Dave Plowman (News) wrote
wrote
Dave Plowman (News) wrote

Always. That's why foglights are low mounted and illegal in good
visibility.

Can you quote evidence of that? I'm sure that was the case in the 60s
and have trawled the net to find the rules for how high lights must be
to be used in good visibility and failed miserably in finding any
evidence
of the illegality of the current spate of foglights in good visibility.

You can't have tried very hard. It's in the highway code.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAn...code/DG_069859

although that seems to suggest they must be used with headlights.

No it does not.

Which completely defeats the purpose of them.

Which is presumably why it doesn't say that.

If the headlights were good in fog - why have specialised lighting just
for it?

Exactly! It's fairly rare for any fog lights to be needed. Rear
foglights should only be used when visbility is below 100 metres, so
speed needs to be restricted too. Most peeps switch on rear fog lights
as soon as there's a hint of mist, and don't slow down, being unaware
that the fog lights mask their brake lights and signals, being much
brighter.

They are normally the same brightness as stop lamps or indictors.
They are also very useful in heavy rain in daylight. They allow you
to see there is a car in front before you can actually see the car itself.

The regulations state that only one rear fog light is allowed, and that
must be on the offside, to reduce the likelyhood of them being mistaken
for brake lights.

Both my cars have twin rear fog lights.