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78-420: Dooring is the act of opening a motor vehicle door into the path of another road user. Dooring can happen when a driver has parked or stopped to exit their vehicle, or when passengers egress from cars, taxis and rideshares into the path of a cyclist in an adjacent travel lane. 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

156-471: A 2010 study comparing streets in Copenhagen that had had cycle tracks and bicycle lanes added to them found that cycling volume increased 20%. However, on the cycle track streets bicycle accidents increased 10% more than would be expected from the changed bicycle and automobile traffic volumes, making the cycle tracks less safe for cyclists than the unmodified roads. Streets with bicycle lanes added saw

234-403: A 5% increase in bicycle traffic but a 49% increase in bicycle accidents. Despite this, the study notes that "the gains in health from increased physical activity [from increased numbers cycling are] much, much greater than the losses in health resulting from a slight decline in road safety." Although prior studies did not differentiate between new bike riders and those that had changed routes due to

312-506: A U.S. TNC implemented automatic in-app push notifications to prompt its drivers and clients in 22 U.S. cities to use the Dutch Reach when exiting. Uber followed one month later with a pilot Dutch Reach education program for its users & drivers in four North American cities. Some police departments, hospitals, motor vehicle insurance companies, transportation management companies and personal injury law firms have also begun promoting

390-422: A design, is intended to match with the rest of the vehicle's exterior, the central purpose being to add to the overall aesthetic appeal of the vehicle exterior. A vehicle typically has two types of doors: front doors and rear doors. Loosely related are: vehicle hoods and vehicle trunk lids . There are also doors known as a " hatch " (see " door categorization " below). Most vehicle doors are secured closed to

468-458: A dooring incident. Also, in some jurisdictions, dooring is not officially considered a motor vehicle collision if the vehicle is parked. Informal logs of dooring fatalities based on found media reports have been maintained on the internet. An annotated, international memorial spreadsheet with entries from 1987 to the present is currently maintained by an American cycling safety advocate. In New York City , 3% (7 out of 225) of bicyclist fatalities in

546-457: A driver suddenly opens his or her door immediately in front of the cyclist without first looking to see if it is safe to do so. There are many different types of vehicle doors, including the following: A conventional door, also known as a regular door is hinged at the front-facing edge of the door, and so allows the door to swing outward from the body of the car. These doors are relatively safe, in that if they are opened during forward motion of

624-656: A folded lever mechanism to push and hold the window out from its closed position. Vehicle doors often include brakes , or 'stays', that slow the door down just before it closes, and also prevent the door from opening further than its design specification. The current trend is to have a three-stage door brake. Door brakes exist because the doors on the first vehicles were heavy, so they had to be pushed hard to make them close. Soon after, automotive manufacturers managed to construct lighter doors, but users were used to closing doors with significant force; therefore doors could become damaged. Door brakes were then introduced to slow down

702-401: A junction of ways, the principle of "destination positioning" comes into play, and they should position themselves laterally according to their destination (left, straight or right): Vehicular cyclists do not avoid riding in bicycle lanes, rather they decide whether to ride in the space demarcated as a bike lane based on their own judgement about safety. They are also advised to stay outside of

780-471: A manual crank, or switchable electrical motor (electric car windows other than the driver's window can usually be controlled at both the door itself and centrally by an additional control at the driver's position). In the past, certain retracting windows were operated by direct (up or down) pressure, and were held in the up position by friction instead of by an internal lift mechanism. Other cars, particularly older US-manufactured vans , have hinged windows with

858-692: A method for strong and confident riders to cope with fast motor traffic, many recommendations of vehicular cycling are widely applied. Vehicular cycling has at times been controversial, particularly on larger roads not designed for bikes. A vehicular cyclist is one that travels within the roadway in accordance with the basic vehicular rules of the road that are shared by all drivers and adhering to traffic controls. Vehicular cyclists, Forester advises, should feel and act like vehicle drivers, and should smoothly and safely flow with other vehicles. In Effective Cycling , Forester introduced what he calls "the five basic principles of cycling in traffic". Lane control

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936-405: A motor vehicle after colliding with or swerving to avoid the obstructing door. Thus, most dooring deaths and serious injuries occur in the travel lane and not in the door zone. As with other dooring statistics, even fatalities are often under-reported as, for example, secondary collisions after door avoidant swerves may not be recognized by authorities, the media, witnesses or perpetrators as due to

