The "blind spot" doesn't exist when drivers exercise proper caution and responsible driving behavior.
Of course, expecting this of drivers is unrealistically utopian. Nevertheless, a "blind spot" is just another excuse for unsafe drivers.
Not in all places. It’s highly dependent on who’s proctoring the exam. Some tests are administered by police officers and those can be extremely strict. Other times you get seriously generous people, and that needs to be fixed. Someone I know was the last test of the day for a proctor and they drove over a curb on a turn and still passed. There were quite a few of us baffled by this.
Location also depends on what gets tested. Here in MA pretty much everything gets tested (turn types, merging, all forms of parking, etc) whereas some neighboring states don’t test parallel parking.
In the training program I was at, turning your head was repeatedly drilled-in in every driving/observation session. Making sure you mirrors were set up for optimal maximum coverage was also tested. There was no shortage of not-ending-well stories related to blind spots and not checking all sides repeatedly.
Driving tests vary state to state, though. And I agree with you that overall, driver education in the U.S. is woeful. I didn’t even have to parallel park for mine! Meanwhile Scandinavians have to prove they can recover from a slide to even get a license.
It's not the recommended practice in Romania, you're supposed to only rely on your side-mirrors and partly on your rear-view mirror without completely turning your head from the direction you're going (i.e. forward).
I'd say that this is the better solution for Bucharest's streets, where there's a much bigger chance of a pedestrian suddenly hopping in front of your car from between two parked cars on the side of the road, and as such it's better for the driver to almost always be attentive at what's in front of the car compared to what's on his/her sides.
I myself failed to do it once, on the test for turning right after crossing through a bicycle lane on my right. Every other maneuver, I checked over my shoulder. Felt bad because I used to commute via bicycle and it was...well, a little ironic that I messed up there of all places.
Agreed, though. The US driving test is pathetic.
In San Francisco, we only did a few turns and that was it. Not even any form of parking or three point turns.
Granted, I should have known better how to work the defrost function in the car.
You have to properly configure your side mirror in order to eliminate blind spots in most cars. With a side mirror configured like in the article, you can see everything beside you by sweeping your head just a few inches. This works extremely well, even in a car like a modern Camaro, which has little mirrors, slit windows, enormous b-pillars and a door sill that's higher than most peoples' shoulders.
Using your technique in a car like this will not work for anyone under 6'4 -- which is why so many people complain about the Camaro having visibility of a tank. They use the wrong, old fashion way of checking over your shoulder, rather than relying on properly configured mirrors, which is what I do and have no complaints about side visibility.
Also, a Camaro doesn't have B-Pillars the way a sedan or crossover does. I suppose they technically may be B-Pillars, but their rear (whether they are considered B or C) pillars are placed where a traditional C-Pillar goes in a 4-door vehicle.
Additionally, as I've mentioned elsewhere in the thread, checking over your shoulder should always be done in conjuction with checking your mirrors. Mirrors first, head check 2nd. Checking over your shoulder is a tried and true method of verifying that the space to the side and rear of your vehicle is clear. It is safe and effective.
Source: recently learned to drive in the UK and this is how the instructor taught me and is standard teaching here
Properly adjusting your mirrors doesn't mean that you never turn your head and look over your shoulder, but that you don't have to do it nearly as often.
That's good, because physically turning your head is an incredibly slow and risky operation when compared to a glance.
My personal rule of thumb is at least 1 car length for every 10mph I'm traveling at, so at 70mph >= 7 car lengths between me and the vehicle in front of me.
When traffic is both fast and heavy and with the potential to completely stop fast enough to engage abs, randomly, every few miles, anything you can do to shorten the quick look the better.
I have done this with my mirrors for a year or so and it’s been a big help. I still dart a glance when I feel safe enough, but there are times when it isn’t safe.
I am careful to give a blink on my signal before moving over and I try to change at a speed where if I’ve made a mistake, someone has time to dodge or honk.
Soon we will have trained an entire generation to 'drive-by-sensors' and not senses.
