Please don't put your rear fog lights on when it's raining

AdrianC

Scrapit wrote: »

seeing as brake lights are the same brightness.

...and that's precisely why they should be off.

Brake lights are designed to attract attention. They do that by being brighter than surrounding lights, and not by being on all the time.

facade

Scrapit wrote: »

I would argue they ain't dazzling though, seeing as brake lights are the same brightness.

Brake lights are dazzling, but some people actually take their foot off the brake pedal occasionally.


Again, in The Olden Days people realised this was a problem, and Proper British cars used to have a relay contrivance in the boot, that switched in some resistors to dim the brake & rear indicators when the side lights were on (whilst maintaining the same indicator load).


Nowadays there is just a frantic arms race to have the most intense light source so it can be seen even when the pupil in your eye has closed fully as a reaction to the intensity of everyone else's lights.

Scrapit

AdrianC wrote: »

...and that's precisely why they should be off.

Brake lights are designed to attract attention. They do that by being brighter than surrounding lights, and not by being on all the time.

Conversely that is precisely why they should be on when required. They are designed to attract attention. You shouldn't (in theory) crash into something you can see.

AdrianC

Scrapit wrote: »

Conversely that is precisely why they should be on when required. They are designed to attract attention. You shouldn't (in theory) crash into something you can see.

Indeed.

But what we're talking about here is their use when NOT required.

Scrapit

AdrianC wrote: »

Indeed.

But what we're talking about here is their use when NOT required.

It's not what we are talking about at all but you crack on.

facade

I really don't know how we ended up with them.


Their only practical use is when traffic is driving far faster than the conditions allow on a motorway and they can detect the car in front and follow it.


Around town I am not supposed to run into parked cars, which in general do not have rear dazzle lights on- or indeed any lights at all, if I can manage that, why does a car moving in the same direction as me need to dazzle me so I don't have a hope of seeing a pedestrian? The rear marker lights will be more than sufficient for me to see them- making them more visible than a parked car, and if it is slowing down, or stopped, it will have its super bright brake lights on.

poppasmurf_bewdley

I've felt for many, many years that fog lights, both front and rear, are totally un-necessary and useless.

I don't think I have ever used mine in at least the last 20 years of driving.

BMW drivers especially seem to employ them front and rear in all sorts of weather.

Maybe they should be connected to a large warning light on the dash which flashes 'Fog Only' when they are on, and to a speed limiter which keeps the speed below 30mph when switched on. If the weather is bad enough for fog lights, you shouldn't be speeding anyway.

facade

In The Olden Days we used to have proper thick fog- probably because of all the air pollution in those days. The last proper thick fog I recall round here was around 1980 (because I remember the car I was driving) I remember having to drive along at walking pace, following the white line and all the time ready to stop if a parked car loomed up in front.


The stuff we get now is more like a light mist, and the way drivers react to it you'd think it was a cataclysmic event.

Jackmydad

facade wrote: »

In The Olden Days we used to have proper thick fog- probably because of all the air pollution in those days. The last proper thick fog I recall round here was around 1980 (because I remember the car I was driving) I remember having to drive along at walking pace, following the white line and all the time ready to stop if a parked car loomed up in front.


The stuff we get now is more like a light mist, and the way drivers react to it you'd think it was a cataclysmic event.

I remember fogs like that around that time in the Midlands.
Filthy stuff it was, I can remember a freezing fog one night and the ice being wiped from the screen was almost black.

Around here, a rural area, a lot of "drivers" seem to need their front fogs on to see, alongside their badly adjusted and over bright dichroic headlights, one of which is inevitably out.

AdrianC

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I've felt for many, many years that fog lights, both front and rear, are totally un-necessary and useless.

I don't think I have ever used mine in at least the last 20 years of driving.

That's as much as anything down to where you live.

I use my front fogs regularly - they're a great fill-in below full beam. But I probably spend more time on full beam than on dip, because of where I drive. (And, yes, they get treated the same as beam, turned off when there's something ahead)

I use my rear fogs far less regularly, but still often enough to not want to be without them. Anyway, it's academic, since next year is the 40th anniversary of their fitment being a legal requirement in this country.