Pea-souper = no fog lights. A little bit damp = fog lights!
Pea-souper = no fog lights. A little bit damp = fog lights!
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dxg

Original Poster:

10,463 posts

286 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
What's up with people?

This morning, it's a proper pea-souper. Haven't seen fog this bad in a good few years. Visibility less than 100 yards.

It's early, so not many cars around. Large gaps between means it's really time for the fog lights to come on.

Yet I seemed to be the only one. Many without even headlights - just looming out of the void at the last minute.

Yet, any decent rain and everyone turns on their fog lights. For the next three days.

Just don't understand.

Jo-say8k

274 posts

42 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Rear fog lights will stay on until lunchtime though sun

KingNothing

3,324 posts

179 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
In my experience majority of the time people put their rear fog lights on when they're not needed at all, and more annoyingly, can't seem to work out, you can turn them off when the situation changes, rather than leaving them on till they get to wherever they're going, in short people are fking idiots.

andrewpandrew

2,859 posts

15 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Quite a lot of the time where we are (edge of Saddleworth Moor) not only don’t you not get fog lights, you get no lights at all! Honestly don’t know what goes through people heads.

NDA

25,261 posts

251 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
On the M3 (in fog) I'd say around 40% of drivers have no lights on at all.

I suspect they're set to 'auto' (as mine are) and people don't think to check.

TomTheTyke

582 posts

173 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
KingNothing said:
In my experience majority of the time people put their rear fog lights on when they're not needed at all, and more annoyingly, can't seem to work out, you can turn them off when the situation changes, rather than leaving them on till they get to wherever they're going, in short people are fking idiots.
This is all that needs to be said. Can t say as I ve needed rear fogs more than a handful of times.

Davie

6,081 posts

241 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
See also tail gating, sitting in the middle lane, not indicating, messaging Sharon whilst circumnavigating a round about, oil below the minimum, nasty tyres with cords poking through, years of mould build up under the seats...

In short, for the vast majority, cars and the art of driving them is way way down their list of priorities and thus the standards associated with driving in the UK is pretty poor on the whole. Those who give driving their full focus day to day are likely a minority now.


TomTheTyke

582 posts

173 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Indeed. I was recently told that a distant relative doesn’t service their car on the basis that it should just carry on working like a washing machine…

Master Bean

5,076 posts

146 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
NDA said:
On the M3 (in fog) I'd say around 40% of drivers have no lights on at all.

I suspect they're set to 'auto' (as mine are) and people don't think to check.
Why are they called automatic headlights if they don't turn on automatically? You don't have to change your 8 speed auto using the paddles when it rains or there's fog.

s6boy

1,827 posts

251 months

Saturday 21st March
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There can still be enough ambient light in foggy conditions not to trigger auto lights.

LightweightLouisDanvers

2,841 posts

69 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Auto lights. Auto wipers.
Its bad enough having to drive the car without thinking about how to use its features....

Jo-say8k

274 posts

42 months

Saturday 21st March
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Maxym

2,899 posts

262 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Pea soupers are by definition green and no longer occur thanks to the phasing out of coal fires , industrial clean-up etc.

Pica-Pica

16,323 posts

110 months

Saturday 21st March
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Some observations:
Most cars have substantial rear lamp clusters, so rear fogs are rarely needed unless the fog is really heavy.
I have used front fog lights seriously about 3 times in 60 years of driving. Always without dipped headlights which would have caused glare-back - driving snow in particular is best using fog lights and sidelights.
I see that the Honda Civic does not have front fog lamps, probably a good idea.

njw1

2,729 posts

137 months

Saturday 21st March
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I haven't got any front fog lights.... frown

sixor8

8,303 posts

294 months

Saturday 21st March
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Cars with automatic lights often don't see fog as darkness, it isn't. Reliance on these systems means many drivers end up in fog with DRLs only at front, no lights at rear. rolleyes I often see it going over the Dales to Buxton. frown

Smint

3,209 posts

61 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Wasn't anywhere near foggy enough in the east/west midlands journey for rear fog lights thismorning, only one car i saw with them on and quite frankly he was a damn nuisance.

As the poster above doubt i've used rear fogs this century apart from to check they're working, most of the time all they do is make life worse, instead of looking out for extra bright brake lights to illuminate somewhere in the mutiple vehicles ahead that early warning is lost due to multiple sets of extra bright rear lights being already illuminated.

I have driven in serious fog but thats going back 5 decades before rear fogs were a thing where 15mph was genuinely pushing it, when these lights first arrived many of those who had them switched the things on at the first sign of a damp road (look i've got a newer car than you with rear fogs), a wet motorway run became horrible because all you could see were dozens of dazzling red lights in which a set of brake lights would barely register.

craigjm

20,983 posts

226 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
Pea soupers and yards hehe feel like I ve walked into a nursing home

Do we still get the emissions required for greeny yellow fog or are we just talking a thick normal fog here?

As above auto lights not auto lighting due to ambient light and most drivers don t think these days.

Alex_225

7,531 posts

227 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
KingNothing said:
In my experience majority of the time people put their rear fog lights on when they're not needed at all, and more annoyingly, can't seem to work out, you can turn them off when the situation changes, rather than leaving them on till they get to wherever they're going, in short people are fking idiots.
That seems to sum it up nicely!

Fog lights on in light drizzle with a shed load of visibility but it's a bit gloomy. By contrast when it's genuinely foggy, plenty of muppets will be relying purely on their DRLs!

POIDH

3,350 posts

91 months

Saturday 21st March
quotequote all
All these sensors, 'clever' tech, self-driving cars and AI and as far as I am aware, there is no car on sale today with as much cleverness as a human and a switch....