Each year, cars become more and more insulated and isolated from the reality of driving, which is incredibly dangerous. Technology is exascerbating(sp?) this problem. As you say, driving via sensors rather than senses.
People must understand _what_ the car is doing in order to really know how to drive safely and competently. Lower-tech cars force people into this.
I honestly believe that driver safety will approve more rapidly when that happens than ever before.
I trust silicon more than I trust meat.
The only time a peek would put you in the danger you describe is if you're tailgating or exceptionally slow at peeking.
The method in the article doesn't eliminate the blind spot, just puts it in a place that's easier to see.
I wish people had to get a license for a moped/motorcycle before a license for a car. It would make the roads a lot safer, I think.
With the mirrors adjusted properly, a shoulder check to change lanes becomes more of a "shoulder peek", meaning you don't have to turn your head so far. That means your peripheral vision will still provide a view in front of you - no "blind spot" in front of you either, meaning less chance of rear-ending a vehicle that has suddenly stopped.
Note that no matter where you turn your head, you have blind spots, caused by the roof pillars of the vehicle. You also can't see a portion of the ground around your vehicle; that's also blind spots.
Blind spots are real; they are not just excuses.
I'm gonna cover my interior with mirrors. It should be standard.
For one thing, if one day it stopped working for some reason, how would you know?
How well does it actually work when it works as designed?
The one bearing the responsibility is you, not that warning device.
If you look into your car mirrors, there is a blind spot in your vision. To see things in your blind spot, you need to move your head (since you can't move your mirror "eyes" every time you look). It's physics, not an excuse.
You might think it is safe to operate a multi-ton death machine at death speeds while closing your eyes or looking backwards or whatever you're doing except looking forward.
But it is not.
Learn to use mirrors, so your peripheral vision remains on the most important thing: where you are going.
"Turning your head" is an unsafe way to avoid having properly set mirrors.
With properly set mirrors, one does not need to "turn your head" and stop looking where your car is going.
Frankly, "Turning your head" is just another excuse for unsafe drivers. Eyes forward and on the road my friend!
A quick, over-the-shoulder check is not dangerous at all if a driver gives the car in front proper following distance. Too many people follow WAY too closely, especially at highway speeds.
Lastly, safe driving includes both actions. Step 1 is to check your mirrors (first rear, the side views). Step 2 is to quickly check over the shoulder. Step 3 is to make the maneuver.
As a motorcyclist, I have to be vastly more aware and defensive than cagers, because a little fender-bender for drivers means injury and even death for riders. It is hammered into you, at any motorcycle safety course (by Moto Police no less, who spend all day riding motorcycles, every day) that you should always check over your shoulder before making lane changes, turns, etc. This is always done after you have already checked your mirrors.
Use all your mirrors, and consider a shoulder check when it’s not safe to rely on your mirrors alone – for example, to check any blind spot when reversing, moving off from the kerb, joining a motorway or leaving a roundabout.
It is physically impossible to achieve all-round visibility using only the mirrors. The coverage angle of your mirrors and your effective field of view do not sum to 360 degrees. You will have at least two blind spots to the side, two A-pillar blind spots to the front and in many cars additional rear blind spots.
Try it for yourself - sit in the driver seat of your car in a safe open space, then ask someone to slowly walk around the car in an outward spiral. It should become readily apparent that at certain angles and distances, they disappear from view entirely unless you turn your head.
It's a much better idea to make sure your side and rear mirrors have complete coverage (i.e. no gaps) at the back, and actually turning your head to check the blind spot. Make a habit of doing this on every lane switch or turn, even if you think you're at the side of the road - there may be a bike lane or crosswalk you didn't notice, or someone might be simply be using a nonexistant lane of travel.
A good way to adjust your mirrors is to have someone walk by your car, and make sure you can see them in either your rear or side mirrors, and make a note of where you need to look for the blind spot.
Of course, even if you make sure the side and rear mirrors provide complete rear coverage, that doesn't always keep things safe - some cyclists and motorcyclists seem to like to jump out from behind a vehicle to lane-split and then get mad when they see you switching lanes in front of them...
