Foglights...

Jameze

Jameze

James
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So driving to work this morning on the M1, strong winds, heavy rain and zero daylight. It was interesting to say the least, I was using the catseyes in the road to navigate as visibility was terrible. It was the kind of rain where the wipers did absolutely nothing to help.


A few drivers put their rear foglights on as visibility is so poor, including the person in front of me - which I was glad of as the other cars were actually quite difficult to spot due to the strong wind / heavy rain and vehicle spray combination.


I followed suit as I didn't want anyone rear-ending me on the motorway.


About 5 minutes or so passed of me driving along when, out of nowhere, along comes Mr D***head. Driving up behind me and giving me some full beam action in his vomit-green Astra. Followed by about a full minute of flashing his full beams at me on & off. It was obvious he was whinging about my fog lights, but out of principle I decided to keep them on (visibility was still poor and he was being a Class A W*nker about it). He outdid himself though when he decided to undertake me, just so he could get in front and proceed to frantically turn his rear fogs on/off in an attempt to continue fulfilling his role as Mr D***head.


For driving up my **** and being a complete tit, I decided to play him at his own game. Then next mile or so was me up his ****, playing him at his own game, giving him a rear-view mirror full of Xenon beam. 'ave that!


If someone gave me the odd flash and it was necessary (wanting to pass or having my foglights on for NO reason) then I'd let it slide. But this guy was just something else, it was like having my own personal disco escort me to work. If he'd have got off at the same junction as me then I can safely say I would have gotten out of my car and dragged him through the window by his nostrils!!


Seriously though, should I not have had my rear fogs on or something?! I rarely use my foglights, only when visibility is near impossible.
 
Personally, I wouldn't use mine in wet conditions. I think the glare from the bright bulbs is distracting to other drivers, and it's effects serves to make brake lights become less obvious.

The Highway Code says you may use them when "Visibility is seriously reduced" ie less than 100m (I think), so if that was the case then you weren't 'wrong' in using them. Mr Astra just obviously got the hump with you, like you did with him....!
 
Normally I don't use them, I could probably count fingers on 1 hand the amount of times I've felt I've needed to.

It was the kind of rain though where no matter how fast your wipers are, the windscreen was never clear. That alone made it impossible to see. It only really occurred to me to use them when others did too and I'm quite thankful they did as it was near impossible to see most other cars (especially at motorway speeds where slow or standing traffic can creep up on you fast without warning).

If it was causing a glare to him then it's probably because he was far too close, especially for the weather conditions!

He clearly got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning... and dragged me with him :aggressive:
 
I am always in two minds about whether to use rear fogs in the wet. If it is dark, I would never go so, as the dazzle effect is horrific. In daylight, I'll probably do so up to the point where someone indicates they are being troubled by them.

As to your situation today, if the conditions were as bad as you have described, why didn't you just move over and let him past at the first opportunity? And why on earth replicate the same behaviour back? How does that make a dangerous situation safer?

Sorry, but two wrongs don't make a right.
 
Not having a dig at you Jameze, but I think the name of the function speaks for itself, 'foglight', only to be used in fog?

I appreciate you are doing it for the sake of other motorists, but other drivers don't see it that way. Best to just get on with your own thing if visibility is crap, than to get involved in something that could easily go wrong, and take you both out!
 
jdp1962 said:
And why on earth replicate the same behaviour back? How does that make a dangerous situation safer?

Sorry, but two wrongs don't make a right.
Click to expand...

^^^that is the first thing that came to my mind too. :no:

But to be fair, I'd have probably done the same. Or at least slowed to 10mph and every time he tried to undertake me, sped up!
 
I did pull in to let him pass as soon as I could but he was keen to continue his arsey behaviour by following me bumper-to-bumper into the other lane, still flashing away. If he hadn't have done that then I'd have probably turned them off when he passed.

After soon realising he wanted just be a prized tw*t about things, I let off the accelerator a bit (nothing ridiculous) but enough to make him impatient and pass me. Queue the frantic rear fog flashing he then proceeded to display, to which I obviously responded. I turned them off when he'd disappeared, but only once he was out of sight (I didn't want him to think he'd won!).

I don't usually retaliate to nonces on the road - I'm usually too slow to react to idiots then kick myself later for not giving them a beep of the horn or something. He just went about things completely the wrong way and I was hellbent on giving him a taste of his own medicine.
 
Jameze said:
I turned them off when he'd disappeared, but only once he was out of sight
Click to expand...

DOH!

I think you should have probably turned them off. Using "fog" lights in wet weather can be more dangerous, although I understand your reasons for doing so, and I may have done the same in your situation. However at the end of the day he was the next car behind you and he obviously had a problem with them being on. You could have turned them off whilst he was behind, and put them back on once he had moved away.

Instead you decided to be as arsey as he was being and behaved in the same way once he had passed you. Would all of the distraction, flashing of lights, and not fully concentrating on your driving been worth it if someone had got hurt?
 
He wasn't just behind me, he was practically sat in my car he was that close.

I probably would have turned them off knowing they were obviously causing a nuisance for someone, but he went about it the wrong way so to prove a point and not let him think he can go about things this way in the future, I just completely ignored his 'request'.

