Jim from Boston

I was lightly dinged once, and not even nudged.

I have developed a mindset that like a gun, every parked or even stopped car is "loaded" with an occupant about to exit, from either side of the car, especially when I filter between lanes at stoplights.

electrik

I don't believe it's illegal here... and if it is - i've never seen it enforced. Truth is, passing cars on the right while on a bicycle is how it's done by almost everybody in any city i've been to.

Getting doored on the right is common enough, not as common as the left, people are still ticketed for the offense and liable for the civil damages.

I think the moral of the story and certainly not the legal conclusion, is to slow down and be ready to stop when a car in front of you does something erratic.

zeppinger

Agreed

Pscyclepath

In both of the videos cited above, you had adequate time to see the guy get out of the car, or see the door open, in time to get on the brakes and avoid a collision or that sort of conflict. Makes me wonder if the videographers weren't just trying to come up with something cute to post on YouTube?

At any rate, here's how we teach our students to stay out of the door zone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQ7aID1jHs

snow_echo_NY

bumping this post from the depths to remind us about "dooring" now that spring is here and cyclists will be headed out in droves. be safe!

ItsJustMe

There was no way it was reasonable to assume that if you stop your car 2 feet from the curb that you should expect traffic to go between you and the curb. That was a dumb move by the cyclist. It's exactly garbage like that which gets cyclists killed. Guy probably splits the curb with garbage trucks too.

Chris516

More like a hard push instead of a bump, lol. Since it was exactly 4yrs. 4mos. between your post and the most recent post.

adablduya

in my opinion, being doored, IN MOST CASES, is almost completely avoidable and within a cyclist's control. simple. don't ride so close to parallel-parked cars such that you are within reach of an unexpectedly opening door. simple. take the lane if you have to. simple. don't call being doored an ACCIDENT. if the outcome is foreseeable and thus preventable, then the occurrence of it happening is not an accident; an incident with an undesirable outcome, perhaps.

I-Like-To-Bike

Of course the simple adjunct situation is that is any case where a cyclist is struck while riding in a lane is:
IN MOST CASES, it is almost completely avoidable and within a cyclist's control. simple. don't ride in a traffic lane where you are within reach of an overtaking vehicle. simple.ride as far right as possible if you have to. simple. don't call being struck by cars an ACCIDENT. if the outcome is foreseeable and thus preventable, then the occurrence of it happening is not an accident; an incident with an undesirable outcome, perhaps.

Simple Indeed!

snow_echo_NY

it's just i've been talking with some locals.

someone warned us (cyclist commuters in the office) he had a near-dooring incident yesterday. the car was off and parked for some time, then randomly they swung the door open into the cycling lane. no warning, no lights, nothing. he reminded us to be safe and wary and to learn from his bad experience yesterday.

also another person's friend was in a serious dooring accident a few months back in the fall. it still happens regularly even tho it is law here, the police do little to nothing to enforce it and write tickets.

it doesn't help that nearly all the cycling paths in NYC are next to parking lanes. on the other side - the traffic lane where cars move as they please. it is an extremely dangerous thing here. so dangerous that they have now made it illegal for taxis to let people off into a cycling lane. if something happens to you, the settlements are in the $100K-$200K range. but if you permanently hurt or even get killed it doesn't help to have laws that no one follows, not even the enforcers.

someone wants to take away a pedestrian's right of way law that was just enacted! the fact that it took so long to get a pedestrian right of way law is astounding to me. how on earth did it take so long.

if the driving schools and law just implemented teaching drivers have to open their door with their right hand, it forces their body to turn to see traffic. this is common practice in Amsterdam, a thriving bicycling/motorist/pedestrian city where it's built into their culture.

How safe are the world's cities for cyclists? | Life and style | The Guardian

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/op...esh-bread.html

i bet that's all it takes to make a difference in saving lives in Boston and NY where dooring is awfully common.

79pmooney

I agree in most cases. But it is a risk assessment issue. When visibility is such that it not a given that vehicles behind will see me and there are few cars, it is one I sometimes take. And I have lost out twice over. First time was at night, back before most of the quality night gear existed (late '60s). Second time was approaching sunset riding west. Both times there was one car parked. Both times I had traffic behind me, not close but I was aware of it. First time parked car was under a streetlight across from the library long after it was closed. Second time the driver was getting her kid's toy on the floor of the passenger seat (in a car with headrests). I was looking but never saw an occupant.

And the risk assessment? Suppose I always stayed outside the door swing? It is a good bet that by now, at least one car would have struck me from behind. Possibly injuring me far more than both the doorings did. I try to stay alert and constantly assess the best options. Sometimes there are none. Sometimes we lose. I think that things would change faster if law enforcement would accept a damaged door as substantial evidence of a violation, even when the cyclist lives. Doorings almost always leave very distinctive evidence. The door still swings but doesn't close. There is a small crease in the side panel at the hinges. Cars do far more damage to both the door panel and the side panel when they hit, plus since the driver of the striking car's insurance is involved, that incident is documented. Very little else besides bicycle doorings cause the gentle bend to the side panel. I suspect the auto body people know exactly what they are looking at when those cars come in. True, a lot of doorings have consequences to the rider that are not long lasting, but every dooring tosses that rider into the street. It would be tough to invent a better device to do that if you tried. So every dooring has very real possibiliy of fatal consequences. For the police to say that the deaths don't add up to a trend is pretty irresponsible. If they recorded all doorings as potential deaths they woild see a rather different trend.

