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
I see a lot of people here advocating for peeking over the shoulder, but to me that is insane. The only times I peek over my shoulder is if the car is not moving or going really slowly.
I’m not taking my eyes off the road for long enough to look over my shoulder. How fast are you guys moving your neck? A slight tweak of the steering wheel can veer you of course in the time it takes to look over your shoulder.
In the motorway I peek at the mirrors frequently to have a general awareness of the cars around me and where they are. If it’s day I have a general idea of the color and build of the most relevant cars to me, so I can know if a car is suddenly missing (probably in my blind spot), I should wait a bit for it come into my vision again (though the front or the mirrors)
When I decide to change lanes I look at all the mirrors and assess if it’s safe and if I’m aware of all the cars around me. Then I signal my lane change, wait a second, check the mirrors again, and start to change lanes gradually and predictably, to give any other driver that sees a dangerous situation plenty of time and space to react or signal to me in any way that the lane change is not safe.
To me this is the safest way to go about it. Newer cars have extra sensors to check the blind spot for you, which is great and gives you another degree of certainty, but I drove like this before I had a car that had this feature.