Anyone ever cited for using fog lights?

[John_H]

I found this little tidbit from the Oregon Driver's manual interesting:

Fog Lights
A vehicle may be equipped with two fog lights. The lights may be white
or amber. The beam must strike the road not more than 75 feet ahead of
the vehicle on which it is mounted. These lights are illegal to have in
operation at times when you are required to dim your headlights.

[emphasis added]

So if you're less than 350 feet behind another vehicle in Oregon, use of fog lights is prohibited or at least that's how I read the manual.

Some "driving lights" are sincerely annoying particularly on the very high mounted trucks.

[Big Panda]

Of course I don't live in Oregon, but I use mine all the time. Not sure, why, just like to know that I have all my lights on when it's dark or near dark.

[Kermit]

Ah boy. This is a subject that I've seen debated very passionately over the last few years. I hate the SUV/Trucks that have them as a lot of them seem exceptionally blinding bright. I normally don't drive with them on in my car EXCEPT around dusk/dawn when a lot of the other cars are driving around with no lights I turn my parks/fogs on.

[SunDiego]

Pretty annoying when high up vehicles use them 24/7

[AlanPerry]

Originally Posted by John_H

So if you're less than 350 feet behind another vehicle in Oregon, use of fog lights is prohibited or at least that's how I read the manual.

You are misreading the law.

The law says:

Except when in the act of overtaking or passing, a driver of a vehicle following another vehicle within 350 feet to the rear must use the low beams of the vehicle headlight system.

Fog lights are not parts of the "vehicle headlight system". A fog light is a "beam ... so directed that no part of the high intensity portion of the beam will strike the level of the roadway on which the vehicle stands at a distance of more than 75 feet from the vehicle", so it is not a headlight.

Ref - Oregon vehicle code 811.515 6-8

alan

[Suze]

Never been nabbed on that one, John... and I use mine when it's raining, foggy, dark, cloudy of if I feel the need to draw attention to myself.

I think the smarts fogs are pretty un-annoying when compared...

[John_H]

Thanks, AlanPerry, for telling me I can't read (or perhaps it was "interpret").

Please look again at the emphasized part of the quotation in the first post of this thread. My interpretation of the Oregon Driver's Manual: if you can't use high-beams legally, you cannot use fog lights. Nowhere in the quote was the "vehicle headlight system" mentioned but instead "when you are required to dim your headlights."

[sheureka]

Originally Posted by John_H

I found this little tidbit from the Oregon Driver's manual interesting:

[emphasis added]

So if you're less than 350 feet behind another vehicle in Oregon, use of fog lights is prohibited or at least that's how I read the manual.

Some "driving lights" are sincerely annoying particularly on the very high mounted trucks.

That's really weird - I used to live on the coast in far northern California (almost Oregon) and the fog there was often so bad there was no way you'd know you were 350 feet behind another vehicle. Sometimes you couldn't tell if you were 15 feet behind another vehicle. - sheureka

[John_H]

Originally Posted by AlanPerry

You are misreading the law.

The law says:


Fog lights are not parts of the "vehicle headlight system". A fog light is a "beam ... so directed that no part of the high intensity portion of the beam will strike the level of the roadway on which the vehicle stands at a distance of more than 75 feet from the vehicle", so it is not a headlight.

Ref - Oregon vehicle code 811.515 6-8

alan

Perhaps it's the Oregon Driver's Manual authors who communicated the law incorrectly. The foglamps should be characterized by 811.515(8)(a)(A) OR by 811.515(8)(a)(B) while the driver's manual seems to have interpreted an AND in its place.

[The Rigger]

Originally Posted by Big Panda

Of course I don't live in Oregon, but I use mine all the time. Not sure, why, just like to know that I have all my lights on when it's dark or near dark.

How incredibly annoying.