Fog and Driving

Saruman · 19-03-2003 10:43AM #1

Dont think this belongs in motors as its just a general thing and nothing to do with cars themselves.

Over the last few days it has been very foggy as most people will know. Especially in dublin at the airport and along the M50!

So the basics about a foggy day... use your fog lights.. fine... If people have them they use them (note i think its Illegal to use them when its NOT foggy! Its also stupid and dangerous!). And drive carefully.. i.e a little slower maybe but defiatly dont get behind another car and tailgate them!! Keep a good distance.. and if you are driving slowly on a dual carriageway or motorway, as any other day stay in the LEFT hand lane and dont stay in the overtaking lane unless you are in fact overtaking!!

The problem!! For some reason fog seems to give Irish drivers the license to act like muppets.. and not just any muppets.. no DRUNK muppets!!!! Over the last few days i have seen every second driver on the road swerve from side to side while doing 20mph in the overtaking lane on the M50 with no traffic in front of them. They are driving in the middle of both lanes, oblivious to their muppetry!! I mean come on!!! Its only a little fog.. you are not going to hit another car except by acting with as little confidence as they are doing... If you are that afraid, leave the cars at home!!

There is nothing wrong with being careful but acting like that is just dangerous and im sure every accident i heard about on the radio was as a result of this kind of stupidity. Be safe.. not stupid!! If you are confident you can drive at your normal speed, or almost on the m50 without hitting anything. Unless some wandering horse happens to be there!

Hellrazer · 19-03-2003 11:02AM

What does my head in is the fact that some drivers dont use any lights on these foggy mornings.
Sitting at a T junction this morning,visability down to about 30meters and Im turning right.Im about to take off and this idiot doing about 70 emerges from the fog to the left with no lights on and only for the fact that I slammed on the brakes I reckon I was dead.
Its this kind of stupidity that causes road deaths.It seems like some drivers dont take into account the road/weather conditions and adjust their driving accordingly,whether that be rain,ice,snow fog.
Maybe it should be part of the driving test.Doing certain parts of the test in differnet weather/road conditions.
Richie.

Saruman · 19-03-2003 01:38PM

Look driving education should be compulsory in school!! Hell it would make people want to go to school on drivers ed day!! It should be part of the leaving cert or Junior cert or something.. dont need to pass it to pass your leaving etc.. but you do need to pass before you can even apply for a lisence!!!

Also before you are given a full lisence i think EVERYONE should have to have profesional lessons with an established instructor firm like Airport or someone.. They should have a cert to say they completed 10 lessons or so. Learning from your mates or parents is no good.. you pick up their bad habbits.

As for lights.. even in daylight on a bright day i have my dipped headlights on.. i always have and i have been driving for 5 years! The government seems to want to bring that in as law.. like it is in Sweden (i think).

Headcase · 19-03-2003 02:02PM

good point.
i hate the way,that if we get an inch of snow the whole ****in country shuts down for a day.
i mean its only a bit of snow

Borzoi · 19-03-2003 03:28PM

Silver cars in fog with no lights - practically invisible - I only hope they just kill themselves without hurting others:mad:

Victor · 19-03-2003 08:45PM

Originally posted by Saruman
The problem!! For some reason fog seems to give Irish drivers the license to act like muppets.. and not just any muppets.. no DRUNK muppets!!!! Over the last few days i have seen every second driver on the road swerve from side to side while doing 20mph in the overtaking lane on the M50 with no traffic in front of them. They are driving in the middle of both lanes, oblivious to their muppetry!! I mean come on!!! Its only a little fog.. you are not going to hit another car except by acting with as little confidence as they are doing... If you are that afraid, leave the cars at home!!

I don't understand. What do you mean here? Are they taking up both lanes?

Saruman · 19-03-2003 09:04PM

Yes... driving right down the middle of the white line between 2 lanes. Or partially on the lines so 1/3 of the car is in the wrong lane... I see it now and again on any day but on foggy days its every few cars i see...

