Fog…. it is an interesting weather phenomena!
Fortunately for me driving to work is a very short affair.
This morning with a slight chill to the air I jumped into my car for the five minute drive to work. It was not long until I came over the brow of the expressway when I hit the fog.
There are two ways to spot fog over here in the UAE:
- The first being the obvious lack of visibility
- Secondly is the large volume of flashing orange lights everywhere.
Driving along with your hazard lights in fog apparently generates some magical force field that protects you and your occupants of all evils and more importantly from someone crashing into you. I’m sure Ob1 Kenobi, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader amongst others would applaud this safety feature, but quite frankly it makes driving in fog more dangerous and secondly it’s bloody irritating.
Hazard lights are not fog lights – they are only meant to be used when you are stopped. Maybe there is a hint in the name, as the name suggests – Fog Lights.
Diving in fog and seeing hazard lights tend to make you slam on your brakes or swerve out of the way in case someone has broken down in the road. When everyone has them flashing it becomes a mass of orange distracting your attention from the real hazard. Never mind the fact that the indicators are nonexistent when the hazards are flashing so you cannot see people change lanes.
Saying that most people in the UAE don’t even know what indicators are for – but that is for another story!
