Door Zone - what NOT to do

Cyclist is riding too close to parked cars, leaving himself vulnerable to "dooring" or swerving unexpectedly into traffic.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• bicycle
• car
• crash

[JulieSchack000]

This isn't about cyclists staying out of the door zone, this is about people within the car looking before they open the door. If you were parked on a busy street with a great amount of close moving traffic, you would do that same, to make sure that your door wasn't cut of - why does it have to be different when it isn't the life of your door but the life of a cyclist at risk?

No doubt that a cyclists staying on the middle of the road prevent that kind of accidents, but that isn't the answer.

[svref]

@JulieSchack000 So you're really going to train your children to look over their shoulder when they're opening the door? Society doesn't have infinite resources, and humans are fallible and stupid. Its far easier to teach the cyclists to cycle safely - in their own direct self interest - than to teach car users to do something that 99.99% of the time costs them time and effort.

[JulieSchack000]

@svref That's how I grew up - opening a car door before looking is doomed. I'm originally from Denmark/Copenhagen, and thereby naturally have quite a different view on the relationship between cars and cyclist, but saying that the cyclists has to stay out of the way, is simply blaming the victim, no matter what country you're in.

[svref]

@JulieSchack000 If I leave a $100 bill on the sidewalk in front of my house, and someone steals it, would you refrain from "blaming the victim"? What about if I don't get a vaccine against a common disease? Do you refrain from "blaming the victim"? At some point common sense behavior that the motivated agent can take is easier than asking 'the others' to do something. Its great that you grow up in a cycling culture, but not everywhere is like that. We have to pick our battles rationally.

[svref]

When passing parked cars, or in any lane that's not simultaneously shareable by both a car and a bicycle, you put your bicycle exactly where the center of a car would be. This is legal in all 50 states.

The reason you do this is because doorings are responsible for many more car-bike crashes than hit-from-behind crashes.

[svref]

@svref Add in the threat of right hooks, and left crosses, and riding in the center of the lane is the safest place to be much of the time.

[JulieSchack000]

@svref As my daily commute takes place on the 'lovely' car-centric roads of London, I'm well-aware that the cycle culture of Denmark/the Netherlands aren't global. But I believe that we are able to change the attitude of a society, making cycling easier, and bringing more cyclists onto the roads. To increase the amount of cyclists we have to make it attractive to choose the bike over the car. Educating the cyclist is a "quick-fix", a long term solution of safe infrastructure is highly needed.

[Portal3]

The door zone is always unavoidable when I'm cycling. Either a driver or passenger of a parked car or a passenger getting out of an idle car during peak hour traffic from the other side could open their door into oncoming cyclists.

When there's room, sure, give yourself enough room to avoid hitting a door. It's easier to, as other road users are expected to, *drive at a speed in which you can stop* to avoid such an accident.

Tim.

[CyclistLorax]

Had there been overtaking, or even oncoming traffic, the avoidance maneuver used by the door zone riding cyclist could have been fatal. Of course this staged video clearly shows why riding in the door zone is pathological, as a suddenly opening door, assuming the cyclist has time to dodge it, gives the cyclist two very deadly choices:

1) Swerve into traffic, often fatal to the cyclist.

2)  Eat the door, typically creating severe cyclist injuries.

Bottom line: stay out of the door zone!!