1014-478: 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. In 2016, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in America reported that for the period 2012–2015, doorings of bicyclists constituted 16% of injurious or fatal bike-vehicle incidents in which the cyclist was likely not at fault. A 2015 study for

1092-672: A reversed door latch lever in its Vantage sports car whose ergonomic design strongly favors far-hand use for opening while making the near hand habit awkward. Several automakers and automotive technology companies have introduced or are now developing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to help prevent doorings. Technologies include use of external onboard cameras and sensors, seat buckles, or GPS data, computer recognition software etc. linked to sound or light signals or door operation to alert or warn drivers and/or cyclists, or forestall door opening. At least one auto-parts supplier has developed an automatic detection system to prevent or warn

1170-428: A station wagon or SUV can have four-doors since the opening to the cargo area via the rear tailgate or a hatch is not counted as a door. Passenger cars will typically have two-doors (such as coupes) or four-doors (such as sedans). Some cyclists refer to colliding with an open car door as being " doored " or "door checked". This usually happens when the cyclist is riding alongside a row of parallel-parked cars, and

1248-588: A threshold to step over to get in and out. Also called the Jatech rotary drop door, or disappearing car door. One example of a car with disappearing doors is the Lincoln Mark VIII concept car. Various countries have their own regulations for vehicle doors. Global Technical Regulation No. 1, Door locks, is one of the few global regulations. Various countries are members of these regulations, for instance, Australia, Canada, European Union, Japan, Russia, and

1326-447: A track. They are commonly used on the sides of minivans , leisure activity vehicles , light commercial vehicles , minibuses , and some buses as this allows a large opening for equipment to be loaded and unloaded without obstructing access. A canopy door sits on top of a car and lifts up in some way, to provide access for passengers. It is similar to an aircraft canopy . There are no set standards to canopies, so they can be hinged at

1404-486: A travel lane. Street planners are encouraged to avoid placing bike lanes in door zones, and to implement instead buffered, separated and/or protected bike lanes and tracks, or shared lane markings. Motor vehicle bureaus and departments of transportation are advised not to restrict vulnerable road users into door zone bike lanes by force of traffic code. Motor vehicle engineers and manufacturers are deploying new technologies to warn or prevent vehicle occupants from exiting in

1482-399: A vehicle with sliding or gull-wing doors or much larger for a truck. In many cities across the globe, doorings are among the most common and injurious bike-vehicle incidents. Any passing vehicle may also strike and damage a negligently opened or left open door, or injure or kill the exiting motorist or passenger. Doorings can be avoided if the driver checks their side mirror before opening

1560-524: Is because they are not paying attention. Accordingly, if a cyclist attempts to ride where a motorist is drifting in order to ‘reclaim their right of way’, it is likely that they will not be seen. Citing the rise in US crash fatalities, David Dudley at CityLab wrote, ”the swift erosion of America’s driving abilities is yet another reason to admit that the cause of “vehicular cycling”—the safe-biking philosophy that says bikes should ride assertively rather than cower at

1638-722: Is difficult to determine exactly how many bicycle accidents and serious injuries are attributed to dooring because the Ontario Ministry of Transportation does not classify dooring as a collision, and therefore these numbers are not regularly reported alongside other types of bicycle accidents. There are reports that in Toronto alone, dooring incidents increased by 58% in the three-year period between 2014 and 2016. Eight percent of serious injuries to cyclists in London in 2007 were caused by cyclists swerving to avoid opening car doors. In

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1716-635: Is highly critical of vehicular cyclists in One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility , arguing that their criticism of 'political' cyclists "totally ignores all the relevant socioeconomic, physical, material, and cultural factors that influence—and in most cases dictate—everyday transportation choices." Critical Mass co-founder Chris Carlsson describes vehicular cycling as a naïve, polarizing "ideology" that "essentially advocates bicyclists should strive to behave like cars on

1794-400: Is recommended for all road users, done by means of upgraded driver licensing and education standards, curriculum and testing, and public education and behavior change campaigns to improve road safety conduct. 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 safe zone or travel lane well outside

