This morning the traffic was very affected by the fog. A driver could have been warned because it had been foggy all weekend. Of course there were hundreds of kilometers of traffic jams as a result. After all, as soon as the view is restricted by fog, the rush hour lanes remain closed.
Fog is one of the natural phenomena that greatly impedes driving. You cannot change much about it. It is just like black ice. The only thing you can do is adjust your speed. If it is dark and there is no street lighting along the road, it is useful to use high beam. If the vehicle is driven at a higher speed, additional extra lights are also of great use. But in case of fog you have nothing with the normal lighting. The extra spotlights are also completely worthless in the event of fog. This is because the fog is actually a form of low-hanging clouds. The standard light cone bumps into this. That is why special fog lamps have been developed. These are not spotlights but so-called floodlights. The English call the foglights "nearlights". The bright lights were, logically, called "farlights". Older cars that did not yet have an alternating current dynamo usually had one farlight and one nearlight mounted. To assist when it was needed. Naturally, there was a greater need for additional lighting in the case of fog in England than with us. And because people have had a legal maximum speed there for years, there was less need for the bright lights. That is why there are now more old original fog lamps for sale than spotlights. But one can purchase beautiful replicas today.
Photo and text Jacques van den Bergh