Also i mentioned swerving from side to side and so on... like they are drunk but you cant have that many drunk drivers on the road when its foggy...

Victor · 19-03-2003 10:11PM

Originally posted by Saruman
Yes... driving right down the middle of the white line between 2 lanes. Or partially on the lines so 1/3 of the car is in the wrong lane... I see it now and again on any day but on foggy days its every few cars i see...

What response does solid "tootling" of the horn get?

Saruman · 20-03-2003 11:53AM

Cant be arsed i just tear past them and never see them again.

Beëlzebooze · 20-03-2003 04:58PM

oh, and when the fog is gone SWITCH THE FOG LIGHTS OFF!!!!

there is only one thing worse than driving behind some gobsh*te with his/her foglights on when it isn't foggy, and that is driving behind some gobsh*te with foglights on when it's raining!

Saruman · 20-03-2003 06:18PM

Exactly Beëlzebooze!! Like i said in my originaly post i think its even illegal to have them on when its not foggy!! I know it is in Britain as i was watching one of them police stop things and the cop saw a Ferrari heading towards it with the fog lights on and it was a sunny day.. as soon as he saw the cop car her turned them off.. the cop did him for it... its obviously illegal and its very obvious why. It also looks stupid, anyone who drives with them on all the time is insecure and is compensating for something

Victor · 20-03-2003 06:49PM

Originally posted by Saruman
It also looks stupid, anyone who drives with them on all the time is insecure and is compensating for something

No it makes people think there is a motorbike coming at them on the wrong side of the road. Rules of the Road say "Fog lamps may be used only in dense fog ... [otherwise] turned off "

Beëlzebooze · 21-03-2003 11:00AM

ok, I was talking about the FOG light on the back of the car(the EXTREMELY BRIGHT red one, not the front ones, they do bugger all for road safety.

When you are on the road you are responsible for not driving into the car infront of you, that means they have to be visible (and you have to control your speed), hence the fog light on the BACK of the car.

the fog lights on the front of a car do nothing to increase visibility for you, or your visibility to other road users. My guess is that those are just a marketing plow to get more money out of punters.

BrianD3 · 22-03-2003 08:46PM

the fog lights on the front of a car do nothing to increase visibility for you, or your visibility to other road users. My guess is that those are just a marketing plow to get more money out of punters.

You've obviously never driven on a country road in dense fog at night then. Front fog lights do make a difference. They allow you to pick out clearly where the road ends and the ditch begins which can be difficult if the fog is a real pea souper. Even in conditions of heavy driving rain or blizzard conditions front fogs make a difference.

Brian

Pimp Ninja · 23-03-2003 09:19AM

Fog was pretty thick this morning, visibility was 30 meters at best, sometimes down to 15. Speed was down around 20 - 25MPH, and that was even too fast in some places.

Same muppets were out this morning, No lights, speeding, jesus one stupid ignorant even overtook me, could have easily hit an oncoming car if there was one, muppet couldnt have seen any if there was. Then he dissappeared off into the fog. I thought to myself, 'Thank fsck he's gone, I dont have to deal with him anymore.'

I sometimes wonder what it will take for these people to learn how to drive???

horn dog 1 · 24-03-2003 05:02PM

Cant believe you have the nerve to slag people off over there driving,
you the same person that hit the bollards driving through the gates in the pheonix park...
scratching his paint work on his lovely new babe magnet of a car.. in daylight I might add....
NO FOG..
NO BABE IN THE CAR...
NO EXCUSE...

Saruman · 24-03-2003 05:25PM

you are one to talk Horndog... driving on the wrong side of the road against on comming traffic and you having to drive into a ditch to avoid them... the other 2 cars get wrecked!

Oh and on the bit about the Gates.. you always go on about this crap and never take in the truth.. just make up crap as you go along.

