d_monie1

I was told that hitting a opening car door was and inevitablity. I didnt think it would ever happen to me. I was always watching for stupid people who fling their car doors open when parallel parked, without looking. Sunday morning I was out for a quick ride and I was riding along next to parallel parked cars but a good distance off of them, slowing down, I looked down for a split second at the brake hood on my roadie taking my right hand off the handlebar to adjust the tension on the cables on the left side because the front derailleuir would not go into the large chainring. Before I could even sneeze I saw the door fling open. I slammed into the lady's door, coming to a complete halt. The top point of the door dug into my chest and I rolled hard to the right absorbing the impact with my shoulder. Next thing I realize is the expletive that came out of my mouth and hearing the lady saying how sorry she was. I never fell so I told the lady I was ok and rode off.

I realized later on in my ride how fortunate I was not to have been injured more or damage my bike. I had a superficial laceration to my chest from the point of the door and bruising on my chest and shoulder. If i was going faster or If I hadnt not rolled to the right and onto my shoulder, I might have seen the hospital.

Now I try ride totally clear of parallel parked cars, if possible, but the tradeoff is now I am in traffic more.

worker4youth

Yes, don't ride in the door zone...and don't adjust your derailleurs while riding next to parked cars

Mariner Fan

Glad your o.k. geez, that would suck.

DrPete 

Yeah, the parked cars are a total danger zone that requires total attention. Granted I don't ride past a lot of parked cars most rides, but if I am I stay WAY clear and try to minimize the times I take my eyes off them.

Glad to hear you're OK, though. It sounds like you didn't burn in too hard, but if you start having any new or worsening pain, trouble breathing, etc. you should go to your nearest ER.

DrPete

DrPete

Cleave

Hi,

Glad to hear that you were relatively unscathed. These kinds of crashes are generally much worse.

Yesterday, I came as close as I have in years to hitting a door. I know that riding in the late afternoon through beach towns can be more hazardous than smoking, but after my Saturday race (debacle) I didn't have the motivation to ride earlier. I was heading towards home through moderate traffic and shortly after getting cut off by a yahoo who passed me on the right (another story) I was in between stopped traffic and parked cars. I generally try to look through rear windows to try to predict problems but the sun was low to the point where I couldn't see through the glass.

Anyway, I was right on top of this car when the door flew open. I could almost feel the edge of the door on my right leg as I swerved. I shouted some expletive and continued on.

BTW, you might want to double-check your fork for damage.

d_monie1

Thanks for the advise Cleave. I will check the fork. I kinda think I was lucky to have the right hand off the handlebar. Its hard to describe but at the slower speed I was going it helped with rolling to the right as the top point of the car door hit me to absorb the impact

sfend002

Top Gun Music..... "Highway to the Door zone"

voltman

On your CR1? That would have been a lousy way to lose that bike.

Dahon.Steve

I thought this thread was going to read about how you went over the handlebars, broke bones and destroyed the bike. I still get nightmares about getting doored. Consider yourself, the luckiest man on the board today.

popeye

Many years ago I was towing two gravel trailers through Fullerton Ca. I was stopped at
a red light but when I took off I heard a woman screaming. She had opened her door
in front of one of the trailer tires and her car ended up on the sidewalk pushed by the
door. I don't know what she was thinking if anything.

nova

Lol at both points. You should see some of the streets here where they permit parking. Not riding in the door zone would mean riding down the center between lanes have the time.

id see a funny thing one day relating to car doors. Dog was chasing me well more like shadowing me along the side walk i was on the road. Then i hear this thump. Some one in the passaenger side of a car on the street opened their door. Guess what the dog did haha. Was some big sheperd mix.

ive never seen such a dumb founded look on a dogs face in my life.

As for slamming in to car doors theres not always any thing you can do to avoid at the very least close calls.

Car can have a over sized door driver can park to far away from the curb. Some times with legimate reasons. Such as a paralized/wheel chair bound passenger or plain old trash and junk on road side.

Worst i ever had happen was clipping some ladys door when she flung it open while digging around in her purse. She was parked way away from the curb. I knocked a large chip of paint off her door road by said your fault and kept going.

rule

Any door zone incident that you survive is worth the education that you get from it.

GuitarWizard

Generally speaking, many people are stupid and don't think. Well....let me rephrase that. They don't think about anything other than themselves.

