[s-cars] Dooring

[Jack Walker]

Man I feel your pain!

 

Yeah but being 100% correct doesn't keep you from being dead!

As a serious cyclist myself and having more than enough run ins with cars
and cyclists myself while driving, one of the most important elements we ALL
need to have is common sense!

 

Dennis Leary comments are pretty right on, as I watch bike messengers weave
in and out of traffic, pull onto sidewalks to avoid traffic and then drop
back into traffic from between parked cars. They pretty much are asking for
it. 

 

Just because you are in the right doesn't mean you can't be super sensitive
to the simple fact that even though we as cyclists make eye to eye contact
with drivers you are completely vulnerable. WE even though we are riding in
a bike lane can't assume that nobody is going to turn right in front of us
as they speed up to pass us and then jam on the brakes to turn into a
parking lot or make a right turn as we are in the intersection as well. WE
have to expect that nobody is really paying attention to cyclists! I live in
one of the supposedly best bike friendliest towns in the USA, Portland -
Oregon.

 

I've ended up on the hood, and trunk of cars, once when riding across a
bridge and taking up enough space to allow me an escape exit if something
were to go south, a 2 ton truck with a lift gate passed me and then at the
bottom of a fast exit ramp stopped way short and I ran into the back of his
truck. As I was pulling my totaled bike out from under the truck he was
looking in his rear mirror and flipped me off.

 

PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!

 

> This kind of collision is completely, 100% the fault of drivers and

> completely, 100% avoidable.  PLEASE, check your mirrors before opening

> your door!  I lucked out in that I wasn't thrown into the road, more

> crash-landed straight, but people can be and are seriously

> injured/killed when they swerve / are knocked out / fall into traffic

> and struck or run over.  I've also seen people's hands permanently

> disfigured from catching the door edge, and heard stories from friends

> who ended up stuffed into the driver's footwell.

> 

> -Brett