RE: Fog/aux lights blinding oncoming traffic

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> sharp a cutoff as say eurolights.  Typically, lowbeams are aimed low, not
> into
> the eyes of oncoming traffic, yet they seriously degrade the vision of
> oncoming traffic.  By having a second pair of lights on the car, you are
> further degrading oncoming traffic's vision.  Think of high beams: in
> addition
> to presenting a pattern focused further down the road, they are a second
> set
> of lights (or filaments).  Remember that these aux. lights are only about
> a
> foot lower than the headlights.
====
> So, if you throw on 45 watt lows x2, then throw on 45 watt fogs/aux
> lows/driving lights/whatever, you are throwing twice as much light on the
> road, _and_ presenting twice the point-source light.  Sure, you see
> better,
> but the oncoming traffic sees worse.  Solution?  dim/turn off your extra
> lights for oncoming traffic, whether they are fogs, high beams, or
> whatever.
====
>  You say no one ever flashes you? that could be because they didn't want
> to
> blind the guy in front/behind you with their high beams.  And don't drive
> right behind someone with the extra lights going; usually the side and
> rear
> mirrors pick up the light from these extra lights quite well.
> 
... well, using this logic, anyone who is following someone with their
headlights should turn them off as they would blind the oncoming traffic.
Total BS IMO!  Scattered light dazzling someone?  Give me a break!  Perhaps
if you were driving in wet weather and there is sufficient water to be
causing large specular reflections from puddles you might have a point ...
that situation doesn't arise too often IME.  

Without any focusing devices the intensity of the lamp will follow the 1/r^2
law.  Given that there are mirrors and lenses that are directing the
majority of the light down onto the road there will be even less light than
that getting to the eyes of anyone in a car in front of the car.  

As I stated in my prior message I leave the front fog lights on on the V8
because with their lower position small items near the ground and surface
undulations cast shadows, allowing me to be able to see them better.  I've
driven cars with the V8 following me fully alight and coming at it that way
and there is no way that anyone would have more of a problem with them then
they would have a problem with anyone else's low beams as well.  

I do have a problem with people running driving/fog lights or high beams
which do direct light at an annoying level to others ... I find the stock
lights on the new Taurus on low beams to generate an annoying amount of
light for me (as do the DRLs on Saturns ... during the day!).  For someone
to whine just because the oncoming car has four lights on instead of two is
doing just that ... whining ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)