Safe Speed Forums

I just have two buttons. one for the front and the other for the back.I is quite nice no fiddling with stuff, or accidental turning of or on.They even have little lights that turn on when they are on

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If the term in law is lamp, then removing the bulb (ie. the actual lamp) should be fine. </pedant>

I had a car with front fog lights 10 years ago and have not had one with them since, I really don't miss them and have only used the rear fogs on my current car for less than one hour in the 4 years I've had it.

Front fog lights only have a about 5 meters of forward light, so how much benefit are they? It wouldn't kill the travel reports in the media to drum home the highway code rule on their use. If there any reason why it couldn't be written on those signs that tell me not to sleep or phone while driving?

There are some dreadful drivers who seem to think that hanging onto someone's rear light is all it takes to drive safely in fog. I wish they would fcuk off from the back of my car and give me some space.

I think you are missing the point of front fogs. They are not supposed to be like a second main beam. They are not suppose to help at 70 MPH on the motorway. They provide illumination WITHOUT REFLECTED GLARE and are mainly used to define where you are on the road in very heavy fog. The illuminate the curb side and also centre road markings.

I have driven in fog that made it virtualy impossible to determine where the side of the road was, in this case front fog lights give definition to near objects which are blinded out by light reflected from your headlights.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Evan more annoying than all of that are the $!£holes that seem to think they too can join in the foggy fun evan though they don't have front foglights by simpley using their main beams instead. I'd say around 1 in 30 drivers were doing this yesterday.

front fogs- in ten+ years of driving I've used them about twice, they help a little bit in fog thats so thick you're down to about 8mph and evan dipped beams just "throw back" at you.

rear fogs- downright dangerous, lets be honest who hasn't braked a little harder than they liked cos when the plank in front stopped his bright rear foglights detracted attention from his brakelights?

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

I might be a bit odd then by the standards of the forum. I think rear fog lights can be useful. A couple of days ago, I drove up the M6 on a foggy evening near Penrith. Traffic was light and anything with a rear fog light on was visible long before anything without one. OK, I agree with everyone that they can safely be turned off when you are being followed but on the relatively empty roads I most often use, I think they're a good idea. I just turn mine off when I see someone in my mirror because they have then done their job.

I agree that front fogs are pretty useless EXCEPT round my way when I often find myself in low cloud. They seem to be quite useful on unlit single track roads in these circumstances for keeping an eye on the verges.

I must be odd too, I agree with you!

Tailgating is NEVER a good idea! Why it would be safer when you can't see far ahead of the car in front, I can't fathom.

Having taken my (front fog equipped) Clio out today, I've figured out what FF's are for: putting on when you catch someone up and they don't turn their rear fog off.

two things observed today (on the bike)....

1 - the number of people driving with sidelights or no lights one scared the willies out of me as i'd been keeping regular watch over the shoulder ready to make for the ditch.

2 - the number of people who assume 'cant see anything' to be the same as 'nothing there'.

had a wvm come up behind heard him throttle back, pause... and go to pass, no problem.. shortly followed by twunt who cant have even bothered to look... nearly 50:50 head on with taxi coming the other way.

The problem with fog lights, both front and rear, is that few drivers appear able to judge 100m and hence know when to turn them on or off as appropriate. I am not saying that a few m over the 100 is a bad thing and so leave them on but a little more thought from some would be appreciated.

Exactly the point I was planning to make!

Additionally, once you are established in the middle of a queue of traffic, what is the advantage of having your rear fogs on? The driver behind knows you are there, and can see you at a 3ish second gap with your tail lights alone, even in pretty dense fog; you are all travelling approximately the same speed. Driving in the patchy fog today, I had drivers ahead of me in a queue of traffic actually turning their fogs on at the first hint of thickening fog (vis still well over 100m), did they genuinely think I was going to lose sight of them?!

Another effect I observed, as I progressed to the west and the fog thinned and pretty much disappeared, was that when drivers leave their rear fogs on in the dark, in addition to rear dazzle, it can cause errors of perspective with your observation. As I believe I mentioned before, monocular cues, such as brightness of lights and colour, are used by the eyes/brain to judge distances once you pass about 6m away from the eyes. Having both bright/vivid and less bright/vivid lights on the same plane at the rear of the car can make them appear to be at different distances from the eye. This phenomenon manifested itself to me as I was passing a queue of traffic, on the two-lane M54, rounding a gentle bend to the right. The right-hand lane immediately ahead of me was clear, but looking some 200m or so ahead into the bend I was unable to tell for sure if there were any vehicles in it, due to approximately half a dozen drivers still having their fogs on in the gin-clear night. I have visual accuity in excess of 20/20, am not night or colour impared and was not fatigued or under the influence.

When I was stationed at Leuchars in Scotland I remember seeing some of the overhead gantry signs on the motorways broadcasting such wisdom as 'Be a considerate driver'. I am sure at some point I saw something along the lines of 'Avoid rear dazzle - limit fog light use'. Words to that effect could be usefully employed in foggy conditions where overhead gantries are fitted, but the wording would have to be carefully chosen to discourage inappropriate useage, but not legitimate use. Can anyone think of something that gets the message across and would fit on a gantry sign (approx 20 chars by 3 lines)?

Headlights behind
=
Foglights OFF.

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Does anyone think that the higher intensity of the rear fog lights distorts your perceptions of distance as you are used to the "normal" level of rear lights?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Ahhh. Dovetail.

I've noticed that if I keep my fog lights ON when someone starts to follow behind, they often stay further back.

I think they move up until the rear lights are clearly visible and the fog lights can simply be seen from further.

So I'm not at all sure about Sixy's suggestion. I think it depends. If someone is tending to follow too close, hanging on to your rear lights, then you're probably better off with the rear fog lights ON (in conditions of seriously reduced visibility OF COURSE).

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Paul Smith
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Noticed that single fog lamp on drivers side does that - single one in middle of rear bumper( a la 206) has more pronounced dazzle effect and pair of lights has least effect - but on the minus side tends to diminish the warning from brake lights unless a decent distance away.

Yes!

Well done for saying in one sentence what it took me the entire third paragraph of my previous post to achieve

This is another problem with high intensity rear fog lights. They mask/mimic brake lights as they are typically of the same lighting level. One particular area of confusion where I have noticed this is on the motorway where the rear fog lights of a car ahead suddenly become visible (maybe by a car in between changing lanes) and you think it's their brake lights suddenly coming on. You emergency brake and ...

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Front fogs - years ago in that time of youth when extra lights looked cool - i fitted a front fog and a front fog driving lamp to my old car. Front fog on nearside angled to pavement ,front driving lamp on driver side with a wide angle back to the nearside - both flat topped Cibie lamps --only time i ever found front fogs any use in both fog and driving snow and only due to flat top.Found that some French headlamps (Renault 4) possibly due to sharp cuttoff were excellent on dip.
What i have noticed this year after commenting last year on Truck fogs and lights is the differance this year in use of fogs and the brilliance of them.

In conditions that don't quite justify rear fogs, I tend to stroke the brake pedal enough to illuminate the brake lights if I see someone catching me up to make sure they've seen me rather than use the rear fog.