Mirrors... what again?!

[Ralge]

I do quite enjoy spotting the driver who catches me up markedly in a 30 zone and then leaving him/her well behind me as I enter an open NSL.

Racing?

No - I know you don't think it's racing. But as soon as you're comparing your progress with someone else's, I'm at a loss as what else to call it. I know it's an often commented upon thing -- see how much quicker than others you go when you look ahead and make sensible lane selections etc etc.

Just a thought to plant in one's mind.

You are right. One person's perception of "racing" is another's perception of responding crisply and in a business-like manner to changing limits as and when appropriate (up and down speeds).
I'd prefer them to appreciate that I am more than prepared to get my speed down to the limit and lower when required but that I am also prepared to accelerate when I can.
I leave them behind if, as is seen very commonly, they are driving everywhere at 35-40. If they respond with any hint of racing attributes, I'm off the gas and back into defensive mode.

[Astraist]

There is such a thing as excessive use of mirrors. Track drivers, for instance, seldom check their mirrors and only when the exit bends coming into long straights. While this is unlike a public road, it provides the point that checking the mirrors too much can interfere with forward vision.

When we start instructing rearward observation, we instruct a "rule of thumb" which says that mirror checks should shift based on traffic density like so: No traffic: four mirror check per minute; thin traffic: five mirror checks per minute; moderate traffic: ten times per minute; heavy traffic: fifteen times per minute; idling at the end of the column, twenty times per minute.

This is of course just a method of instruction, not a rule written in stone. To see if the student's observation to the rear and sides improve, we cover the inside or offside mirror with our hand (where safe) and ask the driver to recall the color of the car behind.

[nigelc]

One advantage of flicking your eyes to a mirror is to avoid motion blindness as demo'd here. Looking away and back again allows the eye/brain to recover so you may as well do something useful looking away from the road ahead and see what's around you.

[WhoseGeneration]

As always, it's very simple, driving is about your total environment and having information about it.
So, mirror scanning helps to provide that information.
You might be the only one on a 60 NSL road, just plodding along at NSL, so why scan?, possibly because a motorcyclist far in excess of NSL, appears behind and obviously in overtake mode just as an LGV rounds the approaching bend.
Your move to nearside might help to avoid an RTC.

[nigelc]

As always, it's very simple, driving is about your total environment and having information about it.
So, mirror scanning helps to provide that information.
You might be the only one on a 60 NSL road, just plodding along at NSL, so why scan?, possibly because a motorcyclist far in excess of NSL, appears behind and obviously in overtake mode just as an LGV rounds the approaching bend.
Your move to nearside might help to avoid an RTC.

+1

It's not just a case of looking. Stop looking and start seeing. (That's a very profound statement for me, I'll go back to sleep now )

[fungus]

However I did make the other decision not long ago when driving an MX-5 very legally up to the end of a 30 limit, whilst being followed by a lady of advanced years in a Micra. As we came to the end of the 30 limit she put her indicator on and started an overtake. However I decided this did not fit in with my plans so I left her behind.

Could that course of action leave you open to a charge of DWDCA if something went wrong? Although I can't imagine an advanced driver doing such a thing if not safe.

[Astraist]

One advantage of flicking your eyes to a mirror is to avoid motion blindness as demo'd here. Looking away and back again allows the eye/brain to recover so you may as well do something useful looking away from the road ahead and see what's around you.

Oh, yes! We have actually found that when drivers are distracted, by talking on the speaker for instance, repititive checks of the mirrors, gap ahead and other things, actually helps to maintain concentration on the road ahead. It appears that performing certain actions in circles every few seconds helps maintain concentration on the task at hand.

[WhoseGeneration]

One advantage of flicking your eyes to a mirror is to avoid motion blindness as demo'd here. Looking away and back again allows the eye/brain to recover so you may as well do something useful looking away from the road ahead and see what's around you.

Oh, yes! We have actually found that when drivers are distracted, by talking on the speaker for instance, repititive checks of the mirrors, gap ahead and other things, actually helps to maintain concentration on the road ahead. It appears that performing certain actions in circles every few seconds helps maintain concentration on the task at hand.

Nope, the whole problem in all this is that most are not prepared to treat driving as akin to any other specialist occupation.
For, that is what driving is, a very specific skill, as important as many other "qualified" ones.
You are driving, that is what you should and only that, be thinking about.

[TripleS]

One advantage of flicking your eyes to a mirror is to avoid motion blindness as demo'd here. Looking away and back again allows the eye/brain to recover so you may as well do something useful looking away from the road ahead and see what's around you.

Oh, yes! We have actually found that when drivers are distracted, by talking on the speaker for instance, repititive checks of the mirrors, gap ahead and other things, actually helps to maintain concentration on the road ahead. It appears that performing certain actions in circles every few seconds helps maintain concentration on the task at hand.

Nope, the whole problem in all this is that most are not prepared to treat driving as akin to any other specialist occupation.
For, that is what driving is, a very specific skill, as important as many other "qualified" ones.
You are driving, that is what you should and only that, be thinking about.

I can't see that as being reasonable. If the driving task is relatively undemanding, one should be capable of using some spare capacity to think about other things, and still maintain sufficient attention to the driving to maintain a safe and reliable result.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

However I did make the other decision not long ago when driving an MX-5 very legally up to the end of a 30 limit, whilst being followed by a lady of advanced years in a Micra. As we came to the end of the 30 limit she put her indicator on and started an overtake. However I decided this did not fit in with my plans so I left her behind.