I tried what the link suggests and had many instances where a motorcycle zipped by close to my car -- I didn't notice them until [what would have been] too late because I couldn't see the area next to my car easily that way. Now I have my mirrors adjusted so I can see motorcycles better, and I turn my head to check the remainder.
All humans are legally blind in their peripheral vision just a few degrees off-axis, so I make sure to focus where I claim to be checking.
I've measured the exact point at which an object leaves the field of vision of the side mirror, and I'm pretty sure it's slightly ahead of the driver side window, at which point glancing at the mirror will see them anyway. There's potentially a blind spot if a motorcyclist or bicyclist is on the far side of the lane next to you (not close to the car, but lined up with it), but as long as you change lanes slowly and don't just barrel across 4 lanes of traffic you'll see them long before you hit them.
This is a misleading summary. Humans can’t read text or distinguish fine textures in peripheral vision, but peripheral vision is very good at detecting moving objects (that’s arguably its main purpose).
I like to think of peripheral vision as “prey vision” – as in, “what would I need to know about my environment if I were a deer and a wolf might jump out at me from any side, and my main response should be to run away as soon as possible?”
It is ridiculous, because the side mirrors should give you a far away view, and then you look to the side to make sure that closeby there is nothing either. You only have to turn your head.
Now this method in the article would make you lean into mirror to get behind you, then you go back to normal position and look in the mirror, then you look to the side. Someone thinks they have found a hack to mirrors and driving, but they are just making it more dangerous especially by spreading this new interesting way.
The message still stands that a lot of drivers could have avoided hitting someone if they had used their mirrors and looked to the side. Accidents however often happen because of distraction causing a driver not to do what they normally would do.
But newer cars have such poor visibility that it takes too much effort to track movement such that it becomes a diversion. In my '93 Civic any kind of movement in my peripheral--direct or in the mirror--registered immediately; and that peripheral was wide and tall and clear. It was also easier to hear the road and traffic, which also helped. Newer cars make you feel like you're entombed and deaden the senses, compounding the problem.
I know part of my degraded situational awareness is getting older, but since we keep a '98 Civic for when I have to commute by car, I have an idea about which changes are more objective than subjective. The sight lines in the '98 Civic aren't as great as the '93, but still incomparable to the post-2010 cars I've leased or rented. I drive both our family car (new lease every 2-3 years) and the '98 in roughly equal proportion and pretty much all of my unforced traffic errs have been in newer cars. (The most egregious of which are not noticing pedestrians about to cross at a four-way intersection. Modern A pillars seem deviously sized and placed to perfectly obscure the far corners of an intersection. Though I suppose these are the errs I'm most likely to notice as the pedestrians are revealed the moment you begin to enter the intersection from a stop. Most other potential collisions probably go unnoticed.)
Thankfully this year we finally leased a car with lane departure warning. It hasn't actually prevented an unforced err, yet, but I'm glad it's there. (I know it's there because it'll beep if there's an adjacent car when I initiate signaling, even if I'm not moving into the lane. If a car sneaks up after signaling it only warns when you begin the lane change.)
The worst case is when they expect to turn right soon; I consistently have drivers half-overtake me and then start moving towards me, or turn right across a bike lane without looking.
When you are piloting a multi ton hunk of steel and flammables, you should take care to look around you and be aware of everything and everyone around you. This cannot be done with Mirrors, cameras and sensors alone. Use your eyes, and turn your head. Ive a really good friend that was crushed by a car that didn't see him in the "blind spot". He had just purchased his dream bicycle, was out putting in road work, and a car swerved and smashed him between a concrete embankment and the car. 3 years later, he walks with a cane, has a replacement hip, knee and sets off any metal detector to its maximum reading. Please look around for everyone.
The rule is, who cares if it's behind you. Do whatever the hell you want, because people behind you can see you and they will get out of your way. You can't easily see them, so don't concern yourself with them.
This does rely on ALL drivers being much more attentive than the average first-world driver.
If you want to be polite, or you're doing something really unexpected like stopping in the driving lane to let people off or reversing through traffic, you can just tap your horn a couple of times to say "Hey everyone, look at me", and everything will just flow around you.
