Re: Real fog (was: Speedo error)

[John Firestone <john.firestone@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 9 Sep 2000, Seeker wrote:

> [ John Firestone wrote, no, make that Herr Doktor Firestone
>   wrote - at least credit whom you are quoting before you
>   refute him :) ]:
>
>> ... The instrument clusters in European models tend to be more
>> accurate ... [and] also have a functional rear foglight indicator,
>> if you happen to be weird and like to be seen in the fog....
>
> Clearly you've never driven in real fog.

I would guess you weren't reading the bmw-digest either 3 1/2 or 7
years ago when I wrote a few things about the consequences of thick
fog, and the proper use of fog lights, both front and rear. :) As I
must be boring some readers, by now, I will try to write something
new.

> I lived in Belgium for three years and only then did I understand
> what fog lights were for [-] including that big fog light in the
> back.  I have been driving when all I could see was two white
> center lane markings ahead.

You call that fog?  The night I hit a deer belonging to Bruno von
der Hellen on a Landstrasse cut through his hunting preserve, we
were having trouble recognizing the right edge of the road. The
reason I hit his deer was that I was new to such stuff and was
fooled when the visibility improved to perhaps three center markers
ahead. Briefly. :(

> And, if you drive fast in the fog, which some Europeans seem to
> like to do, they'll smash right into the car in front of them if
> they rely on seeing their normal tail lights.  That big fog light
> in back is all that will keep some a...hole from rear ending you
> in the fog in Europes. 

And he or she will read end you when they rely on seeing your rear
fog light(s).  From what I have read as an occasional student of
the subject, thick fog encourages two things. It tends to make
drivers overestimate distances (they lack familiar visual
references) and it encourages them to follow the tail lights in
front of them (they are assured by the company and don't want to be
left behind and alone). Supposedly, this combination is deadly. All
it takes is one driver to out drive his sight distance to lead a
chain of followers into a mass pile up.

- -John
'96 318is

- -- 
john.firestone@domain.elided

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