Last night I was truckin' on up J Street (three lane, one way arterial) and in the center of the right lane. No problem, keeping up with traffic and staying out of the door zone. And I notice some movement in a Volvo station wagon on the curb just up ahead of me. No problem, as I said, I was clear of the door zone. But it pops open just as I reached it, so that had I been riding timidly on the far right, I would have been doored.

As I pass the open-doored Volvo I say in my best Daddy voice: "Door!"

There is the slightest pause and then I heard a shriek from the driver. An honest-to-god shriek. I think I scared her but good. And I don't regret it at all. I hope she'll apply the lesson to the next time she's about to pop open her door on a busy street without first checking her mirror.