Will You Please Turn Those Fog Lights Off!

Yes folks, its that time of year again, when what seems like a mirriad of drivers deem it a requirement to drive around with their fog lights blazing.

This is something of a pet peeve of mine, fog light should only be on when visibility is reduced to such a level that the car in front is not visible unless its fog lights are on. The reason for this is quite simple, fog lights are extreemly bright, meaning that unless visibility is vastly reduced through fog, they are massivly distracting to other drivers. This is especially the case when you are on the motorway during rush hour in clear weather.

In clear conditions, there really is no excuse for being such an inconsiderate numpty.

Drivers who insist on having their fog light on in the wet are especially idiotic. Wet roads reflect light, so such bright lights will be cause even more glare problem for other drivers.

Granted there will be some drivers who have made a genuine mistake and either forgotton to switch off their fog lights after fog as cleared or have accidentally put them on with their lights.

The latter group have fallen foul of what I call basic design stupidity on the part of motor manufacturers, namely Peugeot. Putting the fog ligh control on the same stalk as the main lights really is asking for trouble. Fog lights are rarely required and should be a button on the dashboard so that it is a consious decision to make use of them, it should not be possible to accidentally turn them on. Along with the bashboard button, there should be a big bright dash light that reads FOGS ON so there is no excusing for not realising you have left them on. If this light is distracting, all the better, because that will encourage drivers to turn them off when they are not required.

Whatever the reason, those who make the genuine mistake of having their lights on when not required show an obvious lack of attention to the car they are driving and the conditions around them.

Whorse still are those who intentionally drive around with their fog lights on. These are spotty teenagers trying to look cool in their underpowered hallfords speciales, or arrogant self important plonkers who feel the need to bully other drivers out of their way by employing every tactic possible to make the driver in front as flustered and uncomfortable as possible.

Both type of driver is equally despicable and probably incapable of understanding the logic as to why using fog lights when its not foggy is stupid.

What was that guy thinking?

The other day I saw an act of stupidity which I still struggle to comprehend.

It was on my morning commute on the motorway, traffic was slightly more congested than is normal so I expected to see some sort of incident up ahead.

When I got to the cause of the congestion, it was a single vehicle stopped on the central reservation, hazards flashing. Due to the size of the central reservation at that point, a third of the car was still in lane three, causing traffic in that land to edge over the boundry line for lane two in order to get past.

The reason for the car to be there? Well the driver was standing behind the car heaving his guts out onto the grass.

Whatever the reasons for the sudden stop and hurl, there is lots that is wrong with this situation. The most obvious that if he was in such a poor state of health, weather self inflicted the night before or he had caught a virus, he should not have been driving. If he had to drive he should have been more careful in his planning and stayed in lane one so he could drive at a more sedate pace and be prepared for any emergency action.

The needless disruption of traffic in what should be the fastest moving lane of the motorway was what annoyed, and probably hundreds of others. Standing behind his car was also very stupid because if his car was to be hit by an approaching vehicle, he would have been placed perfectly to receive the maximum possible damage to himself.

Just for a moment I am going to assume that he had no prior warning of his impending predicament. He must have had some warning in order to stop and get out of his car. Assuming that he didn’t have time to get accross two lanes of traffic and onto the hard shoulder before the resulting splurge would have created an unpleasant valeting job, surely that would still be preferable to the carnage that he risked by stopping on the central reservation.

So, what was he thinking when he stopped? I don’t think he was thinking at all.

Is the law on using mobiles phone while driving making any difference?

When the UK government announced that it would make the use of hand held mobile phone while driving illegal there were several things that went through my mind. Specifically, what is so special about hand held mobiles that they need to be singles out by a specific law? And why can’t bad or dangerous driving as a result of using a hand held mobile phone be covered by existing road laws?

Currently I drive a about 40 miles a day on the motorway and every day I am guaranteed to see at least one person using a hand held mobile phone while driving. These fall into 3 categories;

The Conscientious

Mostly men, these drivers are acutely aware that they are breaking the law and try not to make it obvious, they do their best to not get in the way of other traffic and as a result are usually found in the first lane, keeping speed with the other traffic in the same lane. They keep switching concentration between the phone call and the road and are likely to keep a large gap in front of them.

The Distracted

Equally men and women, these drivers are probably aware that they are breaking the law but choose to forget for the duration of the phone call. They are insulated in their own world and are oblivious to the fact that their driving has slowed down and they are now causing an obstruction to other traffic. They are almost always found in the center lane and have no idea at all of the conditions around them. They are likely to spot changing road conditions too late and over-react when they eventually do.

The Couldn’t Care Less

Mostly young women, these drivers are aware that they are breaking the law and frankly don’t care. Will likely get aggressive if you try to challenge them on it. They believe that their driving is unaffected and their phone calls are usually very animated, resulting on no hands on the wheel while their other hand gesticulates as if their conversation  partner is sat next to them. They make no attempt to remove themselves from danger and will match the speed of the traffic of whatever lane they are in, and will even change lane to keep up that speed if traffic conditions change. Observers will note that they tend to ‘wander’ quite a lot within the lane and even over the edges. Causing nervousness to all around them, not that they notice, of course.

While I certainly agree that using a hand held mobile phone is detrimental to overall driving quality, so are a lot of other things, like:

- having children in the car

- changing radio station / cd / tape / ipod track

- singing along

- laughing

- smoking

- talking to a passenger

- getting bored

- eating / drinking

I am sure given 10 minutes anyone could come up with a list of things that could impair the quality of your driving.

The fact is, there is not one single driver who can give 100% concentration to the task in hand 100% of the time. Part of being human is that we are distractable and that very distractableness will sometimes result in accidents and worse.

That’s not to say that we should not have laws of the road to govern safe driving, we most definitely should, but why should we have specific laws that outlaw a specific action, when the consequences of that action are covered by existing traffic offenses. If someone is stuck in traffic and wants to make a quick call home to say so whats the problem? If someone is yabbering on to a friend and as a result is weaving about like a drunkard, well there are traffic laws that cover that.

Active policing of poor quality driving is whats required here, not black and white legislation to blanket cover topics which really should not be dealt with as black and white.

So, back to the original question; has the law banning the use of hand held mobile phones while driving made any difference? Well I don’t think it has made as much of a difference as the law makers thought it would. Given the shortness of my motorway commute and the number of drivers I see using a hand held phone, its clear many people don’t see it as the potential danger it is.

In 2007, not even four years after the law came into effect, New Labour increased further the penalty for being caught. This must be a clear indication that the law is not effective. Increasing the punishment is not the way to make a law more acceptable.