Originally Posted by chroot
And my point is that there any many situations where it's impossible to avoid being at least briefly in door zones, because there are as many idiot motorists as there are idiot cyclists. People do a lot of really weird things in cars that are definitely not "vehicular," particularly in dense urban areas, and those actions defeat the entire notion that being VC will keep you perfectly safe from doors. VC is not a panacea, and preaching that it is is counter-productive.
Motorists are legally obligated to look for oncoming traffic, of any kind, before opening doors. While I agree that cyclists should do everything possible to avoid being in the door zone to begin with, that's really not always possible in practice. Since you seem to be a fan of purely philosophical debate and arguing about unnaturally perfect scenarios, I guess I should expect you to argue that in a world of perfect motorists, the perfect cyclist should never get doored. Over here in reality-land, I find it reprehensible that you would ever blame a cyclist for a motorists' legal negligence. What's next? Girls who get ***** should accept responsibility, since they wore a miniskirt? After all, in a perfect world they should never go to places where ******* might go.
- Warren
Good Lord.
First of all, none of this applies at slow pedestrian speeds of under, say 6 mph, where the ability to stop in time and avoid injury is not a problem.
All I've written about in this thread is about avoiding door zones. The relevance or even meaning of non sequitors like "VC is not a panacea, and preaching that it is is counter-productive" is beyond me, and is the only counter-productive preaching going on here.
You obviously have an ax to grind.
I disagree with your premise that it's not always possible to avoid cycling (above ped speeds) in door zones. I assure you, it is, and it's not even that difficult. Sometimes it's a tradeoff between slowing down (or even stopping) or taking the risk, but it's always the cyclist's choice.
****? Please. What's next? A Nazi analogy?
Yes, technically it's the door operator's legal responsibility to check before they open the door. But counting on them doing so is stupid, and
irresponsible, and, yes, it's your
fault if you do anyway and get injured as a result.