Dooring

Cyclist riding in a bike lane situated in a door zone
Cyclist swerving to avoid door
Narrow bike lane concept intended to avoid door zone

Dooring is a traffic collision in which a cyclist is struck by a car door. The width of the door zone in which this can happen varies, depending upon the model of car one is passing. The zone can be almost zero for a vehicle with gull-wing doors or much larger for a truck.

Most areas have laws that require car users to check for bicyclists before opening the door of their vehicle,[1]  · [2] but there have been serious injuries and deaths caused by drivers illegally opening their doors in the path of a passing cyclist where this is prohibited by law.

Many areas have laws may be interpreted as requiring cyclists to ride in the door zone, meaning they may expose themselves to danger in order to keep out of the way of motorized traffic. These laws typically have exceptions; avoiding hazards, such as an open door, is sometimes among them.

The problem lies with avoiding this 5 feet (1.5 m) zone, which should be part of the parking zone, when there is a bike lane or the perception by law enforcement or motorists that one should be riding their bike out of the travel lane to not impede faster motorized traffic. In most jurisdictions, a cyclist is considered a driver/operator of a vehicle afforded the same rights as the driver of a motor vehicle; however, in some jurisdictions cyclists are further restricted by laws such as "ride as far right as practicable." From a cyclist's point of view, "practicable" includes safety, and safety is noted in many of these laws through exceptions; however, many law enforcement, judges, motoring public and even cyclists stop reading at "as far right." Most motor travel lanes adjacent to a bike lane are only 10–11 feet (3.0–3.4 m) wide, so if a cyclist has to use that lane to avoid hazards in the bike lane, it is too narrow to safely share with passing traffic and he/she should ride in a "lane-control" method as is allowed by most of these ordinances.[3]

Avoidance

Dutch Reach - Use far hand when opening car door

Because it is rarely possible to see and react safely to a suddenly opening door, traffic cycling educational programs teach cyclists to ride in the travel lane outside of the door zone despite the fact that in at least one place, New York, 96% of deaths have occurred outside of the door zone.[4] This is easier than locating bike lanes outside the door zone and increasing the width of parking lanes.

Motorists and passengers[5][6] - both front and rear - can make dooring less likely by practicing the "Dutch reach" - opening the car door by reaching across the body with the more distant hand.[7][5] In the Netherlands, drivers taking their license exam are required to open the door with their right hand, thereby turning their torso and allowing them to see any oncoming cyclists, hence the term "Dutch reach".[8] This move does not have a Dutch name, but in 2016 an American physician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, coined the term to help promote the Dutch method which was little known in the United States.[9][7][10] International interest in the term and method followed its coinage, suggesting that the far hand method was or remained little known across the globe.

Press, electronic media and internet news coverage about the Dutch Reach method have since occurred in Canada,[11] United Kingdom,[12] Austria,[13] Australia,[14] Belgium,[15] Brazil,[16] China,[17] Finland,[18] France,[19] Germany,[20] Hong Kong, Hungary,[21] India, Ireland,[22] Italy,[23] Spain, Japan,[24] Poland,[25] New Zealand,[26] Portugal, South Africa,[27] Spain,[28] Sweden, Switzerland,[29] Taiwan,[30] Sweden, The Netherlands,[31][32] and the United States of America.[33]

In early 2017 the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (UK) endorsed the Dutch Reach as the recommended road safety practice to avoid dooring collisions.[34] In May 2017 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' (USA) introduced the Dutch Reach far hand method into its 2017 Revised Driver's Manual, Chapter 4, Rules of the Road,[35] as best practice for safe exiting of vehicles.[36] Immediately thereafter the League of American Bicyclists called for its adoption nationally, in addition to safe infrastructure improvements and cyclist vigilance and door zone avoidance.[37]

Prevalence

It is difficult to find statistics on the incidence of door zone fatalities, serious injuries, and collisions as the type of accident is often not recorded consistently from city to city. However, an analysis of Chicago bike crashes found that there were 344 reported dooring crashes reported in 2011, for a rate of 0.94 doorings per day. Doorings made up 19.7% of all reported bike crashes. The number of additional doorings that occurred without being reported is unknown.[38]