Ben

snow_echo_NY

Completely agree with you Ben

CrankyOne

We had someone here who swerved to avoid being doored and was hit by the car in the lane she swerved in to. Last I heard she's mostly OK other than several fused vertebrae. I rarely ride on roads anymore thanks to increasingly good paths but when I do I give a good 4 to 5 feet of space between me and parked cars. The biggest problem is drivers screaming at me that I should be in the bike lane (DZBL) not the traffic lane. Makes for driver-cyclist relations that make Obama and Israel seem chummy.

howeeee

"getting doored" is the most avoidable accident there is, I ride almost daily, I never have and will never get doored.

In fact it is not correct to say a bike rider gets doored, no they were not careful and ran into an opening door. If you are riding past parked cars, take the lane, or ride very slow till you get past the parked cars.

Putting a bike lane next to where cars are going to be parked is stupid, not being prepared to stop or avoid an opening door is way stupider.

Chris516

This is another example of why, I am a proponent of 'taking the lane'. Because, Bike lanes that exist. Are too close to on-street parking.

dynodonn 

I look forward to seeing zombie threads appear every so often, I like to check out the BF names...... some still around, others long vanished.

Chris516

That is a given.

dynodonn 

Yet door zone bike lanes continue to be built, and the occasional, or not so door savvy cyclist will ride in them unaware of the danger. Not so much a case of the cyclist being dumb, but more about the lack of education about "doorings".

Our own local bicycle commuter group is quick to advocate DZBL's, since their train of thought is that is better to have some sort of bike infrastructure in place than none. Plus their other argument is that "doorings" are rarer and the lesser of the two evils when compared to having no cycling infrastructure in place at all, and in making motorists aware that cyclists are allowed to ride on the roadway.

I have my feelings about their advocacy, but I have little say in the matter, especially when the group will side with roadway engineers, non cyclist council members, and ignored the advice of the only sitting council member who happens to be a daily local bicycle commuter.

KD5NRH

Or you quit being a weight weenie, get yourself the toughest steel framed bike you can find, load it down with racks of heavy crap, and learn to brace so you can ride through the doors. They're really not as tough as they look.

mr_bill

Some folks decry any bike lane adjacent to parking as a "DZBL." That ain't necessarily so.

Here's a less desirable bike lane near Central Square in Cambridge, site of a dooring tragedy. But note the cyclist riding in the left half of the bike lane.

Here's the same spot a few years later. Note the 2' buffer between the parking lane and the bike lane. Note the center line of Mass Ave has been moved to the left 2 1/2 feet! Note the travel lanes are now narrower. Note the bike lane and the parking lane no longer share a marking, the parking line leads *MOST* motorists to actually park closer to the curb (as legally required) - but even the scofflaw Ford truck parking over a yard from the curb is not parking in the bike lane. Note the cyclist in the *center* of the bike lane is outside the door zone even of the Ford Truck.

What a difference two feet made.

On the other side of Harvard Square the bike lanes are still old-style. But note they cheated the bike lane "bike" symbol to the left - subtly urging folks to use the left half of the bike lane. (Preferred the sharrows that were there before, and would still prefer a better bike lane here. But until they put this stroad on a road diet....)



-mr. bill

Paul Barnard

Those bike lanes are very similar to what we have here. While not ideal, I still prefer them to mixing with vehicular traffic. I can favor the left white line and remain out of the door zone of most vehicles.

Artkansas 

As a teen I was riding my Royce Union 10 speed when a motorist opened the door of his 1965 Ford Galaxie into the path of my bike. Being a teen, I came out okay, the bike was fine, but the Galaxie's door would not close. He screamed that he was going to sue, got all of my info while refusing to give me any. I never heard from him again. I guess his lawyer set him straight.

KD5NRH

Keeping the front wheel from getting mashed is really the only tricky part. The rest of it is in teaching yourself to lean back and brace so you don't go over the bars, but keep all your momentum directed into the door.

Actually taking one off of most cars would be an impressive trick for a bike, but bending it too far open so it won't close properly isn't really that hard.

rumrunn6

just heard Boston is putting in another bike lane, this time on Comm ave partly due to a student death a couple yrs ago

chephy

Luckily, I won't say the same about experienced urban riders I know. But to a large degree it's just that, luck.

I know some people will make a snide remark about how an "experienced" urban rider won't ever be in the door zone anyway, but sorry, it's not as simple as that. Sometimes it's the choice between being in the door zone and crossing over a streetcar track (now, THAT's something all experienced urban riders I know have tripped on in Toronto!) only to wonder if the poophole behind them laying on the horn is about to put the pedal to the metal and mow them down. It is reasonable to expect all cyclists to strive to acquire skills and knowledge, but it's not reasonable to expect every cyclist to proudly defy bullies operating machinery that can (and occasionally does!) kill them in a blink of an eye.

I used to be the type who would, in this kind of a situation, stop, lay her bike on the ground blocking the cager's path, walk over to the car, knock window and express my disappointment in the driver's lack of civility in no uncertain terms, to put it mildly. I don't do that anymore, though; and even when I did, I understood perfectly well those who tried as much as they could to avoid any kind of a confrontation with hostile idiots armed with a deadly vehicle and (perhaps far more importantly) overwhelming public support. Those are highly unpleasant interactions.