Fine-tune mirrors to eliminate blind spots
How many drivers pay attention to the pixel board signs on our controlled-access highways?
Maybe the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has some market research data on this.
Based on anecdotal evidence – what I see out there every day – I have to assume the number is approximately zero.
The signs could read: Collectors moving well beyond next transfer; express lanes have been torn up so we can replace them with new luxury condos.
Would anybody move to the collectors? Not that I ever see.
When not giving largely ignored traffic advice, these signs issue pithy little driving tips, most of which are harmless enough:
Leave plenty of space to the car ahead.
Trucks need extra room.
Motherhood and apple pie are good.
But a few weeks ago, they were displaying a driving tip that was downright dangerous: Check blind spot before changing lanes.
Is there still someone in authority who believes there is a blind spot?
And that driving along the 401 with your head swivelled around looking over your shoulder for a second or so is a safe way to go?
No wonder we run into each other all the time.
The fact is, for almost any passenger vehicle, there is no blind spot, other than the ignorance that resides in the brain of its driver.
As the old expression goes, "There is none so blind as he who will not see."
All it takes is for you to adjust your mirrors properly.
I have written about this for decades, even before there was a Wheels section, but it seems it hasn't sunk in.
The vast majority of drivers don't have a clue.
Volvo recently introduced the Blind Spot Information System. A camera in each mirror housing on the doors keeps an eye on the adjacent lane. If it detects something in that lane, it switches on a light in the inside mirror housing.
This is a million-dollar solution to a $10 problem.
You already have the mirrors – all you have to do is adjust them. Here's how to do it.
Start with the rear-view mirror. Adjust it to get the best possible view out the back window.
Next, roll down the driver's side window, stick your head halfway out and adjust the left mirror so you can just see the side of your car.
For the right mirror, lean over almost completely into the passenger's seat. Adjust the mirror so you can just see the right side of your car. (Obviously, you should do all this while parked.)
Depending on your height, seating position and length of your car, you might have to do some fine-tuning.
Here's how to check: Have a friend walk behind your car, starting from beside it on the right, in the middle of what would be the adjacent lane, where you can see them in your peripheral vision.
As they walk behind the car, their image should leave the field of view of the right side-view mirror as it enters that of the rear-view mirror.
As they keep walking, their reflection should migrate from the rear-view mirror to the left side-view mirror. As it leaves that field of view, they should be back in your peripheral vision.
Presto, no blind spot!
Bill Adam, one of the best racing drivers this country ever produced, told me that he used to tell students to think of the three mirrors as one mirror, broken into three.
Another way to think of it: if you're seeing the same object in two (or more) mirrors, that's redundant information.
What's more, you will not see some objects at all. Where's the logic in that?
The approach above may take getting used to. But I've had drivers tell me this is the best tip they have had in 40 years of driving.
Our own Boy Editor says he doesn't use this technique because it doesn't work for motorcycles.
I imagine there are a few things you do differently on a motorcycle. You wouldn't catch me alive on one of those widow-makers.
But give this mirror tip a bit of thought and a proper try. It really will make your driving safer.
Now if those pixel boards just told people to stay in the rightmost lane except when passing. Nah, they'd never pay attention to that message, either.
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