Then there's the other half of it.....those who ordinarily do think before they act, but have a momentary brain fart and do an "oops".

oboeguy

I once saw (and posted here about it) a potential doorer make an idiot out of himself. This was on W45th just to the west of Times Square: a non-yellow taxi double-parks to let out a passenger; passenger, like an idiot, flings open the traffic-side door... into the path of a huge sanitation department (IIRC) vehicle which nearly ripped off the door. Man, did the driver of the taxi get PO'd!

I wonder sometimes with all the doorings affecting cyclists how more car doors don't get ripped off by cars and trucks. One could argue that the doorer "doesn't see" a cyclist coming but will see a car or truck, but, IMO, most doorings (or missed doorings, IME) are the result of the doorer simply being too stupid or distracted to look before opening the door into traffic.

For my one actual dooring I had little choice. I wasn't riding in the door zone, but a taxi zoomed ahead, stopped in front of me and giving me the option of hitting the trunk, going left into speeding traffic or trying to squeeze between the taxi and the curb. Option three led to a sprained elbow, ouch. My point is that doorings aren't always avoidable, though it sounds like the OP was distracted at the wrong time. Glad you didn't get seriously hurt!

urbanknight

I always go into hyper-alert mode when I start riding by a row of parked cars. I've never been doored, but I'd like to keep that tally so I focus on almost nothing else during that time. Glad you're ok, it's a battle zone out there.

Jinker

While there's always those rare sketchy occasions where the rules don't apply, I find you can usually mitigate most of this risk.

I've found that on roads with a lot of parked cars which are too narrow to safely ride outside of the door zone yet on the right of the lane, the traffic is probably moving slow enough that you can take the lane.

On faster roads, the parked cars are usually in their own lane (or whole lane's width worth of road), which you can take the leftmost edge of, or even ride right on the divide between right and left lanes, with there still being room for people to get past in the left lane.

When things get too tight, I slow right the heck down. Running into a door at 15kph is much better than at 35. Of course, getting doored and ending up on the ground in traffic is not such a pleasing alternative.

The key, for me, seems to be vigilance. That's why I can't understand the people lollygagging around downtown on bikes wearing headphones, oblivious to the world. They're often also cutting across intersections taking a left turn against a red light, riding in the middle of the road, or against the flow of traffic. They combine these behaviours shockingly frequently. It must be knocking a significant amount of years off their average life expectancy.

XC99TF00

I almost had a "modified" dooring this morning on my ride. The car had gone past an open space, and all of a sudden threw it in reverse to back into a curbside parking spot, and obviously had not been looking to see if anyone was around. I was literally next to the car, and as she backed the rear end of the car into the spot, she caught my rear wheel with her bumper, and almost sent me into the back of the car parked in front of the open slot. I barely saved it, and checked my rear wheel to make sure it was true (which it wasn't), after she rolled down her window to yell at me for not giving her the right of way and showing me that ever-so appropriate middle finger as I rode ahead to get the hell away from her. So not really a dooring, but still involved a parallel parking slot. Who'd have thought road rage existed on nearly empty roads at 6AM?

Hambone

You should have whipped out your cell phone and told her you were calling the cops. When she asked why, tell her your new wheel would cost $250 and you wanted to file an accident report so you could put the claim in to her insurance company.

urbanknight

That's what would make me stop and ask for her driver's license and registration "in case the damages exceed $500". Just treat it like a normal car accident and don't mention fault, they might get frightened. Who knows.

Lucky07

The old school commuters say "Give the door four". Ride 4 ft away from parked cars. Not always practical, but good advice.

XC99TF00

Yeah, should have but didn't, guess I was just thinking get the F*** away from that nut case...

willus

well here's someone who wasn't as lucky as the OP... really sad.

https://www.nypost.com/news/regionaln...hiaramonte.htm

urbanknight

That's why I'd rather contend with the parked car than traffic. I'd love to give 4 feet, but that would put me right in front of traffic moving at 35-55 mph. I ride just to the left of the white line if possible and keep an eye on every car that might have someone in it. I look through back windows for people inside and prepare for the worst when I see a head.

bmclaughlin807

Doorings don't just happen to cyclists!

My father in law drives a bus for Tri-Met (City bus in Portland, OR) Last year he was driving along in a very narrow lane next to a row of parked cars, and someone flung their door open... The person was lucky they kept their arm... the door ended up about 20 feet up the road.

The person's insurance ended up paying for damages to the bus and two other cars parked there (That I guess the door hit after it was ripped off the car!)

ramtaajogi

2 months ago same thing happened to me, but i actually got stitches in my shoulder. the insurance company paid for me $850 for my trek 1000 and let me keep the bike which can still ride around town just fine. i got a trek 1500 after that.