fog lights
04-06-2014, 03:26 PM
#3
Technical Know-It-All
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Sterling, VA
Posts: 2,123
Car Info: '02 WRX + '15 WRX
Even if they were projectors you can't use em. HIDs make foglights completely useless, and in the end you only HARM your own night vision along with blinding everyone else on the road. Foglights are not there to put more light on the road for you. Their sole purpose is to illuminate the lane markers on either side of the car to help you stay in your lane in bad weather.
In poor conditions (fog and snow) HIDs simply put out too much light. Ever driving in thick fog with your brights on? Same result. All that light will just reflect and refract off the particles in the air and all you will see is a wall of white/purple/blue/green. It will just reflect back into your own eyes.
In clear conditions, more foreground light is not a good thing, it's a bad thing. Some foreground light is necessary so you can use your peripheral vision to see where you are relative to the road edges, the lane markings and that pothole 10 feet in front of your left wheels. But foreground light is far less safety-critical than light cast well down the road into the distance, because at any significant speed (much above 30 mph), what's in the foreground is too close for you to do much about. If you increase the foreground light, your pupils react to the bright, wide pool of light by constricting, which in turn substantially reduces your distance vision—especially since there's no increase in down-the-road distance light to go along with the increased foreground light. It's insidious, because high levels of foreground light give the illusion, the subjective impression, of comfort and security and "good lighting".
In poor conditions (fog and snow) HIDs simply put out too much light. Ever driving in thick fog with your brights on? Same result. All that light will just reflect and refract off the particles in the air and all you will see is a wall of white/purple/blue/green. It will just reflect back into your own eyes.
In clear conditions, more foreground light is not a good thing, it's a bad thing. Some foreground light is necessary so you can use your peripheral vision to see where you are relative to the road edges, the lane markings and that pothole 10 feet in front of your left wheels. But foreground light is far less safety-critical than light cast well down the road into the distance, because at any significant speed (much above 30 mph), what's in the foreground is too close for you to do much about. If you increase the foreground light, your pupils react to the bright, wide pool of light by constricting, which in turn substantially reduces your distance vision—especially since there's no increase in down-the-road distance light to go along with the increased foreground light. It's insidious, because high levels of foreground light give the illusion, the subjective impression, of comfort and security and "good lighting".
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