1872-591: Is that cycling is much safer and more popular precisely in those countries where bikeways, bike lanes, special intersection modifications, and priority traffic signals are the key to their bicycling policies." The authors of a 2009 meta-study on cycle infrastructure safety research at the University of British Columbia similarly conclude that "in comparison to cycling on bicycle-specific infrastructure (paths, lanes, routes), on-road cycling appears to be less safe." Forester objects to Pucher's conclusions, primarily on

1950-413: Is the practice of controlling a lane (also known as "using the full lane" or "taking the lane") to enhance safety. Controlling the lane is asserting control of the space one needs to be much more conspicuous (as compared to riding relatively inconspicuously near the road edge) to traffic ahead as well as behind, to be further from edge hazards, to preclude another vehicle from passing dangerously close within

2028-537: Is the practice of riding bicycles on roads in a manner that is in accordance with the principles for driving in traffic . The phrase vehicular cycling was coined by John Forester in the 1970s. In his book Effective Cycling , Forester contends that "Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles". These techniques have been adopted by the League of American Bicyclists and other organizations teaching safe riding courses for cyclists. As

2106-783: The Australian state of Victoria between 2000 and 2010, the first fatality occurred in March 2010. In a comparison of Santa Barbara (without bike lanes) to Davis, California (with bike lanes), 8% of the car-bike collisions in Santa Barbara involved an opening door, whereas Davis had none. Car door Car doors may be manually operated or with power assist supplied by the vehicle. Powered doors or power doors may be found on minivans , luxury vehicles , or modified cars . Car doors are designed to facilitate ingress and egress by car passengers. Unlike other types of doors ,

2184-593: The City of Vancouver , British Columbia in Canada found that doorings accounted for 15.2% of all bike collisions and was the foremost cause of bike-vehicle collision injuries which resulted in hospital emergency department treatment (22%) – not including additional injury incidents due to dooring avoidant swerve crashes requiring emergency treatment. In Toronto, "motorist opens door in path of cyclist" collisions were 11.9% of all reported car/bike collisions in 2003; however, it

2262-473: The Supreme Court of California merged strict product liability with comparative fault . The court affirmed the right of General Motors to introduce evidence that decedent Kirk Daly flew out of his Opel not only because the door popped open, but because he was intoxicated and not wearing a seat belt—but in the same opinion, reversed and remanded for retrial because the jury had not been instructed on

2340-482: The door zone ; when passing motor vehicles that are parked parallel to the road, no closer than the largest estimated width of an open door, plus some margin for error. The cycling skills manual Cyclecraft , the foundation of Bikeability , the UK 's national standard for cycle training, defines the terms primary riding position , where the cyclist will be more visible and predictable to motor vehicle traffic, as being in

2418-541: The 1970s, some vehicles used exposed push buttons to operate the door latch, such as certain Opel models. The unfortunate side effect of this design was that external objects which touched a vehicle during a high-speed spinout could trigger the latch; the door would pop open and centrifugal force would eject any unrestrained vehicle occupants. A death that occurred exactly that way led to the landmark legal case of Daly v. General Motors Corp. , 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978), in which

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2496-532: The American-style labeling is occasionally used. Doors that are for passenger egress are counted in North American markets. The openings used for cargo access are generally described by their function - such as hatch, tailgate, or liftgate - depending on the vehicle design. For example, a "two-door hatchback" will have two side doors for passengers and a rear opening to the cargo area. Similarly,

2574-523: The Australian state of Victoria between 2006 and 2010, car door openings caused eight percent of serious injuries to cyclists. 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." Also, getting doored itself usually is not fatal; rather, most serious door-zone-related injuries are sustained by getting hit by

2652-501: The Netherlands driving instructors and driving school companies refer to it by description and not by a name. The far hand move is not literally specified by Dutch traffic code to pass the safe parking section of the road test. Rather, Dutch regulations for licensing set two standards to ensure safe exiting of vehicles to protect vulnerable road users (VRUs), viz: Articles 4e and 6a. As fewer than half of Dutch license applicants pass

2730-585: The Netherlands still occur, and the far hand method is still taught, though public awareness of it and its practice in the Netherlands has waned. As noted above, the far hand technique does not have a Dutch name, but in 2016 an American physician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, coined the term to promote the Dutch method which was little known in the United States. The "Dutch Reach" coinage reflects that

2808-411: The US, males make up 88% of total cyclist fatalities. Many governmental and professional organizations emphasize differences between a person driving a car and a person riding a bicycle and consider separated bicycle facilities to be best practice for promoting safety. The rise of cell phone distracted driving has increased the chance that if a motorist is drifting into a shoulder or bike lane, it

