Is Your Seat Positioned Correctly?

There’s a good reason so many car seats offer so many ways to adjust their position. While a seat in the perfect position can make driving a comfortable, relaxed experience, whether you’re traveling for two minutes or two hours, a seat in a bad position will soon have you feeling tired, sore, and cranky, and it may even be unsafe.

Legs

On the one hand, you need your body to be far enough forward that your foot can easily push both (or all three) pedals all the way down. If you’re so far back that you have to make an effort to mash on the brake as hard as possible, that’s actively unsafe. And on the other hand, you need the seat to be far back enough that your knees aren’t wedging themselves up against the underside of the dashboard.

Arms

Much like your legs, your arms need to be able to grip the steering wheel without any trouble and without being so close that your belly is pressing up against the base of the wheel. One good way to measure the proper distance is to hold your arms out straight past the steering wheel. If you can touch the edges of the wheel with your wrists, that’s a good distance.

Lumbar

The lumbar region of your body is your lower back, specifically the part of your spine which bends inward instead of outward. If your car seat has lumbar support, you should adjust that part of the seat until you feel like the seat is pressing evenly against your back from the base of your shoulders down to your hips. If there’s too much or too little support on your lumbar area, your whole back will grow sore the longer you sit.

Height and Steering Wheel Angle

Like lumbar support, you can’t adjust the seat’s height and the steering wheel’s angle in every car, but the ability to do so is very helpful if you’re particularly tall or short compared to whomever the car company used to test the vehicle. Ideally, the steering wheel should point straight at your shoulders, since this will let you move your hands around the entire circumference without having to strain or force your elbows too far back.

Mirrors

While your side and rearview mirrors aren’t going to make you more comfortable, they’re definitely a part of adjusting the car to fit your body. The best angle for your side mirrors is one that lets you see just a tiny bit of the side of your car at most. Meanwhile, setting the center mirror is as simple as making sure you can see through every bit of the back window.

Positioning your seat correctly will make driving a more comfortable, relaxing, and safe experience. And here’s one last bit of advice: if you carry a thick wallet in your back pocket, you should remove it before sitting down for extended periods. If you do so, you’ll be able to relax your hips and sit straighter.

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