Over-shoulder checks on motorways

[Strangely Brown]

Jem Thompson said:

I don't think it is neccessary to do an over the shoulder check after overtaking another vehicle, at least on a dual carriageway, as you can clearly identify the gap you are pulling into.

That's fine so long as the car you think you have just overtaken hasn't moved up to block you moving back in.

It happens. Maybe not often but it does.

No harm in checking.

[Jem Thompson]

Strangely Brown said:

Jem Thompson said:

I don't think it is neccessary to do an over the shoulder check after overtaking another vehicle, at least on a dual carriageway, as you can clearly identify the gap you are pulling into.

That's fine so long as the car you think you have just overtaken hasn't moved up to block you moving back in.

It happens. Maybe not often but it does.

No harm in checking.

I only pull in once I can see the front of the car/truck I have overtaken in my rear view mirror.

[Loque]

I'm no advanced driver, but I do it out of the sheer safety aspect.

[Colonial]

Why the hell wouldn't you do it?

I do 70,000kms a year, around 40,000miles, mainly on the open road/motorways and do it without fail. And you know what. The one time I didn't do it I nearly sidewsiped a car.

[anonymous-user]

Slightly OT but never drive in someones blind spot either ge past or stay behind...

[Scraggles]

have to admit that is damned annoying, not sure if they are going to brake or not, so usually floor it and wave them a thanks

[macp]

I always do it out of habit.It comes from my AIM motorcycle training.

[tom g]

I've never done it since I nearly crashed into the back of a truck that stopped suddenly, while I was looking to the side. Maybe It's safer to take that risk for just a split second, but that incident gave me the willies. Maybe I cut it too fine when changing lanes exiting slip roads... but I've not had any related near misses in 200k miles.

I find that leaning forwards extends the mirror view forwards to the same extent as looking to the side. All while looking forwards, so IMHO it's safer.

Of course that's no good unless your mirrors are properly adjusted and have bind spot curves built in.

I follow what's going on behind me all the time anyway, so I'm not surprised by anything.

[lythaby]

I always do it in a car now, but it's more out of habit riding a bike, than anything else, plus if you've ever driven a car with ste mirrors you'd be foolish not too!!

[northandy]

I always do a quick glance, but like someone said after assessing the road ahead.

Another thing I do is to make sure I stay out of the blind spot zone of other vehicles, its impossible to avoid totally when overtaking obviously, but if at a steady speed in congestion, always hang back a little making sure the other driver can see me in his mirrors. Generally bikers seem to do the same thing.

[Gaspode]

This s unquestionably a Very Sensible Thing to do. I learned my lesson many years ago, driving on a fast A road, closing with a slow vehicle ahead. I knew I had a dark blue Ford Sierra behind me, he'd been there for a while. Got to a sensible distance behind the car in front, no oncoming traffic, good opportunity, a quick look in the rear view mirror confirmed matey in the dark bkue Sierra was still behind me, Changed down, nailed it, and pulled out - to be met with a furious blast from another dark blue Sierra that was on my immediate right! Fortunately I was able to brake and pull back in and the other guy was able to get past ok, but it was a close thing.

I had been followed by 2 similar cars, and if I'd made the lifesaver, I would realised. the true situation - and now I also make sure I look back down the following 2 or 3 cars, not just the guy right behind me.

Edited by Gaspode on Wednesday 22 July 22:08

[_Neal_]

dugt said:

just for the reference, i do look to the side, but i wont look behind

to me, and this is from all the people ive been on motorways with as a pasenger, the ones who turn thier head round are the ones who dont overtake fluidly, they drive up to the car infront, then look to overtake, much like you would overtake a bus that has stopped in a town

if you overtake fluidly in a nice sweep, with forward planning, looking well ahead, and in the mirrors, then i honestly dont believe you should do an over the shoulder check

doug

No amount of fluid driving with good forward planning and observation changes the fact that, in order to perform the overtake, you need to change lanes. At which time there could be a vehicle in your blind spot.

I honestly don't see how anyone can realistically argue against doing the check - it's a quick check (of greater than 90 degrees), having observed ahead that the road is clear, and it's a potential lifesaver.

