I was at school this evening to work on some of the presentations, projects, and papers I'm supposed to be doing, and instead I was looking around on the internet. I came across a thread on a board about mirror adjustment.
Most people, including myself, apparently have the side mirrors aligned such that a bit of the side of the car can be seen in the mirror when the driver is sitting normally. I think this is the conventional wisdom, and I think this is what I was taught in drivers ed, but that was a long time ago and my memory is rusty. This message I came across suggested that the better way was to adjust them so that the field of view in the side mirrors barely overlaps that of the rear-view mirror.
This has the effect of pretty much eliminating the blind spot. Side mirrors which once showed pretty much the same thing as the rear-view mirror now show what would have been the blind-spot. I've often watched people come up behind me and then proceed to sit in my blind spot, so maybe this will help me keep track of such folk.
This should help reduce the need to do shoulder checks during lane changes, but that's probably still a good idea anyway, unless your driving skills are similar to my atrocious bike riding skills: look behind for other riders, almost swerve off trail. A flick of the eye is also faster than cranking the head around.
I went and got in my car, and sure enough, the side and rear-view mirrors field of view pretty much completely overlapped. So I adjusted them as above. The driver's side mirror can be adjusted by putting your head against the window and adjusting until you can just see the side of the car in the mirror. The passenger side one can be done by similar adjustment with your head centered (left to right) in the car.
As I drove home I realized another benefit: people in trucks or with hi-beams on can no longer shine their headlights directly in your eyes via the side mirrors, which is nice once the rear-view mirror has been dimmed.
