Evan and Adam vehemently disagreed with my opinion on driving without looking over your shoulder to change lanes. I will use this entry to refute their argument and possibly educate anyone else who doesn’t know how to drive properly. The first thing to do when driving is to set your seat so that you aren’t too far or too close to the wheel. You also don’t want to be slumped to low in the seat or too high so your head is touching the roof. Once you are comfortably seated, the side view mirrors should be adjusted so that in your normal sitting position you can just see the body of your car in the inner part of the mirrors. Meaning you can see everything to the side of the body of your car in the mirrors. Now, their argument was that there are blind spots and this is why you have to look over your shoulder. This is where the lean comes in. Whenever you are switching lanes, you lean forward and view your blind spot, which in turn, isn’t a blind spot anymore. I would be completely comfortable driving without a rear view as long as I had my side views. I still stand by my original statement and that only bad drivers need to look over their shoulders because there are virtually no blind spots with coupes and sedans. One must learn the lean.
I completely agree Tom, but I will go a step further. I would say 95% of the people in this country have their side mirrors setup incorrectly (maybe more). I would argue that you should not see any part of your car in the side mirror. It soles purpose is to see what is next to you not what is behind you…hence the term side mirror. Most people use them to see what is behind which is incorrect. Driving a huge car like myself I can assure you that I do not turn my damn head around when switching lanes, I only need to look in my mirrors which are setup to cover everything I cannot see in my rear view or in my peripheral. I can also assure you I have never almost hit anyone changing lanes which I can tell you is the not the case for one of the people arguing with you. If they had their mirrors setup correctly this would not be a problem.