What a weird question. You adjust the mirrors so that, as far as possible, a vehicle is never out of view: as it moves out of view of your rear-view mirror it is visible in the wing mirror, and vice versa, and, ideally, once it is out of view of your wing mirror it is either visible in your peripheral vision, or so far off to one side that it’s no longer very relevant. (Bikes or very short cars can still hide in a blind spot to the side of your car, which is why you glance over your shoulder before changing lanes, of course.)
In other words, what Gary T said. I assumed everyone knows this, but apparently not! It’s rather frightening to think that there are lots of people driving round with a massive blind spot either side of their car…
Note that everyone here is arguing between “sliver of car” and “completely wide of car” options. Option one in the poll (to show THE SAME as the rear view mirror) is being chosen by precisely no-one. Because it’s insane. But apparently at least one doofus of Irruncible’s acquaintance thinks just that?
There are vehicles (e.g. big trucks) that don’t have rear-view mirrors enabling one to see behind them. In such a situation, I could see a point to being able to see behind you in the side mirror.
There is no real difference between ‘exactly the same as rear view mirror’ and ‘sliver of car in the mirror’. In both cases you are looking directly behind you, not at your blind spot.
Your blind spot is in the lane to either side of you, and slightly behind your peripheral vision. If the blind spot is occupied and you try to change lanes into it, the damage will certainly be located on that ‘sliver’, but you could have avoided it by ignoring the sliver and seeing the other car driving lawfully in your blind spot.
We don’t drive down the road with our eyes glued to our front bumper under the assumption that this is the most likely area of impact.
Edited to add: This question is only for cars, not for big trucks and other vehicles without a rearview. Obviously those are different, though for the life of me I can’t imagine why there isn’t more demand for rearview cameras now that they’re so cheap.
Though I will admit that if traveling backward, say backing out of a driveway, then ‘sliver of car’ is exactly what you want.
In my wife’s case I think she’s more concerned about backing out of the driveway without hitting the mailbox. If she accepts that she has to take her eyes off the road to check her blind spot when she wants to change lanes, then she never has to readjust her mirror. She doesn’t change lanes often because she travels on small or secondary streets.
But for the life of me, I cannot convince her that when you get on a 10-lane interstate in heavy traffic, we and our two small children are much safer if the mirrors are at that “weird” angle that covers the blind spot. She just thinks “hey, how convenient to have all these extra rear views.”
In that case, I think your OP is a little poorly worded. My evidence being, all these people coming into this thread saying they go by “sliver of car”, and none of them choosing option one in the poll.
If I squint sideways I can see your point but, honestly, my first thought for option one was that it was intended to mean “so that your side mirrors show exactly the same view as your centre mirror”, which would be crazy.
Yeah, the poll choices are not well phrased. To me the poll should be you either see the side of your car, in which you’re more seeing cars well behind you and to the side, or “no sliver of car/wide,” in which you only see cars in the lane over up to when they’re a half car length behind the front of your car. In other words, with the mirrors set wide, by the time they leave the field of vision of the mirror as they’re passing, they have entered your direct field of vision out the passenger side windows. So the option: “So as to view objects behind me but slightly to the side,” I’d quibble with “slightly to the side.” You begin to see the car in the side view mirror when it becomes dangerous to merge, i.e., when he’s pretty much right up on your side, not just “slightly” so. If I see any part of a vehicle in any of my side view mirrors, it means I cannot change lanes. So, you’ll start seeing his reflection when he’s almost right on your back bumper, maybe a half car length back or so, one lane over. And he’ll remain there until he’s almost directly to the side of you. If his vehicle is longer than yours, you see him directly before the rear of his vehicle exits the view of your sideview mirror.
I like to be able to see a sliver of my car, but know it’s wrong. So I adjust them so that I see more to the side. On my current car (a Pathfinder) even if I adjust them all the way ‘out’ to see next to me, there is a small window where I can’t see a passing car in any of my mirrors. I’m a tall guy and I think this has to do with having my seat back as far as it will go.
My wife just can’t get comfortable with it. She keeps pulling them in so she can see her own door handles.
I, too, wanted another option in the poll. I use my car’s side view mirros to view objects to the side of me. I guess that by default, the must be looking somewhat backwards, too, but I don’t use them to see behind me.
I don’t think it’s “wrong” per se, but not the most informative use of the side view mirrors in terms of extracting the maximum information from all three of your mirrors in conjunction. I really do think some people get spatially confused when they don’t have the reference point of their car in the mirror image so, for those people, I think it’s okay to set mirrors that way, as long as they perform a direct visual check. Even though I have my mirrors set wide, I do a quick sideward glance to see if I catch anything in my periphery, but I don’t do a standard over-the-shoulder type of maneuver.
It’s ingrained in me to do the over-the-shoulder, or at least look to the side before changing lanes. So that’s part of it I’m sure. I won’t pull back in after passing untill I see the front of the vehical in my center rear. So the right check is used less often. Depending on how many lanes there are.
While I’m a big fan of this approach, occasionally someone goes fast enough to overtake me on the highway, and if they do, I damned sure want to see them coming.
Anyhow: I don’t need to see the sides of my car in the side mirrors. I know what they look like already.
My desired settings for the side mirrors is to see as much of the adjacent lane as possible, from the middle of my car on back. Seeing no cars in either my side mirror or my peripheral vision should mean it’s safe to change lanes.
I probably set my side views a tad too narrow (I also like a sliver of car for frame of reference), but I always check over my shoulder and I think it’s just as important to be keenly aware of what’s going on with traffic around me and avoid surprises.
There will always be a blind spot. A shoulder check is not optional when changing lanes, and therefore there is no point in trying to set the mirrors to do something they cannot do.
you might also want to buy those $5 stick on convex mirrors (look like dome shaped shop lifting mirrors) and place them in the upper inner corner of the mirror (which shows the sky - so no loss).
I added these to my car and Harley - it shows a lot more than the standard mirror - and you still have the original mirror to see things in real size. In two weeks you will get the hang of glancing at both.
And if you don’t like them, just peel them off…and give them to some teen boy - they are great to place on top of shoes for upskirts
Get the high quality ones - the cheap ones do not focus on distant objects. Try it out in the store first.
No I’m not, what I see in the side mirrors is a lot wider than what I see in the rearview mirror and complements it. Adjusting height and angle is specifically done in order to minimize the blind spot by making the height correct and the total angle as wide and complete as possible.
