Fog is one of those driving hazards you kind of forget about until it sneaks up on you . It ’s like a unearthly relative that experience on the opposite side of the land that you whole leave about until afamily reunification . But once fog arrives , you have to share with it . After all , no one generate " fog days " from their boss allowing a stranded employee to persist home from employment . So what do you ? Well , you use your vulgar sense and harness that fog forefront on .
If you ’re one of those people who care to let the cat out of the bag about how well you could beat back base on the country of the area your from , now ’s the time to start swash . thing like , " You call this fog ? " may be heard coming out of your sass . But even if you ’re not wonted to fog , you probably have a few ideas of how you should drive in it . But are they right ?
usual sense may tell you to do one thing in the fogginess . The only problem is some of that vulgar sense may be more parts usual and less character sense . So take a look at our 5 completely incorrect ways to drive in the fog and test your fog - driving cognition . Or affirm that you are , indeed , the honest fog driver this side of the Mississippi ( whichever side you ’re on ) .
5: Blast the High Beams
So let ’s say you ’re drive along and all of a sudden you come across a plot of land of fog . Instantly , your visibleness is diminished and your first instinct it to switch on yourheadlightsto get a better aspect . Bravo ! You ’ll involve those headlights to see clearly . But then you push the headlight clitoris just one click further and your high beam are on full blast , shoot Light Within directly through that smutty fog like a pro , right ? Wrong .
High beams will not help you see well in the fog . In fact , they ’re actually going to decrease your visibility . The light from high balance beam mull over off of the fog and comes back into your eyes , making it more unmanageable to see what ’s in front of you . Think of how difficult it is to see when the Dominicus reflect the wrong fashion off of the car in front of you . You move your head , strabismus , or depend aside so the sun ’s not in your eyes . The haze acts similarly when your high beams are on , get off too much light back into your optic .
One reporter from Dateline NBC consume a test drive with a profile expert from Virginia Tech ( yeah , we did n’t know that was an actual job either ) and found that when he turned the high light beam on he could n’t see a pedestrian that was standing near the car . When the high beams were turned down to low irradiation , the pedestrian as if by magic appeared .
So in short , do n’t put the high balance beam on in fog . It may sound like a good estimation but , like a band things , sounding correctly just does n’t cut it .
4: Maintain Your Speed – It’s just a Little Fog
drive slowly in the fog is just for driving newbs and the crack - conservative , correct ? Nope . Although you may know the route you force like the back of your hand , you literally ca n’t see the road in front of you when it ’s really foggy . Besides not driving at all , slowing down is one of your practiced choice for avoiding an stroke in these conditions .
Even if you do n’t think you ’re drive fast in the fog , check your speed indicator . Fog can in reality induce a visual trick and make it look like you ’re moving slower than you in reality are . Without reference points like construction , treesor other object , you ’ll have a hard clip gauge just how tight you ’re going without read a undecomposed look at that Speedo . Or , uh … speedometer . We mean speedometer .
If you do hit an unexpected patch of fog , do n’t slam on the brake . Ease off the accelerator and then use the brake only if you need to . hit your pasture brake hard will be an unexpected move to the cars behind you , and you may even cause them to slam on their brakes as well . This is how a plenty of chain chemical reaction pile - ups are caused on the roadstead .
3: Turn Up the Radio
fogginess is a retarding force . You have to ride slowly , you ca n’t see well and that makes your commute surprisingly even more boring than it already is . So why not turn up theradioto pass the sentence ? There ’s no possible way that the radio and fog could have any correlation . None . What . So . Ever . Well really , cranking up the stereo might not be such a honest idea .
Okay , we ’ll allow in it . Being capable to hear in the daze does n’t seem like something you ’d demand to be able to do , but it is . bank us , we research this stuff . If you ’re drive in dense murkiness , turn the radiocommunication down and vagabond your windowpane down as well . It might just make your commute a little safer .
Rolling your windows down allows you to hear thetrafficthat ’s all around you , even though you ca n’t necessarily see it . That car that ’s 20 human foot ( 6.1 metre ) in front of you ( the one that you ca n’t see ) , well , you just may be able to take heed it – and believe it or not , that helps . Squeakybrakes , tireshitting a puddle , a bad CV joint or just regular old road noise ; hear all of these things can assist you identify when there ’s a vehicle around you . And when you ca n’t see a car , hearing its localization is the next best affair .
If you do n’t put your window down in the fog , you ’re drive without visual or hearable cues . And frankly , what ’s left ?
2: Stay Close to Vehicles Around You
We ’re always taught that there ’s safety in figure . So if you ’re driving in the fog and you spot a fellow driver , speed up up properly behind them and stick near by . If you ’re lucky , they ’ll be go to the same place you are and you could use their car as a point of mention while you tailgate them . While this may seem like a dependable theme , it ’s another completely wrong agency to drive in the fog .
People incline to drive far too close to one another in the fog because it gives them a optical point of reference point . But the driver you ’re following could hit theirbrakes , behind - end another car or veer the wrong way and you ’d be in trouble pretty quickly . We all make love that we should keep a dependable length while repulse , but this becomes even more significant when it ’s foggy .
Keeping a dependable space greatly reduces your chances of getting into an stroke because it give you even more prison term to respond . So how far should you stay behind another fomite ? Some experts say you should be at least three lane marker behind the auto in front of you . So keep your length , even if it means you feel like you ’re drive all by your lonesome .
1: Drive Like It’s a Clear Day
You bang those places on your morning time commute where you need to perplex out thetraffic , so you slam dance the accelerator and hope you ’ll make it ? Or the place where you only yield at the stop sign , instead of really stop , because no one is ever there ? Well , this type of driving could get you into some sticky situations when it ’s logy .
Why is erratic driving a bad idea on the fogginess ? First off , it ’s a regretful mind in oecumenical ( do we even really need to say it ? ) . But it ’s even more severe when no one on the route can see you until your fundamentally justly in front of their fomite . In normalweather weather , if you hop out in front of a fellow number one wood they might barf at you , show you a sure finger that reside close to the annulus digit or something of the sort . But if you skip over out in front of another fomite when it ’s foggy , they ’re probably go to just straight - up strike you with their car . Not that they need to , they just wo n’t have any other option .
So drive a little less unpredictably when it ’s foggy , and do n’t change lanes or attempt to pass other vehicles unless it ’s utterly necessary . Yeah , it sounds like boring drive , but it could redeem your life . And really , you should n’t be making moves on the route that encourage fellow number one wood to get mad at you anyways . Not that this writer has ever had a problem with that …
Lots More Information
Oddly enough , writing this article made me need to take in the fog – at least just a little . Even when you ’re in a gondola there ’s something mysterious and alluring about fog . For the most part , I believe I passably much knew how to drive in the haze – you know , because I ’m from the Northeast . But I candidly do n’t know whether or not I knew I should n’t have my gamey beams on . I ’m guessing I would have turn them on just to see if I could get a good visual on the route . Hopefully I would have noticed it did n’t help . As for using other motorcar as a breaker point of reference and stick to to close to them … yeah , I ’ve unquestionably done that . But no more !