Yes I was being stubborn, yes I played him at his own games, but he strikes me as the kind of person that gets up your **** at 90mph and flashes you until you move out of his way because he's obviously far superior to everyone else on the road. People get away with that because people let them - same with this guy.

Anyway, what's done is done. I still think he's a nonce and wouldn't treat him any different if it happened again tomorrow. I'll just avoid using fogs in future! Until someone rear-ends me.
 
Jameze

What I'm about to say will be unwelcome, but it is said without ill feeling, and I hope that when you've taken a moment to think about it, you'll accept it in that way.

You are doing yourself no favours with the comments you have made in this thread. You use phrases like "I was hellbent on giving him a taste of his own medicine", "to prove a point", "out of principle I kept them on", and "I didn't want him to think he'd won". None of these expressions, or the attitudes they reveal, help your argument.

What point were you trying to prove? If it was to prove he was an idiot, then all you did was prove you were just as big an idiot, which kind of undermines your original beef with him.

What principle are you referring to when explaining why you left your fog lights on? Just because you were grateful that the person in front of you had their lights on, it does not then follow that the person behind you will feel the same. However he went about it, this guy was trying to inform you that your lights were troubling him, and he wanted you to turn them off. You could have done so immediately, let him pass, and them put them back on again.

Did you really think that "giving him a taste of his own medicine" would make him a safer driver in future?


Why think of it it terms of who loses and who wins? Is somehow being the "winner" (in your own head at least) more important than being safe? Who would have been the winner if, instead of seeing you switch your lights off, he had felt your car ram his and the two of you crash off the road possibly taking another car with you?

The comment in your last post to the effect that you'd do the same again leaves me thinking you are unlikely to change your mind as a result of what I've said here, but if you are tempted to respond forcefully, please remember that it was you who put this story out in the public domain inviting others to comment. You should not then object if the comments you receive are not your taste.
 
I'm by no means objecting to people's opinions, I'm just voicing my own too. My original intention was to try and understand whether or not I was in the wrong for using my foglights in the first place (as well as to vent off some anger - hence the section I posted it in). I rarely use foglights, this is probably the 3rd time I've ever used them and the first time it's not been incredibly fogging when doing so - so I was merely trying to get some feedback if you like. The conclusion I've made from people's comments is in future, don't.

The way I see it is simple: He was right up my ****. I'd been driving for some time with my fog lights on and had no complaints from other road users. There was more than a reasonable distance between me and the car in front, which actually made his car visible given the conditions, before they turned theirs on it was near impossible to tell he was there (unless I was to get uncomfortably closer).

As previously said, he was driving stupidly close to me. Usually I'd drive off but was reluctant to go any faster given the conditions, and changing lane did nothing except invite him to follow me. I wouldn't dream of driving that close to someone in dry conditions, never mind this.

In my opinion, if he'd have driven at the correct distance then there would have been no issues whatsoever. That's not just me being stubborn, long after I turned mine off I continued on my journey comparing the cars with and without fogs on and concluded that I was yet to find any distracting in the slightest and was actually thankful of people who did turn them on!

I don't think flashing him back would make him a safer driver, why would it? He p*ssed me off so I felt the need to kindly let him know so. I'm rarely that kind of driver, he just got on the wrong side of me that morning.

I did however believe that by not turning them off when he decided to join me on my backseat and flash me relentlessly, then he might realise that acting like a d*ck won't get him anywhere in future. As soon as he was beside me I turned my rear foglights off, and the front ones (only on as an unavoidable combination) followed when he'd disappeared to go police the rest of the motorway.

Obviously how I reacted to the situation was morally wrong from a 'safe driving' perspective. He'd just wound me up the wrong way that morning!
 
For the record: I'm not taking offence to comments here. Everyone's got their opinions and I welcome them, I'm just sharing mine too! :friends:
 
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We have all (or at least the majority of us have) done "unsafe" things on the road when p*ssed off etc.
Jameze - I fully understand your reaction to this ****. If it was me and I tail-gated him after he did the same to me, and then we crashed etc etc.... yeah I'd regret it big time, but sometimes sh*t happens when we do stuff that we shouldn't. That's life. Sometimes you just want to make yourself feel better about a situation, even if you do run the risk of making it a lot worse.

On the flip side... maybe, just maybe, this guy has learnt from this and instead of going around doing the same to everyone else (which could eventually end in an accident) he doesn't because Jameze gave him a bit of a shock, preventing a potential accident.
Not saying that makes it ok, but sometimes (and indirectly) good things come out of bad situations.
 
Do you ever use your hazard lights/flash your main beams for purposes other than what they really are intended for....?
 
Not when it's a hazard to others. FOG lights dazzle and light up the wet surface of the road. This prevents you from seeing brake lights and the like. They are not called possible poor viability lights.

He asked my opinion and that's it, I would have deffo flashed him to drop the dazzling light like the Astra guy did as it's one of my pet Peeves TBH When in a queue of traffic it's easy to see the car in front, no need for additional lights, If you were at the back of a queue of traffic, maybe to alert the guys in the distance you are there, fine, but when they gain on you drop the lights, like you would with high beam.

My driving practices are not in dispute here

Except i doubt i would have tolerated being tailgated:gun2:
 
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