NOW that the nights have drawn in, many of us find travelling home in the dark a somewhat dismal experience.

However, most of us realise that it is only just dark. Dark is something that happens after daylight, when the sun goes down. Dark is when streetlamps come on and the roads are awash with the glow of car headlights. Dark is a natural thing and happens all over the world, not just in Swindon.

Rather strangely though it seem that many drivers in Swindon have confused 'dark' with 'foggy'. Two entirely different types of natural phenomena.

On the way home from Old Town to West Swindon on Wednesday evening I counted no less than 15 cars who passed me with totally unnecessary, glaring low level fog lights on.

As soon as I am able to focus my eyes again, I am left baffled by this behaviour. Have these people recently driven through a dense fog patch that the majority of us are unaware of?

Are their own normal headlights unable to pierce the fearsome darkness of our town centre?

Or do they think that using these glaring fogs, combined with their normal headlights, make their rather boring, mundane saloon cars look cool? I bet all my money it is the latter (since rarely are the rear fogs also in use).

If you are one of these people, for goodness sake have some consideration for other road users.

I can tell you now, we aren't impressed in the slightest by your lights. We don't think they're cool.

We don't suddenly gasp in awe when you approach, thinking it's Colin McRae on a test run up Kingshill.

We find them both aggravatingly blinding and dangerous and it's not just personal opinion.

For the information of these ignorant road users, the use of fog lights outside of appropriate conditions (ie foggy) is a criminal offence and punishable by the courts.

HANNAH CLARK

Ravenglass Road

Westlea, Swindon