Perhaps the drivers should go to bike school?
In light of my entry last week [mb] urging bikers to learn evasive procedures, I thought I should report back that I now think the drivers of cars should also consider this. This comes courtesy of the lady who did not look behind her before opening the door of her SUV into 15th ave E. yesterday. Luckily I managed to hit the brakes, and while I took a tumble, I was relatively unscared, however, it is inspiring this public service announcement to drivers:
LOOK BEHIND YOU BEFORE OPENING THE DOOR. I mean, what if I were a truck as opposed to a cyclist? There goes your door!
Glad to hear you’re OK Naomi! That sucks about the person not looking behind them when opening the door, I hope your bike is OK too. People like that are morons that will only learn the lesson the hard way, when her door is ripped off and and flung halfway down the street by a truck.
Amen!
I’m a daily bicycle commuter. Bikers should always ride outside of the door zone no matter how far left that puts them, taking the lane if necessary. Overtaking accidents are relatively rare, but dooring is unfortunately very common.
And yes, I agree with you that drivers need training, badly. I am an advocate of requiring drivers to demonstrate competency riding a bike in traffic before they can take a test to drive. If everyone had awareness of what it was like as a bicycle dealing with cars that rarely pay attention, there would be far fewer accidents and much better bicycling amenities.
After a few years of urban riding you learn to be acutely aware of the characteristic “ker-klunk” noise of a car door in the process of being opened, and take appropriate action.
May be why I’ve only been nailed by a door once in 25 years in Seattle. It’s also why I’m _very_ concerned by the increasingly popular habit of cycling with headphones on: people are sacrificing a whole load of safety-relaed sensory input!
Drivers talking on cell-phones are a much greater hazard than door openers.
There’s no point in nagging drivers to look before opening the door. Everyone already know this, but people make mistakes or get distracted and they forget sometimes. I’m sure everyone one of us has opened a car door without looking at least once.
As a cyclist, you either have to ride slow and scan parked cars to see if they are occupied, or leave enough room between you and the cars to clear an open door.
When I ride, every so often I’ll get harassed by someone…. usually a guy. Not like any of this behavior is mature or whatnot, but that’s a different story.
As being adopted as of late into a family whose lives run around bikes (literally), I get to hear all those wonderful stories about bad things that have happened to them or someone they know as they were innocently just riding their bike. A few of the highlights:
— the rider having a gun pulled on them
— my boyfriend being chased by a potbelly pig
— being attacked by a dog (nothing super horrible, but still…)
Overall, YES YOU ARE RIGHT!!!! People in general are a bunch of selfish bastards, so this type of behavior does not surprise me the least.