Could that course of action leave you open to a charge of DWDCA if something went wrong? Although I can't imagine an advanced driver doing such a thing if not safe.

If she had been alongside, or if there had been any reason not to accelerate fully, I would not have done so, and would have dealt with the situation another way. She didn't get any further than pulling half way out across the white line and still well behind me. Then I was gone.

[DanFraser]

There is such a thing as excessive use of mirrors. Track drivers, for instance, seldom check their mirrors and only when the exit bends coming into long straights. While this is unlike a public road, it provides the point that checking the mirrors too much can interfere with forward vision.

When we start instructing rearward observation, we instruct a "rule of thumb" which says that mirror checks should shift based on traffic density like so: No traffic: four mirror check per minute; thin traffic: five mirror checks per minute; moderate traffic: ten times per minute; heavy traffic: fifteen times per minute; idling at the end of the column, twenty times per minute.

This is of course just a method of instruction, not a rule written in stone. To see if the student's observation to the rear and sides improve, we cover the inside or offside mirror with our hand (where safe) and ask the driver to recall the color of the car behind.

Wait, what? For comprehension it's been proven that looking in mirrors needs at least 1 second (or even more for the questions being asked there) so the method states that you could potentially spend up to half your time looking backwards in city driving? That's living in the mirrors and completely forgetting you're driving forward there.

[Kimosabe]

I think my observer is exaggerating the frequency of checks but aside from checking when it's obvious to me that I need to anyway, adding a few more in does no harm. But what he's saying is that I need to check all three at the same time every time I see a sign, hazard, change in speed limits... what is it that you do? Do you have a system?

I generally need at least a second to focus on my nearside mirror and to take in what i'm seeing in it. So what I have done is worked out a systematic way to look nearside, back on the road until i'm sure it's okay to look in the rear view, back on the road as before and offside and then back on the road. While i'm doing this, i'm not picking my nose so it's a win-win. but it does make the whole thing rather busy. It's not the need to check the mirrors, it's the frequency vs the resultant post-check, lack of need feeling I so often get.

I'm going flat out for Gold and i'm getting loads out of running my thoughts by you all but I still need to retain a sense of it's me who is driving and that I need reasons, not just theory or we end up with 'what if a child ran out infront of me from the right while I was looking in my nearside mirror', type of 'reasoning' and that's just fraught with 'should have been more observant' come backs. I call it 'over thinking' but it is the result of disrupting what was working well before, not an inability to drive safely.

[Astraist]

Wait, what? For comprehension it's been proven that looking in mirrors needs at least 1 second (or even more for the questions being asked there) so the method states that you could potentially spend up to half your time looking backwards in city driving? That's living in the mirrors and completely forgetting you're driving forward there.

A skilled driver can check mirrors at much under one second. Fifteen mirror checks per minute is used for very heavy traffic, when your forward progress is almost reduced to naught. I should have written "at traffic congestion" there...

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

I think my observer is exaggerating the frequency of checks but aside from checking when it's obvious to me that I need to anyway, adding a few more in does no harm. But what he's saying is that I need to check all three at the same time every time I see a sign, hazard, change in speed limits... what is it that you do? Do you have a system?

I generally need at least a second to focus on my nearside mirror and to take in what i'm seeing in it. So what I have done is worked out a systematic way to look nearside, back on the road until i'm sure it's okay to look in the rear view, back on the road as before and offside and then back on the road. While i'm doing this, i'm not picking my nose so it's a win-win. but it does make the whole thing rather busy. It's not the need to check the mirrors, it's the frequency vs the resultant post-check, lack of need feeling I so often get.

I'm going flat out for Gold and i'm getting loads out of running my thoughts by you all but I still need to retain a sense of it's me who is driving and that I need reasons, not just theory or we end up with 'what if a child ran out infront of me from the right while I was looking in my nearside mirror', type of 'reasoning' and that's just fraught with 'should have been more observant' come backs. I call it 'over thinking' but it is the result of disrupting what was working well before, not an inability to drive safely.

I would stop this looking in all 3 mirrors malarkey. It's obviously not doing your concentration any good. The examiner is not going to be interested in whether or not you have looked in all 3 mirrors. The stock phrases about mirror use in the test results say stuff like "always aware of what was happening behind" or "used frequently throughout the test".

Look in the appropriate mirrors at the appropriate times. Because you saw a sign for a double bend, first to the right, does not warrant a look in all 3. Look in the interior one. While you're negotiating the r/h half of the double bend, maybe have a glance in the offside door mirror or the interior one or both. No point checking the nearside one, which, as you point out, takes far longer, for any of this particular hazard. The nearside one is useful when something might be happening on the nearside like:
- stopped in a queue of traffic - monitor for cyclists etc.
- leaving a roundabout - check for motorcyclist
- turning left in town - last minute check for pedestrians / cyclists (although you should be very aware already)
- reversing to the left
- lane changes to the left on multi-lane roads
I'm sure there are others, but driving along a straight bit of country / suburban road and passing any random road sign is not one of them.

Hope this helps. From what I hear you will get Gold without any problems. One thing you need for Gold is a sense of being a complete, confident driver. You need to put the nerves away and drive as if you do this every day. Have confidence. Good luck!

[Gareth]

You need to [...] drive as if you do this every day.

It isn't (or shouldn't be) a show. It should be how you drive every day.