Should use of motor vehicle rear fog lamps only be allowed on special roads eg motorways?

[SA_SA_SA]

Given that ordinary roads have lot of users who will not carry (and could not reasonably run 'rear' fog lamps) surely motor vehicles should be forbidden from using them on non-special roads (motorways etc) ie forbidden from using them on the ordinary road network, in order to give them an incentive to take more care?

Should vehicles be required to have a fog-speed limiter to be engaged upon entering fog (could be checked after any collision)?

[Cyril Haearn]

I drive below the speed limit at all times, try to save energy by coasting up to curves and lights (avoid braking)

I would like to have my fog light on all the time to keep normal drivers away

Wouldn't work of course

[softlips]

No, only time I use them is in the penines on A roads and you can't see your hand in front of you, but vehicles should have a speed limiter when they're used.

[mjr]

Don't worry - enough motorists never use their rear fog lights that anyone relying on seeing a rear fog light ahead will be dead soon enough.

I like the fog speed limiter idea, though.

[rmurphy195]

Not surewhat you would limit the speed to, or how it would work.

I switch mine on whenever necessary, whatever the type of road, often simultaneously with dropping my speed. The thought of, perhaps, having my speed control suddenly taken out of my hands when I switch on the fog lights (perhaps accidentally*) is not a comfortable one - I prefer to retain control so if someone is approaching from behind too fast I can juggle my speed depending on whats going on both in front of and behind my vehicle - I don't particularly want to suddenly slow down and be hit from behind, thankyou!

*This is quite easy - different cars have different switching for the lights. Mine has the whole lot controlled by a rotary switch built-in to the indicator stalk, my wife's car has front and rear fog lamps that are switched by pulling the rotary switch on the dashboard - one pull for the front, two for the rear - or is it the other way around? Either mechanism can be triggered accidentally without difficulty.

[thirdcrank]

It's the law of unintended consequences: if switching on your fog lights automatically cut the speed, there'd be fewer fog lights switched on.

[mjr]

I thought the fog speed limiter would switch on when it detected fog, not be connected to the lights.

[SA_SA_SA]

I wasn't suggesting any auto operation of the speed limiter.

[thirdcrank]

Either way, it's unlikely to happen in present circumstances. There's always been bitter and hitherto successful opposition to anything like this, the most obvious being speed limits. Whether things will be different with driverless vehicles is wait-and-see. Presumably, they'll be able to use things like radar for the "seeing" although that wouldn't help people to see them.

[Cunobelin]

It's the law of unintended consequences: if switching on your fog lights automatically cut the speed, there'd be fewer fog lights switched on.

Most cars around here seem to have the fog lights on permanently

[irc]

No, only time I use them is in the penines on A roads and you can't see your hand in front of you, but vehicles should have a speed limiter when they're used.

Genius!

I bet garages would get punters complaint about lack of power.

Though I could see unintended consequences of drivers choosing to speed without fog lights.

[meic]

If it is rear fog lights (as in the thread title) then there will not be that many people going fast enough to rear end them and if there are that is two drivers best removed from our highways.

[rmurphy195]

Either way, it's unlikely to happen in present circumstances. There's always been bitter and hitherto successful opposition to anything like this, the most obvious being speed limits. Whether things will be different with driverless vehicles is wait-and-see. Presumably, they'll be able to use things like radar for the "seeing" although that wouldn't help people to see them.

I was wondering the other day, given the sensors used on driverless cars, whether headlights on such vehicles would be superfluous

[rmurphy195]

If it is rear fog lights (as in the thread title) then there will not be that many people going fast enough to rear end them and if there are that is two drivers best removed from our highways.

It isn't a question of speed but of the distance the rearward driver is keeping, especially trucks though roadworks - having spent 12 years commuting 6 miles a day on the M5, M6 and M54 I have lots of experience of being tailgated.

I'm not comfortable with your rather - blunt - statement re removing 2 drivers from our highways - in my case such an accident would also remove my wife and possibly my grandchildren as well. Rather like a recent horrendous incident in which a number of people in a minibus or people carrier were killed. Perhaps you approve of such population reduction measures? Do you contribute perhaps to a fund for provision of counselling for members of the emergency services who attend such incidents?

[meic]

As I was following on from the posts above about speed limiters, it very much was about speed.
If a lorry is tailgating you then clearly they have seen you and the fog-light is irrelevant to whether or not they pile in to you.