Collisions

In Toronto, "motorist opens door in path of cyclist" collisions were 11.9% of all reported car/bike collisions in 2003.[39] Eight percent of serious injuries to cyclists in London in 2007 were caused by cyclists swerving to avoid opening car doors.[40] In the Australian state of Victoria between 2006 and 2010, car door openings caused eight percent of serious injuries to cyclists.[41]

Relative risk

Relative to other collisions such as getting rear ended, getting doored is less risky: "80.04% of those cyclists who were doored were injured, while 94.40% of those in non-dooring crashes were injured."[38] Also, it should be noted that getting doored itself usually is not fatal; rather, most serious door-zone-related injuries are sustained by getting hit by a motor vehicle while swerving to avoid the door. Thus, most deaths and serious injuries occur in the travel lane and not in the door zone.

Fatalities

In New York City, 3% (7 out of 225) of bicyclist fatalities in the ten-year period between 1996 and 2005 were from striking an open door or swerving to avoid one.[4] In London three people were killed in car door opening incidents between 2010 and 2012.[40] In two peer reviewed studies, 124 deaths in London during 1985-1992,[42] and 142 deaths in New Zealand during 1973-1978,[43] none of the fatalities occurred in door opening incidents. While there were 1112 collisions caused by opening doors in the Australian state of Victoria between 2000 and 2010, the first fatality occurred in March 2010.[44]