2886-529: The United States. China and India are not members. Another international doors regulation is regulation #11: door latches and door retention components. Application of this requirement is done for instance by the European Union, Russia, Japan, New Zealand and Egypt. There are also national regulations: Vehicular cycling ‹The template How-to is being considered for merging .›   Vehicular cycling (also known as bicycle driving )

2964-580: The alternative was riding on a street with parked cars. Forester believes segregated cycle facilities to be more dangerous than on-road cycling due to increase risk from crossing conflicts and that, in the case of sidepaths, they can only be used safely by cycling "very slowly" Urban planning professor John Pucher writes that "Forester makes a number of theoretical arguments why bikeways are unsafe." Forester objects to rejection of his test results. Pucher's various transnational studies of bicycle transportation lead him to conclude that "the overwhelming evidence

3042-543: The carnage. Anecdotal reports date the 'reach across' practice to that era. But public awareness of the method in the Netherlands extends at least back to 1961. Since then bicycling in the Netherlands is much safer. Innovative and extensive infrastructure improvements, separate and protected cycle tracks , strict driver education and testing, popular use of bicycles for daily transport and dedication to road safety , all contributed to its dramatic decline in road injuries and fatalities. Yet dooring injuries and even fatalities in

3120-462: The center of the traffic lane, and secondary riding position as being 1 metre (3.3 ft) to the side of moving traffic, but not closer than 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) from the edge of the road. It states that it is sensible to use the primary riding position as the normal position, only using the secondary riding position when it is safe, reasonable, and necessary to allow faster traffic to pass. On multi-lane roadways, some vehicular cyclists ride on

3198-519: The door just before the door closed to prevent damage; these soon became standard. Hatchback and estate or station wagon vehicles are typically described as 'three-door' or 'five-door' models in Europe and some other parts of the world. In the case of saloons or sedans and coupés , the boot/trunk lid is not counted as a door by definition because it is for a separate storage compartment - these cars are marketed as 'two-door' or 'four-door'. In Europe,

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3276-611: The door of a vehicle, to leave it open, or to alight from the vehicle without having made sure that to do so cannot endanger other road-users." (Article 24 — Opening of doors). Most areas have laws that require car users to check for all approaching traffic including cyclists before opening the door of their vehicle. Some jurisdictions also consider it a traffic code violation if vehicle doors are unnecessarily left open and thus continue to obstruct an adjacent travel lane. Despite such laws, serious injuries and deaths continue to be caused by occupants opening doors or by bicycle riders riding in

3354-426: The door zone as measured from the tip of the handlebars. As street planners often lay out painted bike lanes in the door zone, many bicycle safety advocates advise cyclists to maintain a safe distance from car doors nonetheless and disregard such markings to do so. However riding on the margin of the bike lane places a cyclist in increased proximity to overtaking vehicles and also at risk of being squeezed closer into

3432-464: The door zone. A 2015 British survey found that 35% of drivers self-reported that they did not check for traffic before opening their vehicle's door to exit. Dooring prevention has proven a difficult problem as incidents can occur wherever hinged vehicle doors are carelessly opened and suddenly obstruct travel lanes or sidewalks. Surveys of driver behavior upon egress, in the United Kingdom and

3510-402: The door, or performs a shoulder check. Use of the Dutch Reach (or "far hand method") for vehicle egress has been advised to prevent doorings, as it combines both measures. As bicyclists cannot rely on motor vehicle occupants to use required caution on exiting, bicyclists are advised to avoid the door zone of stopped or parked vehicles. The term is also applied when such sudden door opening causes

3588-666: The doorzone. Other advocates therefore instruct bicyclists to take control of the full travel lane and adopt " vehicular cycling ", to avoid dooring, considering this to be the safest position overall. Also to avoid doorings, bicyclists are advised to exercise vigilance, scan for the presence or likelihood of an occupied parked or stopped vehicle. Risk is increased especially in areas and at times of high parking turnover, on main arteries, during morning and evening commutes, and in retail, restaurant and entertainment districts with parallel parking. Bicyclists are also advised to assure their visibility to motorists and in mirrors both day and night by