It's amazing how well this works, even in the kind of insane free-flowing traffic most Westerners would utterly lose their minds in. I enjoy it much more because it makes driving way less boring, and you get to interact with all the other drivers too. I love too that when you come to a stop sign there is no need to stop - if all the other cars in your direction are already going you just go, and the drivers at right angles to you will compensate and watch and then their direction will go and flow sometime later. Red lights - no need to stop if there is no opposing traffic, etc. etc.
I don't have statistics, though in my almost 5 years of driving in these conditions I have never once seen a fender bender, and traffic really moves way better through intersections than in developed countries where people follow the stupid rules. (Highway driving is a different story in terms of crashes and deaths in developing countries)
I remember reading a great (and hilarious) quip about side mirror configuration:
"There is no point in seeing your own car through the side mirrors because it's the one thing on the road that you cannot possibly collide with."
/Acey
me: safety nerd, ex-blogger/founder, urbandriver.org (RIP)
/edit: phrasing/
It definitely varies from one vehicle to another based on things like rear window size and position though, so your advice for testing makes sense.
It doesn't help that it's often advised in the US is to lean your head towards the window/center of the car, and adjust your mirror so you can barely see the side of the car. It creates a blind spot big enough to hide a motorcycle.
The main rule is, if you can see the driver in his mirror, he can see you. You should always try to jump past the blind spots, and stay in the spots that they can see. If you have experience on the road, a lot of times you already know what a driver will do before he does it.
Cars are still OK, but trucks have plenty of blind spots, and they are pretty large. Right behind them, right in front of them (!). I'm always careful around them.
As far as motorcycles are concerned - I think they're a bad idea in general. I have a cycle endorsement, and when I ride, I am acutely aware that it's on me not to get hit, because many vehicles just realistically don't have the kind of visibility to reliably spot motorcycles. The law should probably be updated to reflect that ... because although most bikers are aware that that's how it is in reality, it's not codified anywhere.
I'm so positively gobsmacked that a statement this plainly ignorant came from a fellow HN participant, I don't even know where to begin.
Start with: bicycles are vehicles—always have been, in fact.
Pedestrians are not. Sidewalks are for pedestrians. (It's not a "sideride" after all. )
Even razor/bird scooters on sidewalks are typically forbidden—we have PSAs on the buses here in LA reminding e-scooter riders to ride in the road.
Bikes can participate in traffic, so they ought to be on the road. Bikes mix better with cars than bikes mix with pedx: anyone who walks in a city regularly would know this.
Wow. Just ... wow.
A vehicle following closely behind you does (or rather, should) not impede the side view mirrors.
Imagine you are centered in the leftmost lane. The driver behind you is tailgating and riding close to the dashed lane divider to your right. You'd like to see down that very lane divider, to see an oncoming motorcycle.
Your rear-view is going to be obstructed by the vehicle behind you. Particularly, the right side of the view, since the trailing vehicle is to the right of your center.
You side view is also going to be obstructed, as the trailing vehicle will obscure the LoS going straight back along the dashed line. I'm able to see the dashed line, but only for a small distance; often only 0.5 to 1 seconds of travel distance. This isn't really sufficient, safety wise.
A car following closely behind you impedes the rearview mirror. Just look out of it next time your stuck in stop and go traffic where lane splitting happens.
The idea is to have them work like a dual monitor setup - when part of an object moves off one screen, it's just then becoming visible on the second screen.
Most people set up their mirrors as if they wanted to read the same PDF on both screens simultaneously.
It's a shame that manufacturers are going the route of digital blind-spot indicators when mirrors are simpler and more fool proof.
[1] https://www.quirkparts.com/oem-parts/ford-2012-2014-ford-foc...
And while you're at it, also match the headlights with the ECE, such as to not blind oncoming traffic: https://web.archive.org/web/20170120092812/http://www.motive...
Horrible design.
But, yes. From a practical standpoint - it's utterly bizzare to me as well!