It was in fact dark.. being it was about midnight. I was on my way back from Dundalk and the car was full stuff and the windows were a little foggy. I did not hit the gates i hit newley erected bollards that had not been there before i left for the weekend. The bollards are not as wide as the gates so as i turned left after going through the gates (AFTER THE GATES THIS IS) i hit them. The next day i drove past and noticed every single bollard on all the gates have paint of different colours where cars have hit them.

horn dog 1 · 24-03-2003 05:44PM

This sounds closer to the truth .....
Anyway it was about a year ago and i was out the back with my Telescope looking at the neighbours daughter .. then overhead i saw this large bloke shape shouting at me across the sky. There were no lights on . Also unlike most blokes it did not wave his arms As far as i could see it was bloody big, too big to be a bloke anyway. Even the fabled Big Daddy is not as big as this. Anyway he was also very high up. he would not be bigger than a elephant as far as i could tell. I felt safe since there wasno lights or sound.. I dont know what it was.. maybe it was a Elephant after all, a bloke t waving his arms.or something.. and the size thing was just perspective... the only thing is it seemed to be going too fast!! It was a clear night so i could not get any perspective from the clouds or telescope I did not have time to move the scope as i only saw if for about 10 seconds before the neighbours daughter was out of view. It was cool but i did not go nuts about it as shes not a great looking chick but the big bloke turned out to be some nut who was into star gazing,

Saruman · 24-03-2003 05:53PM

Methinks you posted that one on the wrong thread.. maybe should be the UFO one?

horn dog 1 · 24-03-2003 05:55PM

Sorry folks posted that in the wrong place .....

horn dog 1 · 24-03-2003 06:16PM

ou are one to talk Horndog... driving on the wrong side of the road against on comming traffic and you having to drive into a ditch to avoid them... the other 2 cars get wrecked!
in reply to that....
Thats there fault they shouldnt have followed me into the ditch....I had a 4 wheel drive its called a tractor.....

Oh and on the bit about the Gates.. you always go on about this crap and never take in the truth.. just make up crap as you go along.

It was in fact dark.. being it was about midnight. I was on my way back from Dundalk and the car was full stuff and the windows were a little foggy. I did not hit the gates i hit newley erected bollards that had not been there before i left for the weekend. The bollards are not as wide as the gates so as i turned left after going through the gates (AFTER THE GATES THIS IS) i hit them. The next day i drove past and noticed every single bollard on all the gates have paint of different colours where cars have hit them.

what you realy mean is ...
ok it was dark..mmmmm. midnight in the park???? what were you doing in the park at midnight mmmmm proberly having a stag night..... why were the windows foggy????/you seem glad to refer to the newly erected bollards a strange use of words... where did you leave for the weekend???So what your saying is that after the gates you hit the bollardsand you checked them the next day and the bollards had multi colours on them,.... there called illumionus srips to stop people hitting them

Saruman · 24-03-2003 06:22PM

Listen here Navan Boy... i think in your days of sparring with Mike Tyson and Your man Nasseem as well as teaching Ali all he knows about boxing.. you got a little.. eh braindamaged along the way!

jd · 24-03-2003 06:35PM

While you are talking about lights, did you ever notice that a large percentage of people aren't able to dip their headlights...??

And as for the guys who think it's cool to have a light show that would put the local youth club disco to shame...

Saruman · 24-03-2003 09:11PM

And as for the guys who think it's cool to have a light show that would put the local youth club disco to shame...

I know the type... and i think its a bit naff to be honest.

horn dog 1 · 25-03-2003 10:35AM

A must have hurt your feelings with my last remark..... well get over it....as for your personal gibes at me if thats the best you can do Ill have to find bigger fish to fry.... Are you sure you havent gone to the moderator like the last time.....

Monty - the one and only · 25-03-2003 11:09AM

Both of you, quit it now.

This is not the place for petty little arguements.

Continue on like this, and you will pay the price.

Saruman · 25-03-2003 11:22AM

Originally posted by Monty - the one and only
Both of you, quit it now.

This is not the place for petty little arguements.

Continue on like this, and you will pay the price.

Agreed! Sorry Monty :eek:

Fog and Driving

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