The car-door. An object of serious infamy and pain for some unfortunate cyclists. While I myself have never been car-doored, one of my really good cycling buddies has, and in light of a recent Unofficial Bike Guide post that described such an event from the perspective of an automobilist, I want to provide a view of car-dooring from the perspective of the cyclist. What follows is the raw, uncut, and uncensored interview between myself (AS) and my car-door-surviving friend (A):A: I was riding home from class at ASU in Tempe, AZ one afternoon, and turned onto a side, residential street to get off a busy, main road. I was riding in a traffic lane as there was no bike lane on this street past a truck parked on the side of the road when all of a sudden, just as I was passing the mid-section of said truck, the driver's door flung wide open. As I was riding at a decent clip, I had absolutely no time to change course, brake, or do any preventive action. I crashed straight into that door (it should be noted that the elapsed time from the moment when the door opened to the time when I hit the door was probably less than half a second). I was lucky that it was a tall truck because I just hit the door, lost all momentum and landed in a heap with my bike right where the impact happened. If it had been a lower, car door, I would have flown over the door and suffered severe road rash, if not worse.
AS: Please describe the damage done to both you and to the car.
A: I ended up with the wind knocked out of me, and a huge black eye, plus some scrapes and bruises. Amazingly, my bike was completely fine. The door of the truck was bent beyond the range of the hinges (basically, "hyper-extended"), and would not shut again.
AS: What were the reactions of you and the car driver?
A: It all happened so fast for me that I was basically in shock. I was light-headed, couldn't breathe, and basically couldn't believe what had just happened. The car driver was actually angry. He didn't check that I was okay, he was upset that I had broken his door. He asked me for my phone number so we could figure out a way to settle the incident. I was in no fighting mood at that point and gave him my number. He called his insurance company, and they actually came to my house, interviewed me, found I was not at fault, and ultimately awarded me $250 to not sue him.
AS: What most shocked or surprised you about this experience?
A: As a generally cautious biker, I was surprised I didn't see anybody in that vehicle. I was even more surprised that the driver didn't take the 1 second necessary to look in his mirror and check for bikers, or other cars going down the road, and yet still proceeded to fling his door open as far as possible. Lastly, I was really upset that he was more concerned with his door than he was about the mutilated person lying on the ground.
AS: Could this situation have been avoided, and if so, how?
A: Definitely. The driver definitely should have checked before opening his door into traffic. If a car had been going by, he still might have lost his door, and it still would have been his fault.
AS: What could you have done to prevent this situation? What could the car driver have done?
A: I suppose I could have made myself more visible, but as I did not see anybody in the truck, I had no reason to feel like I needed to make myself visible for nobody to see.
AS: After surviving this, has your riding changed at all, and if so, in what ways?
A: I always give parked cars at least 5 feet of space. Believe it or not, this actually saved me recently from a repeat incident.
AS: What are your final thoughts, advice, rants, apologies, or dilemmas regarding your car-dooring incident?
A: Bikers should always be alert and prepared for a driver, even when sitting in a parked car, to do something unexpected. Even if certain laws are in place to prevent certain actions from happening, the truth is, some things still slip through the cracks, and it is better to be prepared for something like that to happen than to trust that the "law" will protect you. By the same token, as most of us who ride bikes probably also find ourselves as drivers from time to time, be courteous to those around you and protect your fellow bicyclists from harm by taking a moment to look around you before proceeding.
My own final thoughts: it is absolutely ludicrous for anyone to assume (as the driver did in the above example) that these incidents are somehow the fault of the cyclist. A person pedaling a bike on the right side of the road (as our cyclist above was doing) is following all the laws that he or she is required to, and it is insane to think that cyclists must somehow peer into every parked car, checking for inattentive drivers, and ready to swerve around suddenly opening doors (the apparent assumption of the car driver above). Bottom line: cars – all cars, whether moving or not – must recognize the bike lane (or if there isn't one provided, the far right side of the road) as a legitimate lane of traffic, and likewise, must respect cyclists as legitimate travelers. An automobilist would never just stop in a car lane, blindly open the door, and step out into the road, so why does this happen in bike lanes? Car-dooring is dangerous, and as is usually the case in bike-car collisions, one side loses out a lot more than the other (click here). These types of unfortunate incidents are sad reminders of the dangers and overall lack of protection that too many cyclists face all too often, and usually, at the hands of inattentive, careless, and sometimes entirely ignorant car drivers.
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