For the last couple of days around here we have had our first serious fog of the winter.
Today I drove to Reading-across country about 30 miles through Nettlebed .It's a bendy, undulating road,where visibility was about 200 metres most of the way.
In the return journey I must have encountered 200 plus other vehicles .By my rough estimate:
15% had no lights on at all-inclsuing 2 bicycles;
30% had on sidelights, of no use and no legal value;
20% had on foglights, which were not required by the conditions
And you know that through the winter this will be the experience.
It's a major road safety hazard which is either due to ignorance ( so they should be educated) or indifference/hostility towards other road users ( so they should be peanlised ).
How/when will this ever get better?
(Rant over)
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If visibility was 200 metres most of the way as you state then there would be no requirement to display lights unless it was just before dawn or dusk - it's a long way, in fact more than twice the length of a football pitch.
You can drive on sidelights providing there are street lights no further apart (IIRC) than 185 yards; I wouldn't, but many do. At least they do have some lights on...
What some motorists don't seem to realise, however, is that especially at dusk it can appear to be quite light in one direction and much darker the other way, hence the apparent reluctance to turn vehicle lights on.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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You can drive on sidelights providing there are street lights no further apart (IIRC) than 185 yards
... and the road is unrestricted (i.e. 30mph).
Personally I don't mind if people only use sidelights in lit 30 zones as unless you have some sort of visual impairment (in which case you shouldn't be on the road in the first place) they are perfectly visible.
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Mike Farrow
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It won't change. Most people driving cars know just enough to operate the vehicle during normal road conditions. Add rain, snow, ice, fog etc. to the mix and most folk plough on regardless. It's called human nature..
Add to the mix, items such as a zillion airbags, stability control, traction control, auto lights and auto wipers and auto climate control, and drivers are now being so cocooned that the car is now intelligent enough to cope with anything that comes up.
Doh! Driver still needs to accept they are in charge of a couple of tons of metal!
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Why drive on sidelights anyway? I drive down some very narrow roads every day, and when you are turning into a narrow street which has cars parked on both sides.
If someone has headlights on and is driving down that street, I can usually see the light from their headlights before I turn in. If just their sidelights are on, I can't see them until I turn into the street.
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>>I must have encountered 200 plus other vehicles .
>>
i thought i had seen many similar questions before. and found that this has been troubling you since you first asked this in 2002; just a few examples:
I keep a casual account of how many other cars I see incorrectly lit in poor visibility
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=93...8
between Aylesbury and Luton last week I counted 25 oncoming vehicles breaking the lighting regs
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=16...9
LIGHTS ...in low visibility or dusk ...no lights 20 / sidelights 15/ foglights 10/faulty lights 10
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=93...4
one evening last week between about 1700 and 1730 in Oxon and Bucks .By the time we reached our destination I counted 43 vehicles who in some respect were breaking the lighting regs
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=19...5
so it seems you have answered your own question, How/when will this ever get better?
i think it will be never. as you cant change other peoples bad habits, instead why not stop counting and fully concentrate on your own driving and safety.
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Dalglish, you need to get out more!
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you need to get out more!
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and face all those dim cars owners running around without lights?
far better to use my time with my photographic memory helping to jog nsar's memory.
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Now winter is here, I turned my fog lights on when the clocks went back, and if i remember I may turn them off when the clocks go forward.
I must make sure my next car has cool foglights.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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I must make sure my next car has cool foglights. --
Surely you mean "sporty" foglights?
;)Jab
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>> I must make sure my next car has cool foglights. >> -- Surely you mean "sporty" foglights? ;)Jab
Nah, he went for the optional 'laid-back' fog-light package.
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Seen quite a few BMWs with fog lights on recently when it was not foggy.No surprise.
But they were not dazzling me- so where's the harm in it?
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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>>But they were not dazzling me- so where's the harm in it?>>
Whether you are being dazzled or not has nothing to do with it - for much of the time drivers who have their foglights on are doing it illegally.
Ask a traffic cop aware of the vehicle lighting regulations.
If you can find one...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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You have me confused now. Which ones shall I go for?
Sporty foglights? cool foglights or laid back foglights?
What will make me look best?
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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Anything but a Renault?
Only joking...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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When it's not foggy, we have the odd thread on here about people using their foglights anyway (you may have noticed them), and a theory that crops up most times is that the big problem is mis-aligned foglights.
Now with our current foggy weather of course, a much larger percentage of people have their foglights on (you'd hope so) and I've actually started to realise how bad a problem this can be. There really is quite a goodly proportion of cars out there whose foglights point upwards. I passed one lorry yesterday whose off-side foglight literally shined directly into my eyes. It wasn't just pointing upwards, but to the right too!
In as far as I can, I've checked the aim of mine, and they definitely shine a fair bit lower than dipped beams, so hopefully I'm not returning the favour to anyone.
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Three things which I have seen recently
A bus (public service) with rear fogs on.
A recent survey by the AA or RAC forget which revelled a huge proportion of drivers didn't know how to work the horn.
A taxi (picking up passangers) which had its reversing lights stuck on while going forward.
All these things send shivers down my spine, The bus and the survey because it shows lack of knoledge of the car you own or drive. the taxi because you can't tell when he does reverse.
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blow the expense - have 'em all. just don't switch them all on at once, you might annoy someone.
John
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