Fog

[ladyofastolat]

This morning was foggy. This morning was so foggy that I could barely see next door. It was even more foggy up on the Downs road, where road signs were invisible, the car in front was a vague ghost, and side roads remained vague rumours until you were right on top of them.

Why, then, do so many people driving in these conditions fail to put their lights on? I can better understand those who charge along far too fast in the fog without their lights on; they are making no concession at all to the fog, so although stupid, are at least consistent. But the roads today were full of people limping gingerly along at half their normal speed, their barely-glimpsed ghost-like faces giving the impression of desperate peeriness, yet were still driving with no lights. Grr!

Comments

[leesa_perrie]

People are strange - maybe there's needs to be a TV ad about driving in fog (and ice and rain), alongside all the don't drink, don't drive ones?

Oh, and an ad reminding people to INDICATE, preferably BEFORE making a manoeuvre... *had close call recently due to lack of indication from other motorist on the motorway - apparently hubby was supposed to read the other person's mind!*

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Yes, bring back the days of those old public information films! :-D Actually, to be honest, I'm not that sure on how to drive in fog. I've had it so drilled into me that you must never ever ever use fog lights unless it's absolutely necessary, that I'm terrified to even try. "Oh, no, it's not foggy enough yet," say older, wiser drivers, even when it seems to me to be so foggy that you can't see your own feet.

Agh. I hate those people who pull out in front of you, notice belatedly that they've caused you to slam on your brakes, and then indicate, as if that all makes it okay again. Although my particular bugbear - because although it's less dangerous, it's a lot more prevalent - is when you're sitting there patiently giving way to someone who disappears before they reach you. Presumably they think "there's no-one behind me, so there's no need to indicate," and don't have the intelligence to think that people ahead of them might be affected, too. This happens a lot when I'm driving, but even more often when I'm a humble pedestrian, standing in the rain.

Sorry. You've unleashed a rant here. :-)

[leesa_perrie]

No apologies, I'm right with you!

On the motorway, we were moving into the next lane so as to overtake something just as a person decides s/he's going to move from the outside lane into the middle one - the one we wanted - WITHOUT indicating his/her intentions!! We were indicating, but apparently that didn't count (or car driver didn't see it). We swerved and missed each other by inches. If the other car had indicated, hubby would have seen it and waited, but he's not a mind reader!!

Yeah, rant over.

[torkell]

My instructor just mentioned the fog lights in passing when going over all the controls for the first time, and didn't say anything about when it's foggy enough to use them or not. Though that was in the first lesson of so far just four and none of them were in fog or even more than a light drizzle so there may well be more to it.

With indicating, she said to always indicate when turning at junctions even if you don't see anyone as there could be someone round the corner you can't see yet. On the other hand, when first moving off one should only indicate if there is someone else, and that if the road is empty then to not indicate at all (and that the driving examiner will check if you're actually doing so or just always indicating). Roundabouts (which was today's lesson) get more complicated with indicating/not indicating depending on which exit you're taking, where the exit is, where the arrows on the road are pointing, and whether or not the road planner has done something silly with the roundabout.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I find it strange that they actively forbid you from indicating when moving off if there's no-one there. If there's no-one there to see it, what harm can it do? In situations when indicating is appropriate, I indicate even if I can't see anyone, because there might be a pedestrian in a driveway, or a driver in a parked car who's about to turn the engine on, or whatever. Also, if I sometimes indicate and sometimes don't, it'll be easier to forget to do it even when I should. If I always do it, then it becomes ingrained habit and I'll never forget.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

I think the "only indicate on pulling out if there's someone there to see it" thing is primarily an easy way for the examiner to see whether you're actually checking properly before pulling out. Which is something they want to be really sure of, on the whole. And is qualitatively different to turning at a junction because other drivers are (or should be) aware of your car as a potential threat at the junction because it's already moving, whereas telling the difference between a car about to pull out without indicating and a parked car is pretty hard from a moving vehicle.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Driving in fog with headlamps on can be counterproductive though - Sometimes the light bounces back at you off the fog and makes it harder to see. This may be why some people driving in fog during the day choose not to use lights?

Arguably, if it's foggy enough to impede visibility, it's time for foglights (which are set lower than normal lights, I think, because they are designed to help you be seen, not to help you see, so much). If it's not time for foglights, then using headlights is probably one of those judgement calls, I think.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Fair point. However, this morning's fog was the kind of fog where your own headlights made no difference at all to your utter inability to see anything, but other people's headlights made a huge difference to your ability to see them. Lightless people really were completely invisible until they were only a few yards away - kind of scary when they were charging along at 60 mph.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I am sure it's down to the whole 'don't use foglights unless visibility is below X' thing which you mention in your other comment. People can't remember exactly how far X was, but can remember that they were told that lights in fog are for Desperate Last Resorts only, so they don't use them.

I've never been able to work out why using foglights if it's insufficiently foggy is such a terrible thing to do. I used to be very wary of using them but when I lived in the boggy flats of Cheshire, we used to get such ridiculous quantities of fog that I decided I was just going to use them when I thought other people would be more visible if they were using theirs, which seems like a better common-sense measure to me. Nobody has ever told me off!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

A colleague was pulled over by the police and sternly told off for using unnecessary fog lights. Mind you, this was in twilight on a totally non-foggy day. It turned out that when he bought it, his car had come with its foglights set to permanently on, and he'd driven it like that for 3 years without realising. So, yeah, really this story doesn't so much prove that They do indeed tell you off for having unnecessary foglights, but that you can do it every day for 3 years without Them complaining at all.