[scoobydude]

I always do a shoulder check when switching lanes. I had an interesting experience last week joining the M3 from a slip road. I looked ahead and spotted a suitable space to aim for. I checked over my shoulder, I saw a white VW Scirroco(or however you spell it) about 10 car lengths behind. I indicated, then I checked over my shoulder. Lo and behold the twunt in the Scirroco has put his foot down (on purpose) and blocked me onto the slip road. What he hadn't noticed was that the lorry in front of him had hit his brakes hard to avoid the Audi which had undertaken me and swerved in front of the lorry. Mr scirroco was so busy laughing and joking with his passenger about his "hilarious" prank, he plum forgot to brake. He missed the back of the truck by about a cigarette papers width, swerved into lane 2 and nearly wiped out the, much more observant, police officer in the unmarked BMW. Laugh, I nearly died.

[G_T]

I love a happy ending.

[Starfighter]

Always. Left and right lane changes, merging at slip roads, spiralling off roundabouts and anywhere else where I wouldn't bet my life of the being noone there.

Key for me is forward planning like signalling BEFORE starting a lane change on a dual carrageway. Ther is no point in doing a single flash once you have crossed the paint and then doing a shoulder check as I see so often!

[Z.B]

You don't really need to look behind to see behind. Use your peripheral vision and you only need a slight turn of the head. The vehicle in front also remains in your peripheral vision so a sudden movement or application of brakes shouldn't go un-noticed. Personally I only check selectively and I think in reality everyone is in the same boat. Nobody would recommend shoulder checks for every minor change of position. The question is where you draw the line: do you check every time you cross paint, or only when you think you need to, or do you use some other rationale? What matters is that the approach you use works reliably for you.

[Fat Audi 80]

I check over my shoulder every time I cross paint. I didn't think I did but I actually can't help myself. I have a built in safety habit there.

As for the poster that said you shouldn't take your eyes off the road in front, could you tell me how you check your petrol, oil temp, water temp, indicators warning lights etc while you are driving?

My over the shoulder check is a 45 degree head movement with my eyes doing the rest for about a quarter of a second just to check there is not a bike or car I may have missed during rearward observation.

Cheers,

Steve

[The Black Flash]

tom g said:

I've never done it since I nearly crashed into the back of a truck that stopped suddenly, while I was looking to the side. Maybe It's safer to take that risk for just a split second, but that incident gave me the willies. Maybe I cut it too fine when changing lanes exiting slip roads... but I've not had any related near misses in 200k miles.

I've done that myself, but it was because, wait for it, I got too close to the truck and looked to overtake quickly when I really should have backed off and taken my time.
Lesson learned.

It's not a risk if you have enough gap in front of you.

[Pigeon]

Starfighter said:

Always. Left and right lane changes, merging at slip roads, spiralling off roundabouts and anywhere else where I wouldn't bet my life of the being noone there.

Or their life, come to that.

I do the same... any time I change position in such a way as to raise the potential of conflict with someone coming up the side. Bike habit. Thing is to be far enough back from the vehicle in front that it doesn't matter if something happens during the check.

I find on motorways that I spend nearly as much time in the mirrors as I do looking ahead - doing a roughly-middle-of-the-distribution speed means there's about the same amount of closing distances and speeds to track from the vehicles approaching me from behind as from the vehicles I'm approaching in front. I do the thing of "tagging" each vehicle approaching from behind and then "de-tagging" it once it's gone past, but I don't always get it 100% and there are sometimes occasions where I find one I'd lost track of (cf. two identical cars post above) or hadn't spotted getting there in the first place. I can't however recall an occasion where I've had to slam on hard to avoid some development that has taken place ahead while I was looking behind. So I conclude that it is definitely better to look than not to look

[gimboid]

All I can say is that most of you must be driving with much better drivers around you...

Obviously I normally have a very good idea of whats going on behind from using the mirrors. Despite this, before "crossing paint" I always have a quick shoulder check after rechecking the mirrors and before moving out. At a minimum of once every few months, there is someone undertaking from a blind position (ie, having come round behind other traffic so as to have not been visible before entering my blind spot). Maybe the driving down south is just worse...?