Re: quattro-digest V3 #1297

["Al Powell" <APOWELL@agcom.tamu.edu>]

Jeff said:

> BTW, I've never been pulled over for running fogs only.

The WHY question comes to mind.

Jeff, I'm not intentionally picking on you - that's why I only 
included your first name.  I just feel a pontification coming on....

Personally, I cannot conceive of conditions in which I would use fog 
lamps which do not DEMAND that at least parking lights and tail 
lights must be run as well.  Half the function of lights is for 
others to see US!!

I personally consider it a MAJOR SAFETY HAZARD to drive with fog 
lights only on, unless it's in limp-home-mode for a mile or two during 
a blizzard or in pea soup fog with highly limited visibility.  Even 
then, low beams should usually be on.  Why?

Once-upon-a-time, I was crossing the near-desert area of central 
Washington State late at night, returning from Seattle to Pullman 
(south of Spokane, for you east-coasters...)  This is a stretch of 
road where, at 1:00 or so, might have four miles of straight road 
ahead, and might meet only one car every four or five miles.

At any rate, I overtook a slower car and began passing it.  I could 
see another car coming, but it was obviously WAAAAYYY down the road, 
judging by the dim lights.  Well, as I got about half-way around the 
car I was passing in an uncharactistically leasurely fashion, something 
spooked me and I nailed the throttle and zipped past and into my 
lane.

Not THREE seconds later, an old late 50's Chevy went past in the 
other lane!!  The headlights were so dim that I suspect he may have 
been running off his battery to get home.  

The point: his lights fooled me.  Until then, I didn't realize that 
slightly dim lights could look MUCH farther away than they were.  And 
it damn near got him and me killed in a 60+ MPH head-on, because he 
looked at a leat a mile farther away then he actually was!

Ever since then, I mutter about the metal proces of other drivers who 
drive on parking lights only, or fogs only, or other lighting combinations 
which could distort another driver's perception of how far away they 
are.  

***Pontification mode off.****


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Al Powell                        Voice:  409/845-2807
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