What boggles my mind is that some modern cars still have abnormally large ones. Cars with bad crash ratings get shat on but apparently designs with massive blindspots are totally OK.
Is it just that there's no institutional rating of this sort of thing? I can't imagine that insurers would leave that stone unturned. Or is it really that it makes less of a difference than I'd believe?
The ADAC gives school grades and explanations of the visibility for tested cars; most cars get shit-tier grades. E.g. the BMW X1 gets a straight 5.0 (fail) for rear view and 3,5 overall.
Many cars cannot be safely reversed alone without having a backup camera — which is often an extra feature.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/16/how-to-sa...
The latter has saved the neighbor's car door a number of times.
http://q985online.com/governor-signs-the-dutch-reach-law-tha...
It doesn't because, when you turn your head, your view behind you will be blocked by the B-pillar of the car. It's actually better to look in the side mirror to check for cyclist before opening the door.
It's actually better to teach cyclists to not ride within 6 feet of a parked vehicle.
In driving school, I was taught to adjust my side mirrors exactly the way described here: rear view mirror points to rear, side mirrors just barely show the side of the car. And still there are blind spots in every car I've driven, no matter how much "fine tuning" I do.
This is why blind spot warning systems are a must in any new car I consider buying.
I made some tests when I first started. I parked my car parallel to the street and observed when cars move from behind they move out of the rear view mirror and start appearing in side mirror before wholly disappear from rear view mirror.
With bicycles it is more difficult, not all parts of bicycle are easy to spot. If you just get a rear part or front wheel in the mirror you might miss it (it may be below your vision if you have SUV or have mirrors set bit high). For this reason I have my side mirrors set low, which also aides backing up when parking.
It is also important to look at your mirrors correctly. If you look for things moving faster than you, which is most of the time (for example when you are changing lanes or looking for cyclists when turning right) then you need to first look into the rear view mirror and then to side mirror, in that order.
I taught myself to scan all mirrors constantly when driving to have a map of all cars and their relative positions and velocities around me. It is tiring at the beginning but it means I am rarely surprised by normally moving cars (ie. not doing any stupid manouvers). It is very helpful when you need to suddenly swerve and you can frequently anticipate problems other drivers have and accommodate.
I've more than once been signaling a merge and had the car two lanes over attempt the opposite merge right into the space I'm signaling into, often when I'm already partially in it, without signaling. I'm very wary of merging next to someone now for that reason.
Not sure whether it is better to signal before or after looking, but that was what my partner's driving instructor taught.
The solution is panoramatic rear view mirror (you can see thru the rear plus backseat side windows) and side mirrors with curved section that pretty much eliminate the blind spot
http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/general-motors-technology/gm-...
Hope it catches on. Can't wait till it's on more makes/models.
I assume that this will add some friction to adoption of similar video mirrors by other automakers.
etc. etc. etc.
The excuses for irresponsible dangerous driving behavior are endless.
I yelled at someone for not stopping for a mother and stroller in a crosswalk. The driver said she didn't see them. I said that meant they were going too fast. They said no, they weren't, they just couldn't see them. It was impossible to get through to this person that if you didn't see someone in the crosswalk then they were going too fast and not paying enough attention.
Simply amazing. I try not to think about it too hard or I'll never leave the house.
The approach of the original post, blind spots for motorcycles and bicycles aside, is at least taking responsibility on the part of the driver to change behavior and drive safely. Every "accident" has a cause, somewhere down the line.
Although I guess all you would need to do to see your own car in the mirror would be to lean to the side a bit... so maybe not a big deal.
As noted, however, motorcycles can draw up unseen. But more often, when it fails, it's a car two lanes over to my rear that changes lanes towards me at the same time I do. it can go completely unseen. So I always do a head check, time permitting.
I also have had more surprise cars coming up next to me than motorcycles, because they're so rare and they don't come ut in the winter.
So I turn my head when merging, to clear that area.
(Perhaps I have my side mirror pointing further "back" than the article?)
I disagree with that though, for two reasons:
1. You don't eliminate the blind spot, only shrink it. Depending on your car, the FoV of the mirrors, and the size of the other vehicle, you might still have a large enough blind spot so that your peripheral vision doesn't have it once it leaves the side mirror.
