gary406]

i hate it when drivers use the rear fogs, what the fk why

other day it was foggy but you could see about 10 car lenths in front with a car lenth in between them 10

yet they still use rear fogs and blind the fk outta you

[highlander]

Round here, they don't even wait until it's foggy, they just stick all their front-facing lights on "coz its cool lookin"

It's really stupid and dangerous. Worst I ever had was when I was going up towards a hump bridge over a railway line at night on a country road. Some tw@ came over the bridge in the opposite direction, all lights blazing. Straight in my eyes. I had to stop and put the hazards on because I couldn't see anything properly, other than purple spots floating in front of me (like I was just looking straight at the sun or something).

It's illegal for a reason

[FarmerPug]

Out in the rural roads i see no problem with the front fogs being on i normally turn them off when dipping down anyhow so its not going to bother anyone. The suzuki samurai had a setup wherby one could not select both rear fogs, and full beams, but its unlikely to be like that when i finish. BMWs have heated fog lights i see

[Welly]

Still being cross at these other motorists, this morning I flashed a car coming at me with front fogs........I got a flash back

[omega]

rear fogs annoy me too as they are only ment to be used in poor visability yet the cars that use them come past you at 60 mph!!!
on the 406 are the under bumper lights fog lights or driving lights? as there is a diffrence.