Drivers that cruise, day or night, with fog lights & dipped beams (forgetting to turn the rear ones off) highlighting just how brain dead they are....
So brain dead that they do not realise it is a fixed penalty offence with a minimum of 3 points.
Highway code:
www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycod...9
Rule 226
You MUST use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally when you cannot see for more than 100 metres (328 feet). You may also use front or rear fog lights but you MUST switch them off when visibility improves
Rule 236
You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.
[Law RVLR regs 25 & 27]
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Nothing in the HC to prevent opting to drive on dips in daytime. I don't condone the practice in full dayight but there have been lots of days in the last month where, driving a grey or silver car, I feel happier with them on in the post noon greyout.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 28/12/2007 at 11:18
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Argh, here we go yet again... maybe you could have added to one of the many existing threads on this subject rather than create a whole new one?
The last time I looked it was a £30 non-endorseable for fog lights as well, certainly not a "minimum" of 3 points.
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The last time I looked it was a £30 non-endorseable for fog lights as well certainly not a "minimum" of 3 points.
It was £40 (non-endorseable) when I got nabbed by a copper a few years ago for forgetting to turn my front fogs off when visibility had improved.
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One night, I arrived back into Heathrow and got to my car around midnight. I realised in the car park that one of my dipped beam bulbs had blown. I decided to switch on my front fogs for the 200 mile drive home to compensate for the lack of one headlight on this dark, but otherwise clear night. The following morning I replaced the faulty bulb. Regardless of the legality, I still think this was a common sense solution to a temporary safety problem. Do others disagree ?
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I decided to switch on my front fogs for the 200 mile drive home to compensate for the lack of one headlight on this dark but otherwise clear night.
It's better that all corners of the car are lit in my opinion. If I lost both headlight and sidelight on one side making one corner unlit then I'd probably put my fogs on too, just for that journey.
If I still had a sidelight on one side, I wouldn't use fogs.
Edited by pendulum on 28/12/2007 at 11:25
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I decided to switch on my front fogs for the 200 mile drive home to compensate for the lack of one headlight on this dark but otherwise clear night. The following morning I replaced the faulty bulb. Regardless of the legality I still think this was a common sense solution to a temporary safety problem. Do others disagree ?
>>Full marks from me for good common sense. Another poster said he'd just use side lights. No good IMO; modern side lights are too diffused to be of any use whilst the vehicle is in motion. On some models you see the car before you see the sidelights in foggy or wet weather, what good is that?
For once the Americans are more correct than we are on this issue; they, quite properly, call them PARKING lamps. That's all they should be used for.
Another poster mentioned silver cars. Drivers of same would do the world a favour by switching their headlamps on at all times. On wet motorways they're almost invisible in the spray!
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I use my fog lights when I like, get over it.
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And I dream Im on vacation - cos I like the way that sounds -
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Drivers that cruise day or night with fog lights & dipped beams (forgetting to turn the rear ones off) highlighting just how brain dead they are.... So brain dead that they do not realise it is a fixed penalty offence with a minimum of 3 points.
People do it "because they want to", "because it makes me look kewl", and others go as far as to make their lights switchable so that they can drive with "side lights" and fog lamps. It's useful in that it does make it easy to see these poor drivers on the road, although I feel that the first groups should get 3 points, the modifying brigade should get 6, and have to re-MOT their cars to boot.
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Mine can have foglights and sidelights as standard. You wish to give me 6 points?
Lets be honest, what real harm is there in using fog lights? Most front fogs dont dazzle so what is the issue? why do you get so wound up hmmm?
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And I dream Im on vacation - cos I like the way that sounds -
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Well adjusted fog lights project below horizontal, illuminating just ahead of the car, and aren't a major issue. Many though appear to be perversely used as driving lamps: wide angle, above horizontal, industrial strength lamp, causing glare. Not clever.
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"I use my fog lights when I like, get over it."
Selfish? - moi? ;-)
Edited by ChrisPeugeot on 28/12/2007 at 15:15
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I drive with mine on all the time to show that I'm not driving the poverty-spec version of my car.
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Ironically - the fogs on the Skoda are far better than the BMWs ever were. (well something had to be !)
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I thought that BMW drivers (especially old 3 series) had no switch to turn their fog lights off.
Some cars with just a pushbutton switch rather than a locking one automatically switch off the fog lights when the ignition is switched off which is a great idea in my opinion.
Otherwise you get one foggy November morning and some clowns drive around with them on for weeks or months afterwards, wrapped up in their own little world and oblivious to the statutory warning light that must be displayed when they are switched on.
(In case anyone was wondering this is a pet hate of mine : o )..............)
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What about wing mirrors ? (just asking)
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PU did you get the pics of the Caterham vs black ice, I think you were on the list of people they went out to?
That car always had dipped beam on whatever the time of day
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Yes I did. Very lucky that eh ? Shame about the motor though.
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Yes it was a shame - nice car that was but as I said at the time, its only bent metal at the end of the day, could have been much worse
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As a side issue regarding the use of sidelights/dipped beam during the day, it was proved years ago that drivers see lights before they see cars which is why sensible motorcyclists drive with a headlight on and I ALWAYS drove my seven-esque kit car with dipped beam no matter what time of day or how sunny it was.
Volvo didn't introduce it for nothing.................
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"Volvo didn't introduce it for nothing"
The requirement for use of dipped headlamps was recently introduced in three countries (was one Australia?) and, as a result of the accident rate increasing, the EU has now dropped its plans to make it a daylight requirement in the EU.
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>>>>>>The requirement for use of dipped headlamps was recently introduced in three countries (was one Australia?) and, as a result of the accident rate increasing, the EU has now dropped its plans to make it a daylight requirement in the EU.
How can driving with lights on INCREASE accidents?
That must just be coincidence, not a direct result of drivers having lights on all the time.
But then when did the EU pass any rational laws?
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But then when did the EU pass any rational laws?
They didn't say you couldn't.
If you don't not see what I might not mean.
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Stuartl: "That must just be coincidence, [accident rate going up] not a direct result of drivers having lights on all the time."
When the accident rate goes up in three countries?
It could be the difference between a few drivers putting on headlamps to make themselves more conspicuous, and all drivers putting them on. Best place to hide a tree is in a forest.
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Best place to hide a tree is in a forest.
Bang on -In the 90s the much loved and very very clever boffins at the Defence Research Agency found that lights shone at a target make very useful and effective camouflage.
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So by default does that mean that if you need to switch your front ones on the back ones need also to be switched on?
I.e. it's difficult to see you from both the front and the rear!
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So by default does that mean that if you need to switch your front ones on the back ones need also to be switched on?
On both the Berlingo and the Xant it's a rotating switch that brings on first fronts then rears. So if you need to switch your rear ones on the front ones also need to be switched on!!
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Hi folks and welcome to Punxsatauny, where today it's Groundhog Day
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