Elkhound

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/o...,7794271.story

sggoodri

As usual, no clue as to how cyclists can easily prevent dooring by staying out of the door zone, or how door zone bike lanes might contribute to the problem.

Bekologist

the active transportation alliance has surveys that show 50 percent of bicyclists have been doored at least once?

what the....?

Hmm. isn't opening a door unsafely and affecting other traffic against the law in illinois? seems the trib would have mentioned the law.

randya

yes, it would be quite shocking to someone who doesn't believe doorings are a problem

Zaneluke

OK I am confused.

causing a crash that doesn't count as a traffic accident, at least not to the Illinois Department of Transportation, because the car wasn't moving.

Can you get a DUI in that state if you are sitting in the car, keys in pocket, drunk as a skunk?

The bike is moving, should be counted as a traffic accident so statistics be gathered.

himespau 

I don't know, that number seems awfully high. I mean I know that they're a problem (and am sometimes quite scared riding in the bike lanes), but that seems to be a bit of hyperbole at that point.

mnemia

I agree that that number seems quite high. It's probably a self-reported survey (which would bias the results by selecting for people who have a complaint to make). It also might include a number of incidents like near-misses and people who think that dooring is a problem, but haven't had it happen to them. Such are the hazards of using non-random surveys to conduct "research".

DGozinya

FTA: The Active Transportation Alliance...wants the state to require law enforcement agencies to keep statistics on those accidents. Chicago does track them — there were 72 last year — but IDOT doesn't.
-and-
The alliance's own surveys, meanwhile, find that half of bikers have been doored at least once.

So, there are 144 cyclists in Chicago? j/k

That article felt like it was written by committee.

TheHen

It's funny how car-bound people just don't see the violations of motorists. Even if one is blind, the fact that cars kill 30,000 and injure 2,000,000 per year should lead one to at least entertain the possibility that many motorists are routinely driving in ways that violate the vehicle code. And yet:
I would suggest that reality is closer to cyclists thinking we own the road (we pay more per mile) and motorists thinking the laws don't apply to them. Even the dooring theme in the article testifies to the scofflaw behavior of motorists.

sggoodri

How does Chicago track them? How are they reported and recorded - by police, hospitals, or cyclists themselves?

Police in most states don't collect standard reports on injuries not involving moving motor vehicles. Such injuries include cyclists falling after hitting potholes, tracks or soft shoulders, bike-bike collisions, bike-ped collisions, pedestrians slipping on icy sidewalks, etc. Such injuries actually outnumber injuries involving motor vehicles but are less likely to be fatalities.

randya

if improper opening of a car door is in the MV code, and injuries and fatalities are occurring, they should track it

exile

According to the Chicago Tribune there were 76 dooring crashes in 2010 and 62 in 2009 reported to the Chicago Police Department. Number of tickets issued 0. One of the possible reasons why dooring accidents are not reported to IDOT, Because there are over 100 fields in an accident form for a single vehicle crash.

Digital_Cowboy

Correct on both counts. It just takes a little common sense to figure out that the best way not to get doored is to not be where the door is going to be when it opens.

I do disagree however that doorings aren't counted by the IDOT as the car isn't moving. It is a car, it was involved in a crash, it should count. And as has been said before how can anyone hope to get funding to correct the problem if the stats aren't being kept?

sggoodri

It turns out that North Carolina does allow collection of dooring and other parked-car bicycling crashes. I don't know how reliably they are reported, however. (Police will not normally collect bicycling crashes that do not involve a motor vehicle at all, such as single bike crashes - although a handfull of these do appear in the NC database - and might be resistant to making reports for dooring collisions unless the car was damaged or the cyclist went to the hospital by ambulance.)

According to the statewide crash report database from NCDOT there were 19 "bicyclist overtaking - extended door" crashes in the entire state between 1997 and 2008, an average of two reported per year. None of the reported collisions were in a bike lane, but NC has very few bike lanes, and fewer still door zone bike lanes, although a number of door zone lanes have been introduced in the last year or two.

There were also 37 "bicyclist overtaking - parked vehicle" crashes reported.

https://www.pedbikeinfo.org/pbcat/_bikequery.cfm

Whiteknight

Relative to Pennsylvania.

Motor Vehicle Code
Chapt. 37, Subchapt. A, Offenses in General, Section 3705

Another section of the code describes a bicycle on the street as being the same as a motor vehicle in rights and duties.


The other week there was an accident report in our local newspaper. A person parked and swung the door open into moving traffic which caused an accident involving several other vehicles with serious injury. The driver was cited for opening the car door into moving traffic.
The first time I have seen this section of the code actually enforced.

In this city actual enforcement of various sections of the motor vehicle code depends on who gets what portions of any fines involved. Unless the city gets a good cut of the fine the police simply do not apply the motor vehicle code in accidents.

Section 3714 of the motor vehicle code goes into degrees of fault.

Digital_Cowboy

That's good that they are at least making an effort to keep the stats. As we've said before it'd be nice if cyclists received all of the same protections under the law as do cars/trucks/motorcycles. And given that they (the police) do keep stats on single motor vehicle crashes they should do the same for bicycles as well.

Granted, yes I know that a cyclist is probably not going to report that s/he got distracted and rode off of the road. But it should be reported.

As it may be something more complicated than the cyclist "getting distracted," it could be a tire trapping storm grate, or a pot hole, or loose gravel, or some other debris in the road. Again as it's been said if the stats aren't kept to prove where the problem lays how are we going to get it funded to get it fixed?

CB HI

Dam you Chicago cyclist clogging all the city roads.