Peter Rosenfeld
Thu, 11 Jul 2002 05:53:13 -0700
> From: Leslie Tierstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I saw someone get doored this afternoon. It was scary. > ...a woman rider going about 12-13 mph >...the injured bicyclist was unconscious for at least a minute... > > The bicyclist was well out from the parked cars, but not far enough -- > especially for a wide van with a wide door. > > Be careful out there, and take the lane. Exactly so - opening a door happens so quickly that one can seldom avoid it even at lower speeds. And even if you have time to see it coming, you don't have time to decide if it is safe to suddenly change your lane position out into traffic. So the only solution, if you are going over about 5 mph, is to ride outside of the door zone. Riding within the door zone is one of the most common errors I see in Philadelphia. Dooring is surprisingly common in cities, so it is well worth learning to avoid it. And even though the motorist is at fault in these situations, it is actually quite difficult for then to see a bike in their sideview mirror unless they VERY carefully check the road. Bike lanes that encourage riding next to car doors are just dumb. Instead, if we are going to build bike facilities at all in these situations, we should be building facilities that encourage 'taking the lane' when necessary. A bike lane should never encourage riding next to any road hazard. An even greater problem are the bike lanes that encourage riding next to the curb near intersections. BTW - two door sedans also have very wide doors. They can really catch you by surprise because you just perceive them as another sedan and don't expect a door that can stretch out 50 inches. -Peter Rosenfeld ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the Bicycle Coalition of the Delaware Valley list named "bike." To subscribe or unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.