Bike lanes and door zone incidents

In a comparison of Santa Barbara (without bike lanes) to Davis, California (with bike lanes), 8% of the car-bike collisions in the former involved an opening door, whereas the latter had none.[45]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic..." CA CVC 22517
  2. ↑ Vienna Convention on Road Traffic: Article 24 "Opening of doors: It shall be prohibited to open the door of a vehicle, it open, or to alight from the vehicle without having made to do so cannot endanger other road-users."
  3. ↑ ...(vii) a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane UCA 41-6a-1105
  4. 1 2 "Layout 1" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  5. 1 2 "Dutch Reach: What is the Dutch Reach? - Road Safety, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, UK". Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  6. ↑ "Commonwealth of Massachusetts Revised 2017 Driver’s Manual, Chapter 4, Rules of the Road: "The Danger of Open Doors to Bicyclists"[cf. The Danger of Open Doors to Bicyclists, p. 109]" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  7. 1 2 "This cyclist wants drivers to do the ‘Dutch Reach’ - The Boston Globe". Retrieved 2016-09-24.
  8. ↑ "Drivers are required in the exam to use their right hand to open their door, which forces them to turn their torso. That makes it more likely they will look over their shoulder to check for oncoming cyclists who could get doored." A cyclist's mecca, with lessons for Boston by Martine Powers, The Boston Globe Sept 22 2013 https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/21/bicycling-dutch-way/kFRT0ABSPtUnXMIUj5zONM/story.html
  9. ↑ "Massachusetts Goes Dutch To Protect Cyclists From Injury - National Public Radio, All Things Considered, USA - Herein reported as first inclusion of 'Dutch Reach' method in a USA state's driver's manual, and introduces it as novel to NPR national audience.". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  10. ↑ "Idiomation: Historically Speaking - Dutch Reach". Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  11. ↑ "Le député Joël Lightbound fait la promotion de la "Dutch Reach"". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  12. ↑ "How opening your car door like the Dutch could save someone's life – The Telegraph-UK". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  13. ↑ "Schutz for Dooring: Türe öffnen mit der anderen Han-Weiner Zeitung-Austria". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  14. ↑ "How the 'Dutch reach' could help drivers protect cyclists from 'dooring' - Australia". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  15. ↑ "DE BLOG - BIJ VROOM.BE - Video: vermijd ongevallen met "The Dutch Reach"!-Belgium". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  16. ↑ "Como um simples hábito cultural holandês ajuda a salvar vidas de ciclistas no trânsito - Brazil". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  17. ↑ "Dutch Reach: a practice to protect bikers from "being doored" – Guangdong Province, China". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  18. ↑ "Hollantilaisilta erikoinen vinkki: Auton ovi tulisi aina avata "väärällä" kädellä – Finland". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  19. ↑ "Dutch Reach : comment ouvrir sa portière "à la hollandaise" pour sauver les cyclistes – Ohmymag - France". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  20. ↑ ""Einfacher Trick schützt Radfahrer" - DRadio Wissen - Germany". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  21. ↑ "Az ajtónyitás nem a "Dutch Reach" módszer alapján - Hungary". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  22. ↑ "The AA Blog: Could the dutch reach save lives? - Ireland". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  23. ↑ "La portiera dell’auto? Aprila come gli olandesi (ed eviterai di colpire un ciclista) - Italy". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  24. ↑ "自転車大国オランダが発明した車道を走る自転車をドアで打ちつけるのを予防する目からうろこな方法「Dutch Reach」とは？- Gigazine - Japan". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  25. ↑ "Na czym polega metoda the Dutch Reach? - Kierowcy i rowerzyści - Porady / Bezpieczeństwo". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  26. ↑ "COULD THE "DUTCH REACH" SAVE CYCLISTS FROM GETTING DOORED? – New Zealand". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  27. ↑ "BIKE HUB - simplicity wins the day - 'the Dutch Reach – South Africa". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  28. ↑ "Abrir la puerta del coche con el método holandés - Madrid, Spain". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  29. ↑ "Velopflock – Velos überall und rund um die uhr - Switzerland". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  30. ↑ "因"开车门"不当而导致的事故，十分常见，而且一旦发生，就可能是惨剧。 - China Daily - Taiwan". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  31. ↑ "Open het portier volgens de 'Dutch reach' methode - The Netherlands". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  32. ↑ "Veilig de autodeur opendoen op zijn Nederlands, ook in Amerika". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  33. ↑ "Massachusetts Goes Dutch To Protect Cyclists From Injury - National Public Radio, All Things Considered - USA". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  34. ↑ "Road Safety: Dutch Reach - What is the Dutch Reach?". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  35. ↑ "Commonwealth of Massachusetts Revised 2017 Driver’s Manual, Chapter 4, Rules of the Road: "The Danger of Open Doors to Bicyclists"[cf. The Danger of Open Doors to Bicyclists, p. 109]" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  36. ↑ "MassDOT adds ‘Dutch Reach’ to driver’s manual-Boston Globe". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  37. ↑ "Does your state do the "dutch reach?" - Bicycle Friendly State, League of American Bicyclists". Retrieved 2017-06-09.
  38. 1 2 "Doorings in Chicago and NYC are still a sorry state but one of them is doing something about it". Grid Chicago. 2012-09-28. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  39. ↑ "City of Toronto: Transportation Services". Toronto.ca. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  40. 1 2 Laker, Laura (24 July 2012). "Cyclists must steer clear of the threat of parked cars". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  41. ↑ "Heavy toll of car dooring incidents points to need for bigger fines". Slater and Gordon Lawyers. 31 August 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  42. ↑ McCarthy, M.; Gilbert, K. (1996). "Cyclist road deaths in London 1985-1992: drivers, vehicles, manoeuvres and injuries". Accident Analysis and Prevention. 28 (2): 275–79. PMID 8703286. doi:10.1016/0001-4575(95)00061-5.
  43. ↑ Atkinson, J.E.; Hurst, P.M. (1983). "Collisions between cyclists and motorists in New Zealand". Accident Analysis and Prevention. 15 (2): 137–151. doi:10.1016/0001-4575(83)90069-6.
  44. ↑ Power, Liza (26 November 2011). "Reflecting on a tragedy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  45. ↑ Lott D. F. and Lott D. L. (1976). "Effect of Bike Lanes on Ten Classes of Bicycle-Automobile Accidents in Davis, California". Journal of Safety Research. 8 (4): 171–79.
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