Fog lights

[hazelnutpraline]

We’ve had a couple of mornings of the worst fog for ages and driving to work I’ve noticed only one in about 20/30 cars had their fog lights on. Do people just not know about them or forget they have them? (No particular judgement from me if not, I didn’t notice I had a sunroof for about a year after I bought my car)

I think people are so used to automatic lights that they assume they can been seen in the fog.

We live in a foggy area and am often ranting at cars without fog light on, or cars driving in heavy rain without any lights on.

I was taught that you should use fog lights when viability is reduced to 100m, which is pretty much the distance between lampposts here. I can't think of the last time I needed them.

You rarely need fog lights. I fucking hate them!!! If I can see your fog lights from 1/2 a mile away and get a migraine from how bright they are, it's not necessary.
The fog would need to be really thick - as someone else said, 100m visibility or less.

I don't think my car has fog lights! It hasn't been foggy here since I've had it so haven't looked but do all cars have to have fog lights?!

Agree with traintraveller, I often find people have their fog lights on unnecessarily.

I was taught the same as you traintraveller but we do get fog that thick quite often (Thames Valley).

I think people just forget about fog lights and instead decide the best thing to do is to drive 30 miles under the speed limit.

I don't think I've ever had need to use them.

We get some real pea soupers here in Suffolk but even so it's not often that visibility gets below 100 metres - that's scary thick fog. I've not had to use my fog lights more than a small handful of times a year.

I do know exactly where they are and what the law around using them is though - it's inexcusable not to.

We had thick fog the other day and I saw 7 cars with no bloody lights on at all! That's infuriating

I always put my fog lights on in fog. That's what they're for! But it's surprising how many people just don't bother.

I've only got rear fogs on my car. So if you saw me coming towards you you'd probably think I didn't have them on. It's not a basic car either, it's quite high spec and high performance but doesn't have front fogs.

I've seen no end of cars the last couple of days with no lights on at all. They're probably the same people that put their fogs on in bright sunshine because they think it looks cool 🙄

My theory is if you can see the rear lights of the car in front then it's not foggy enough to need fog lights.

@Clevs

My theory is if you can see the rear lights of the car in front then it's not foggy enough to need fog lights.

Me too.

I was taught that you should use fog lights when viability is reduced to 100m
Me too. We get fog like that on a steep hill regularly near where I live.

So many cars have automatic front driving lights but nothing at the back. Hence all the cars on the M40 a couple of days ago that I could see approaching which then vanished into the fog after overtaking.

Putting ordinary lights on would be much more of a help and, no, don't put fog lights on unless visibility is very poor.

It's patchy fog here today with some areas where fog lights are useful.
A lot of cars would have benefited from any lights.

Most of the winter I use sidelights by default in the daytime. I have DLRs on the front, but lighting the rear is useful for other drivers when driving towards glaring sunshine as it adds definition to the silouettes. If it's hard to see the car ahead, the car behind will struggle to see me too.

They’ve probably worn them out using them to blind other drivers when it’s fucking raining.

You have to turn the automatic lights off to turn the fog lights on. And that's not easy in my car. I can't look away from the road long enough to do it. I certainly can't flick them on and off in patchy fog, as I used to.

@MrsLangOnionsMcWeetabix

They’ve probably worn them out using them to blind other drivers when it’s fucking raining.

This!! We have the opposite problem, people using their fog lights all the frickin time. I drive a lot at night and have had to buy those hideous yellow lens sunglasses to stop myself getting dazzled by bellends who can’t find the off switch for their full beam or drive around with their bloody fog lights on (sometimes instead of actual headlights )

You do get a real mix of people who have them on just because it's raining or slightly foggy without realising they're for very poor visibility only and those people who either have driving lights at the front and bog all at the back or simply, no lights at all.

It's foggy here today but not foggy enough for specific fog lights. Odd person has them on though and it's pretty distracting. I sat behind one in roadworks and their rear fog light was marginally brighter than the actual fucking sun.

I've seen police cars in fog with no lights. Not much you can really do at that point.

Still it's a useful idiot-detector where you can notice it - stay well clear.

I've realised recently that while I used to always rant about overuse of fog lights it seems to have swung the other way in recent years and I'm more likely to see cars with no lights in fog than ones with fog lights in the rain. I blame drivers relying on automatic lighting and not thinking.

The area I live in has a tendency to low lying fog. Shocking how many people don't have any lights on at all, and specifically those in silver or white cars, which are virtually invisible in heavy fog

They’re illegal to use unless visibility is less than 100m. Special mention for the fucking idiots who leave rear ones on in slow moving traffic - I can see the tail lights 20 cars in front, I don’t need my retinas burning out.