Ask Lemmy

27352 readers

1708 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

candyman337

[email protected]

Motorway changing lane protocol (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This has probably come up before but do you think it is taught or necessary to look over your shoulder to check blindspot when changing lanes on the motorway?

I just need to add an edit. I'm specifically referring to looking over your shoulder on a motorway. Checking mirrors and blindspot is not under question

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

do you think it is taught

It was taught when I went through driver's ed class in the US.

necessary

Yes. There's an area in most vehicles that you can't see from your mirrors alone, and if you don't check it, you can hit a car there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_blind_spot

As one is driving an automobile, blind spots are the areas of the road that cannot be seen while looking forward or through either the rear-view or side mirrors (expecting that the side mirrors are properly adjusted on a passenger auto – see above). The most common are the rear quarter blind spots, areas towards the rear of the vehicle on both sides.

Some vehicles aren't capable of letting you check those areas over your shoulder; they typically have parabolic mirrors or something like that to let you see the area from the mirrors. But the normal case is that you need to check to be driving safely.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I've always called curved mirrors on vehicles and mounted at blind corners "parabolic", and my parents always have as well, which I think is where I got it...but thinking it over now, I bet that they aren't actually parabolic. There's no reason for them to specifically follow a parabolic curve that I can think of; they aren't dealing with trying to produce parallel beams of light the direction that the mirror is facing. They need to be curved, but not specifically parabolic.

kagis

Yeah, this doesn't say anything about it being parabolic:

https://trafficmirror.com/stainless-steel-highway-traffic-mirrors/

And ditto here for a vehicle mirror. Just says "convex":

https://www.amazon.com/RETRAC-610901-Stainless-Center-Mount-J-Bracket/dp/B08HVPGQ99