Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
The chance that an upcoming car is coming to hit you, as you approach an obstacle is much much less than the chance that you are approaching an obstacle, and have no idea what’s coming up from behind, especially on a heavily traveled, perhaps narrow road.
Without a mirror one can:
- depend their hearing, which may not well discriminate the position of an upcoming car with a lot of background noise, and still keep their eye on the obstacle
- turn your head as quickly as possible to minimize losing sight of the obstacle, and hope your quick glance with mostly peripheral vision adequately assesses your behind, and does not cause you to drift leftwards as you rotate your torso
With a mirror one can listen, glance behind without rotation, keep control of the forward direction, keep the head looking forward toward the obstacle, and only require a shift of the eyes.
Furthermore, I'm usually monitoring traffic behind me to minimize surprises.
Jim, I think we're mostly in agreement on +/-'s of using mirrors. My point was to admit that I find the mirror's information limited and
distracting. YMMV, of course.
If there was a digital camera showing me a full and complete view of what's behind me on a handlebar monitor, I believe I would not use it for the same reason.
(BTW: I, like you, was hit from behind and did see it in my mirror. Luckily, I was not hurt badly. Your point about PTSD, may explain my wanting to remove that mirror.
)