Not long after I first started driving, I nearly ‘merged’ into several different vehicles with my subcompact. This scared me enough to look into a different mirror that would have less blind spots. I first got a Lanechanger, which was a parabolic mirror that stuck to the top of your existing rearview mirror with doublesided tape. This came loose in the summer heat and had some wiggle issues, so I eventually got the Lanechanger II, which had the regular and parabolic mirror all-in-one. I’ve had one in every car I had since then.
It’s not perfect. It has he same issue every parabolic mirror has - things are small and distant. Not a problem for me, since it’s just to see if I’m going to hit something when I’m changing lanes, and the regular mirror is there for a more conventional view if needed. Also, the little switch that is supposed to toggle between day/night driving never worked for shit. I just physically move the mirror to adjust for day/night.
You always have to do your part of course, but I find it a helpful tool.
ug I hate this “method” of adjusting mirrors to remove the blind spot, your side mirrors arent there to look at your blind spot, they are there to show you what is coming up in the lane next to you that you plan on changing into. the fatal flaw with this trick is that when you have an suv or other even halfway large vehicle close behind you the rear view no longer shows you this critical info.
let me know the next time a bike or fast car almost tbones you for lane changing in front of them. I know a guy who uses this trick and swears by it, riding with him is scary as hell.
of you want to get rid of your blind spot you need some bubble mirrors or you need to add more mirrors.
(also 1/3rd of your mirror is car? what the hell kind of crack is that? you should just be able to see the edge of your car in your side mirrors.)
shucks carries a pair for $4 or so that are adjustable as well, they rock.
Not true, with normal mirrors you will always have a blind spot on cars nearly alongside you. As another poster pointed out, the only safge way to check is by looking over your shoulder. This is especially important when driving on a road with more than 3 lanes. I’ve had to cancel a lane change before when I a car 2 lanes across and just behind me (and thus miles out of the field of view of any side mirror) went for the middle lane at the same time as me. This is also why you should change lanes gradually, and not swerve from one to another.
Your rearview mirror should show you what’s following in your lane as well as the adjacent lanes in the middle to far distance while your side mirrors should show what’s in the adjacent lanes in the near distance. Basically when set correctly a car passing you in an adjacent lane should smoothly transition from your rearview mirror to your side mirrors and you should therefore have no blind spots at all. The way you describe it you are ending up with huge blind spots but in different places than normal. This means you aren’t doing it properly (or you have a car that doesn’t allow it such as a van with blanked out rear-side windows.)
Edit: The lane you’re changing into IS the blind spot you’re trying to fix, I get the impression you’re referring to another blind spot.
This is a sure fire way to fail a driving test now days. When I attended the Bob Bondurant High Performance driving school, we learned out to change lanes using only the two outside mirrors. The rear and most of the side windows of the car were blacked out, you could not see through them. It was tough at first but once you get the hang of it, it was amazingly easy.
The Missouri driving information booklet specifies looking over your shoulder before changing lanes. (Can’t remember if it’s just the right shoulder or both.)
FWIW, here are the money quotes from the Missouri Department of Revenue Driver Guide 2009 edition:
Before you pass a vehicle in front
of you, make sure you are in a safe
passing zone. On four-lane
highways, check the left lane for
traffic by using your left and inside
rearview mirrors and briefly looking
over your left shoulder. Looking
over your left shoulder is important
because it allows you to check for
“blind spots.”
and…
Give plenty of room to the vehicle you just passed. Do not turn back into the
right lane until you see the passed vehicle in your rearview mirror. Remember to
look over your right shoulder to check your blind spot, and be sure to signal.
Can you see (in the mirror) the entire width of the lane next to you as far forward as your car’s B-pillar?
The reason I ask is that there have been a few occasions when I’ve been in the leftmost portion of the passing lane on my motorcycle and almost gotten smucked by a driver in the right lane who didn’t look over his shoulder. What happens is he checks his mirror, sees that there is nothing in the rightmost portion of the passing lane, assumes all is clear, and starts to come over. I can see them do this because they move their head so as to get a clearer view into the mirror; my motorcycle and I are far enough forward (perhaps even with their rear fender or rear passenger door) that I don’t show up in their mirror.
My policy is to not match pace and linger in anyone’s blind spot, for exactly this reason; nontheless, these events have happened to me as I was in the process of passing them. Whenever passing someone I keep a thumb ready on the horn button, fingers ready on the brake lever, and hand ready to snap the throttle open or closed as required when the driver starts coming over into my lane.
FWIW, if someone is driving so close to the car in front of them that they can’t afford a half-second glance over their shoulder, then they are driving way too close and need to give themselves more space.
I’m only passing along what I learned back in 1993. The basic premise is when you are looking backward at 60 mph your vehicle will travel the length of a football field in just a few seconds. Also, as someone that has driven work and hi cube vans that have no rearward vision except for mirrors, it is not all that hard to be aware of the vehicle without you without looking backwards. I very rarely look over my shoulder and have had zero problems with other traffic.
I am not having any luck finding you a picture on Google but the side mirrors of the BMW are exactly what you are asking for (or at least were a few years ago. I know my dad’s 90’s 328 had them from factory). The mirror is flat and shows an undistorted image. Somewhere about 4/5 of the way to the outside edge, it has a visible line and from then on it curves and shows a “compressed” view of a very wide angle. It took me a bit to get used to but it does work great.
IIRC, about 20 years ago, JC Whitney had just what you described. It was about 12-19 inches, MOL, and curved. I didn’t see a big enough need to pony up the cash then, and don’t give a crap now, about getting one.
Thank-you, I’ll keep my eyes open for BMWs in the future.
The “visible line” makes it sound like there are two mirrors right next to each other. I wonder, again, if it’s difficult to make mirrors that go from flat to curved. There are lots of curved mirrors, and lots of flat mirrors, but I never see mirrors that transition.