Looking over your shoulder

Eddie-B

Hey all! Failed my test today with 10 grade 2's and 3 of them were lookin nicer my shoulder before moving off, it might just be me but I can't see a thing when i look over my shoulder in the right side?

challengemaster

depends what car it is, as well as other factors... generally if you look over your shoulder you're looking at a blind spot of the mirrors

If you genuinely can't see anything, it'd be good practice to do it anyway (atleast during the test)

**Timbuk2**

It'd be beneficial to practice at home to get an idea of where your blind spots are - different cars have different blindspots (some can have bigger blindspots than others, some can have next to none, it all depends on the mirrors etc.), but generally you check your blindspot before moving lanes as there may be something right next to you which you can't see in your mirror. If you practice at home, just move wheelie bins or something to certain positions and move your car back and forth until it disappears from your mirrors.

Bear in mind the further away an object is from your car, the bigger the blindspot. For example, if you are joining a 3-lane dual carraigeway, it is very important to check your blindspot as the blindspot for the 3rd lane (the innermost lane) is much larger than it is for the first lane, and cars from inner lanes may be moving back towards the first lane, at the same time as you are trying to join.

When looking over your shoulder, you shouldn't actually be looking behind you. You should just look to the right or left of you, ideally using your peripheral vision to actually do the looking behind. But make sure to know where your blindspot is, you don't want to spend too much time looking over your shoulder - you should just need to gather only the information which you can't see in your mirrors.

seamus

If you think about why you're looking over your shoulder, rather than just doing it for the sake of it, then you'll find yourself doing it more naturally.

You look over your shoulder to see things which you cannot see in your rear view mirror. What can you see in your wing mirror? Well, primarily things to rear side of the car. But you can't really see anything beside the car, and you can't see anything which might be just behind you, but out by about a metre.

This image from wikipedia illustrates it very well:



The yellow area is what you can see in your mirrors. So you will see the green car if you look in your left mirror, but you will not see the red car if you look in your right mirror.

Checking over your shoulder is arguably more important than checking the wing mirror. If you imagine the picture above shows a three-lane carriageway, you're in the middle. If you pull left without checking your wing mirror, then the green car will have to brake sharply, and it's a dangerous manouver, but likely there will be no harm done. But if you move right without checking over your shoulder, you will hit the red car and cause a serious accident.

When you do the shoulder check, don't be trying to look as far back down the car as you can. You want to be looking out the rear half of the driver's window and the front half of the rear passenger window. This is the area that you can't see out of the corner of your eye and which isn't covered by the wing mirrors. Sometimes the pillar gets in the way, so you will have to adjust yourself to look around it. This of course varies from car to car and driver to driver, because everyone's position in the vehicle is different.

I recall myself from learning to drive that the instructors taught me to look over my shoulder, but didn't actually tell me what I was supposed to be looking for or at. Simply that if I was seen checking over my shoulder, the tester would pass me. It wasn't for a couple of years that I came to realise the importance of this check. Never change road position without looking over your shoulder. Don't just do it moving off, do it when you overtake, turn right, turn left, change lane on a dual carriageway, etc.

Proxy

seamus wrote:

Never change road position without looking over your shoulder. Don't just do it moving off, do it when you overtake, turn right, turn left, change lane on a dual carriageway, etc

I was told to only look over your shoulder when moving off, as it's only safe to do so when the car is static. If you look over your shoulder, it's likely you'll turn your upper body, which reflects as lower control of the forward moving vehicle.

seamus

Proxy wrote: »

I was told to only look over your shoulder when moving off, as it's only safe to do so when the car is static. If you look over your shoulder, it's likely you'll turn your upper body, which reflects as lower control of the forward moving vehicle.

It is something you need to get used to, and many new drivers will accidentally drift a little when they do it, but when you get used to it you will learn to maintain control over your upper body. You really only need to turn your head 90 degrees - do this now and you'll see that this doesn't require any turning of the upper body.

The look itself only takes a fraction of a second, so if your head is turned long enough for you to drift way off course, you're doing it wrong.

Half of the problem is that learners are taught to look behind them, i.e. turn your head to around 130 degrees (from forward), which will require you to move your upper body.

Obviously turning your head to the side means that you cannot see what's going on in front of you. This is why the look should only be used as a last-minute check before you change road position.

For motorcyclists and cyclists, where balance and upper-body movement has a far greater effect on control of the vehicle, the shoulder check is known as a lifesaver, and in the former case you will fail your test if you don't do it.

challengemaster

Proxy wrote: »

I was told to only look over your shoulder when moving off, as it's only safe to do so when the car is static. If you look over your shoulder, it's likely you'll turn your upper body, which reflects as lower control of the forward moving vehicle.

Well whoever told you that should be shot. It's an absolute must to check over your shoulder when merging onto a dual carraigeway and changing lanes in one. It's very, very easy to be merging on-top of another car and not notice until you check your blind spot and suddenly you're a few feet away from someones bumper

MascotDec85

Remember Action Man when we were kids? Some had a wee button on the back of the head that made the eyes turn left and right, it's kinda like that...... turn your head 90 degrees and turn your eyes to the right at the same time, you're looking out your peripheral vision then.

It's also a glance, not a stare!