2. It risks creating an even more dangerous blind spot behind you (the one between the mirror views). Maybe not large enough for a car, but definitely for a motorcycle. This one is much harder to catch even if you turn your head.
I think every driver should turn their head, always.
https://doi.org/10.4271/950601
The Geometry of Automotive Rearview Mirrors - Why Blind Zones Exist and Strategies to Overcome Them
https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/are-blind-spots-...
[1] 49 CFR 571.111 Rear visibility
S5.2 Outside rearview mirror - driver's side.
S5.2.1 Field of view. Each passenger car shall have an outside mirror of unit magnification [2].
[2] 'Unit magnification' mirror means a plane or flat mirror with a reflective surface through which the angular height and width of the image of an object is equal to the angular height and width of the object when viewed directly at the same distance except for flaws that do not exceed normal manufacturing tolerances.
If this is done correctly, as a vehicle is coming up on, say, the left of you, as it is leaving your rear view mirror, it's entering the side view mirror. It should actually be in BOTH mirrors simultaneously. There's no blind spot.
It had a better field of view than the mirror, and made it very easy to see if there's a bike or pedestrian beside you. Since it was just a rental, out of habit I still turned my head to look, but it seemed like a useful. I think it even flashed and beeped a warning if there was someone in the blind spot, but that may have only worked for cars.
I think these systems should be required for trucks and other large vehicles that have a large blind spot.
They don't teach it in Wisconsin. Nor do they teach how to use blinkers, or to deal with multiple people coming up to a stop sign controlled intersection.
But I digress.
The instructions in this post are great and I'm going to follow them the next time I get in my car. Still, I hope Toyota and other manufacturers start making pedestrian detection systems and blind spot information systems standard in all vehicles soon.
As mentioned in other comments, what you seen in side mirrors are for situational awareness. When performing a manoeuvre, turn your head around to get the best view.
On a side note I follow the practice described in the article and found it quite useful.
2. Change lanes slowly so if I didn't notice someone, he can dodge or horn me.
Those blind spot indicator ligts surely help on newer cars, but I don't have them. I know that it is possible to buy those too.
2. Check your mirrors routinely (though not constantly, that can be distracting in itself). Stuff doesn't just sneak up on you out of nowhere, unless you aren't paying attention. Cars can't materialize in your blind spot, they have to drive there, and if you're paying attention you'll see them, you'll know where they are even when you can't see them in your mirrors directly. Don't just use your mirrors as a final check as you are changing lanes or making a turn, use them to maintain situational awareness around you.
3. Check your blindspot by turning your head and looking at it with your eyes before you make a lane change or turn. This is your last minute double check that your situational awareness map of what's around you is accurate. If you've been paying attention then this check will almost always be what you expect, but it's still valuable to double check (the belt and suspenders strategy).
4. (actually number zero) STOP FOLLOWING SO CLOSELY. Drive defensively, leave a decent gap ahead of you, don't drive for extended periods of time side by side with other vehicles (especially much bigger ones). This sets you up for success instead of setting you up for failure, it means you have a buffer on your reaction time. If you have an extra second or two of reaction time in addition to your emergency braking distance ahead of you then even if the car ahead of you comes to a dead stop right when you have your head turned for a split second to check your blind spot then you will still be able to come to a stop without hitting them when you bring your head back and react to what's going on, for example. Stack the odds in your favor, not against them. And don't let yourself be ruled by the dumb primitive impulses that tell you driving a car is always a race and you need to "win" and be aggressive and dominate others, etc, it's not any of those things, relax, concentrate on getting where you need to be safely.
P.S. Not checking your blind spots by turning your head is illegal in most states.
Also, the positioning is difficult to get used to, since you kinda have to trust it blindly (you can't get a good idea for where it's positioned based on seeing the side of your car) and then also it's just awful positioning for parking. Not to mention, anyone else using or sharing your car will complain to no end about the weird mirror positions.
No shoulder check => gross negligence => revoke license
