Driving to the Conditions

As regular readers will be all too aware, one of my regular driving bug-bears is about the idiots who put on their foglights, and then forget to turn them off when the weather clears.

Rather more dangerous though, as I was reminded last night on my way home, are the idiots who don’t use foglights when they’re actually necessary – even if that isn’t in fog.

Last night, just before leaving the M11 to go onto the A11, the clouds opened. Full-on thunderstorm, and the torrential rain that seems to be part and parcel at the moment. Within moment, visibility had rolled down to dogshit (the official terminology for “less than 20ft”) and I’d slowed to about 40, having seen one person in front aquaplane and spin the car through a full 180° onto the hard shoulder. (That was impressive in itself – the driver handled it fine, but just span into the hard shoulder, no damage at all, just spin to a stop) At the same time, my lights went on – as usual, to enable people to see me, not in order to be seen.

The entire drive along the A11 until the A14 was the same – exceptionally low visibility, and incredibly heavy rainfall. You couldn’t see cars at all 100 ft away – and why? Because hardly any of them even put lights on, let alone the foglights that actually should have been on.

In fact, in the entire 10-ish miles of A11, I saw exactly one other driver with his foglights on.

It boggles my mind, the number of people who use their foglights when they don’t need them, but then don’t use them at all when they actually do need to be in use.

More and more, I find myself supporting the idea of drivers having to pass a “refresher” driving test every five years. I know it would be a pig to administrate, but I think it would lead to some significant improvements in driving.