Driving

I'm back at driver's ed since I have some time and need to get my French license wrapped up, and learning all the correct answers made me wonder a few things.

Are there that many brand new cars sold in France without ABS?
And how many cars have fog lights?
Has anyone ever really overheated their brakes?
Why do the only acceptable situations for using your horn involve warning pedestrians of some danger?

When I went to driver's ed back in California the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, we were told to ignore people who tried to teach us to pump the brakes, since "all" cars had ABS and pumping the brakes was old advice. It's the contrary in France. All the advice is about how to not lock your wheels, and then a reminder that if you should ever have the chance to drive a car with ABS, the distance it takes to break is not reduced (so don't expect some magic breaking power). I want to say that cars in the US are now all required to have ABS, but maybe not? What about in France?

Then there are tons of questions about when you're allowed to use your fog lights. Don't forget that the rules are different for the front fog lights and the rear ones. I'm left scratching my head, "Have I ever driven a car that had rear fog lights? Even front ones for that matter?" Maybe there more pervasive than I realize, and I just didn't know the symbol and so ignored the button.

Since everyone has a manual transmission in France, there are also questions about what gear you should be in, and how it's absolutely necessary to downshift when descending a steep hill so you don't overheat your brakes. I understand the idea of downshifting, but seriously, has anyone ever really overheated their brakes? A part from movies where people crash at the bottom of a hill because they couldn't break. With an automatic you keep your foot on the break while descending (unless you choose D1 or D2), and I've never witnessed a problem.

And lastly, you're pretty much told you can't/shouldn't honk except in a situation of imminent danger (which never happens if you believe the test prep materials). The only acceptable situations for honking are to alert a pedestrian to an approaching car or a danger they haven't seen. Usually this involves a picture of an intersection with a car blocking your visibility of a cross walk and the front wheels of a stroller just poking out from behind the car. You're supposed to "prepare to honk" in case the mother and child start crossing the street not realizing that you or another car is about to run them over. They even tell you that you're not allowed to honk in a town/city (with the caveat about imminent danger) and that flashing your lights is a much better warning. I think people follow that rule as much as they follow the rule to not park on the sidewalk or on the opposite side of the street.

I feel like "priorité à droit" is losing it's power as well. I've seen a number of cars on streets perpendicular to my own who technically should have the right of way (as they are on the right of the approaching cars), but they have to wait for the cars to pass because no one slows down. Will there one day be stop or yield signs on all those perpendicular streets? If you ask anyone over about 40, they'll tell you that when they got their license there weren't any round-abouts in France (something that still confuses grannies), so it's clear that things have changed in the past. Perhaps "priorité à droit" will fade away as the rules of the road are slowly standardized across Europe? I can only hope.