Advocacy & Safety - Video: Avoid the Door Zone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CudJvSbS2aY&feature=player_embedded

a good reminder

Also see this one, featuring League of American Bicyclists instructor Preston Tyree:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQ7aID1jHs&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1TQ7aID1jHs

This is why when I ride thru door zone areas that don't have a bike lane, riding slower is my solution. I ride slow enough that I can see driver and driver side passenger in the vehicle. Also slow enough that when the door starts to open that I can stop, my hands are poised to squeeze the brake levers too. It's not a solution like the video demonstrates, but has worked for me. There still might be the possibility that a door does get me too. Sometimes the traffic lane and lack of bicycle lane suggest this as a solution, there is always taking the lane or riding on the sidewalk as a solution as well.

This is why when I ride thru door zone areas that don't have a bike lane, riding slower is my solution. I ride slow enough that I can see driver and driver side passenger in the vehicle. Also slow enough that when the door starts to open that I can stop, my hands are poised to squeeze the brake levers too. It's not a solution like the video demonstrates, but has worked for me. There still might be the possibility that a door does get me too. Sometimes the traffic lane and lack of bicycle lane suggest this as a solution, there is always taking the lane or riding on the sidewalk as a solution as well.

At a speed "slow enough to stop," you may as well walk.

This is why when I ride thru door zone areas that don't have a bike lane, riding slower is my solution. I ride slow enough that I can see driver and driver side passenger in the vehicle.....

No bike lane, I don't slow down, I just move further left and out of the door zone, taking the lane if necessary. If a bike lane is present and depending on the situation, I move next to, ride on, or well left of the inner most line of the BL to give myself more lead time for door openings. No way do I have to accommodate motorists at the expense of my safety as well as my commute time.

I sure don't see motorists worrying about having to scan for opening doors of parked cars as they plow along at or above the speed limit.

This is why when I ride thru door zone areas that don't have a bike lane, riding slower is my solution. I ride slow enough that I can see driver and driver side passenger in the vehicle. Also slow enough that when the door starts to open that I can stop, my hands are poised to squeeze the brake levers too. It's not a solution like the video demonstrates, but has worked for me. There still might be the possibility that a door does get me too. Sometimes the traffic lane and lack of bicycle lane suggest this as a solution, there is always taking the lane or riding on the sidewalk as a solution as well.

The place where I'm most concerned about dooring is a steep downhill with street parking and door zone bike lanes. You tend to get going fast because of the hill, and so the dooring hazard is doubly severe (fortunately, it's not a particularly high traffic area, and so there aren't too many people getting in and out of cars or passing quickly). I always just take the full lane there until I'm past the parked cars, because I'm usually going 25+ mph anyway. I've never had any motorist aggression problems there associated with not staying in the bike lane, and I think it's because the high speed minimizes the speed differential.

So, for me it's situational. I agree that going slowly is sometimes the best solution: one place where I take that approach is a narrow DZBL with fairly heavy traffic to the left and lots of door openings (though I tend to just take the lane there, too, if the traffic is congested enough that I can keep up: it's a 35 zone that often gets backed up). Other places, like my downhill DZBL, are better suited to taking the lane at high speed (I actually think that such bike lanes should be removed and replaced with lane-centered sharrows to encourage this behavior). The one thing that I never do is take the sidewalk, for the most part, though I can understand why some slow bicyclists do it on steep uphills, etc. I find taking the sidewalk to actually be much scarier and higher stress than riding in the road, in most situations, since I have to be so hyperaware of turning traffic that isn't paying attention to me, as well as very slow an dcareful around pedestrians and when transitioning to and from the street.

Yikes. I wasn't aware of the leftward trajectory a body takes after a dooring. Thanks for the demonstration.

The place where I'm most concerned about dooring is a steep downhill with street parking and door zone bike lanes.
I always move to the center of the lane or further out when going down a steep hill. I assume any place with parking is going to have 25, or maybe 35mph speed limit, and a car passing in the lane is way too unsafe to begin with. On the flat on residential streets, I generally just ride in the right tire track. Around here, the right tire track is never in the door zone.

Interesting that while the dummy is shown hitting the door, the three real-life instances show cyclists getting hit by the door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CudJvSbS2aY&feature=player_embedded

a good reminder


Also see this one, featuring League of American Bicyclists instructor Preston Tyree:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQ7aID1jHs&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1TQ7aID1jHs

Both videos are very educational.

No bike lane, I don't slow down, I just move further left and out of the door zone, taking the lane if necessary. If a bike lane is present and depending on the situation, I move next to, ride on, or well left of the inner most line of the BL to give myself more lead time for door openings. No way do I have to accommodate motorists at the expense of my safety as well as my commute time.

I sure don't see motorists worrying about having to scan for opening doors of parked cars as they plow along at or above the speed limit.

The motorist stands to lose paint, a mirror and pristine sheet metal if doored. The cyclist stands to lose his life. The motorist is far more likely to be seen or heard and the dooring aborted in time.

Don in Austin

The motorist stands to lose paint, a mirror and pristine sheet metal if doored. The cyclist stands to lose his life. The motorist is far more likely to be seen or heard and the dooring aborted in time.

Don in Austin

Motorists really don't have to worry about being doored in the fact that they generally get to operate well outside the door zone, yet expect us to operate within it.

At a speed "slow enough to stop," you may as well walk.Yep, unfortunately it's walk or slow down or try to time taking the lane. On a one way street, guess you could cross over and travel down the left side of the road ? Sometimes you have to do what is safest for yourself. In a door zone of parked cars, the door may never open, it may be only 1 or just a couple. The potential for a dooring can be lessened, being fortunate to see the car that parks as you ride to that zone of parked cars. Some things you look for as you approach. Like a pedestrian that was on the sidewalk as you approached and is no longer in sight, maybe they got into their car and is about to leave the parking space. Reading the situational road ahead might require more caution. On days with less traffic, taking the lane is a better option obviously, but there are some days that traffic is excessive and the motorists may even be tailgating each other. I don't necessarily know that for certain but it's a recipe, the prefect storm to not only getting hit by one car, but having several run a cyclist over ?

All I read was "Cyclist is lying" :notamused:

Seriously, I always thought vehicles should have sliding doors. Is that possible?

All I read was "Cyclist is lying" :notamused:

Seriously, I always thought vehicles should have sliding doors. Is that possible?Nissan seems to agree with you to a certain extent on their mini-van.

Motorists really don't have to worry about being doored in the fact that they generally get to operate well outside the door zone, yet expect us to operate within it.

Agreed, I had that conversation with a woman last week. She thought that even though I explained to her that the bike lane was unsafe because it was in the door zone that I still had to ride in the bike lane. Also sadly the in talking with city's Bicycle and Pedestrian office the gal I was talking with said that she didn't think that one would be able to convince a LEO that the reason that they were riding outside of the bike lane is because it was unsafe because of parked cars.

Also sadly the in talking with city's Bicycle and Pedestrian office the gal I was talking with said that she didn't think that one would be able to convince a LEO that the reason that they were riding outside of the bike lane is because it was unsafe because of parked cars.

No government bike/ped office will ever admit that a striped bike lane that they have marked is unsafe to ride in. They don't want to allow for the possibility of admitting liability for a defective design. Therefore, they are complicit with police who ticket cyclists for leaving the bike lane.