3666-415: The driver when the door is not closed. The door light is standard equipment on all cars. In American cars from the 1950s-1990s, they had buzzers or "door dingers" that sounded, along with the check light, whenever any door is open. Most vehicle doors have windows , and most of these may be opened to various extents. Most car door windows retract downwards into the body of the doors and are opened either with

3744-480: The examination on first attempt, some but not all Dutch driving instructors and texts for the theory examination teach the far hand maneuver as most assured to demonstrate safe exiting on both the written and road tests. The reach method is likely less practiced by Dutch motorists today than in the 1960s–1980s when Dutch road fatalities numbered in the thousands and prompted the Stop de Kindermoord protest movement to end

3822-572: The exterior side of the vehicle door contrasts in its design and finish from its interior side (the interior part is typically equipped with a door card (in British English) or a door panel (in American English) that has decorative and functional features. The exterior side of the door is designed of steel or other material like the rest of the vehicle's exterior. In addition, its decorative appearance, typically colored with

3900-503: The far hand countermeasure. In New Haven, Connecticut, it was variously called the "Amsterdam", "European cities ' " or "reach-across" method (2013). In Fort Collins, Colorado, it became the "Opposite Hand Trick" (2014). However the tip remained nameless in San Francisco, California (2015); Montreal (2014), and Vancouver (2016), Canada; New Zealand (2015); and Victoria, Australia (2012). In Australia two slogans have emerged to prompt

3978-402: The front, side or back - although hinging at the front is most common. Canopy doors are rarely used on production cars , but are frequently used on the 'closed' variants of Le Mans Prototype endurance race cars. They are also sometimes used on concept cars . A disappearing door slides down and under the vehicle. This type makes the whole side of the passenger compartment open, and only leaves

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4056-428: The grounds that Pucher ascribes the increase in use of bikes and bike safety observed to the bikeways without showing that the bikeways are the actual cause of the increased use or safety. Jennifer Dill and Theresa Carr's research on bicycle transportation in 35 U.S. cities also suggests that "higher levels of bicycle infrastructure are positively and significantly correlated with higher rates of bicycle commuting"; and

4134-401: The gutter seam. Cyclists can also filter forward past stopped motor traffic. Where they exist, wide outside lanes may also be shared in order to facilitate being overtaken by faster traffic. When riding in a lane sharing position, vehicular cycling, because it is based on following the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles, specifies that cyclists must yield to overtaking traffic using

4212-816: The habit: "Lead with your left" (origin uncertain); and "Always Cross Check", devised by a road safety organization. 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. In 2019, the National Safety Council (U.S.) and American Automobile Association began including the far hand reach in their respective defensive driving and novice driver course materials and road safety programs. National, state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations have played an important part in promoting

4290-399: The handlebar. However, a cyclist may also use a hand signal (arm extended to the side) to request that an overtaking driver make room. The cyclist then follows up with a second look to the rear to assure that the driver has made room. Negotiation is a technique for cyclists to safely traverse one or more lanes by merging in with the flow of other traffic. The basic method is to negotiate for

4368-680: The implementation of bike lanes can limit competent cyclists perceptions of where it is permitted to cycle. He also notes some sport cyclists prefer to ride in lane, compared with a parallel path, because it reduces the risk of collision with side turning motorists assuming there is not a strong separation of road users. The movement surrounding vehicular cycling has also been criticized for its effect on bicycle advocacy in general. In Pedaling Revolution , Jeff Mapes states that Forester "fought bike lanes, European-style cycletracks, and just about any form of traffic calming ", and "saw nothing wrong with sprawl and an auto-dependent lifestyle." Zack Furness

4446-424: The inside of the outermost lane (on the side furthest from the road edge in the lane nearest the road edge), for enhanced visibility to motor vehicle traffic. This position may be indicated by road markings. Cyclists looking back over their shoulders is an essential traffic skill, in order to Particularly in slow traffic, a cyclist's look to the rear may serve as a signal, allowing the cyclist to keep both hands on

4524-1106: The measure. These include: We Are Cycling UK; the League of American Bicyclists; the Bicycle Network (AUS); the Cycling Action Network (New Zealand); New York Bicycle Coalition; Bicycle Friendly Driver Program of Fort Collins, Colorado; MassBike and Somerville Bicycle Committee. Other governments are now adding the 'reach' to driver's manuals and education, taxi and for-hire ridesharing regulations, and road safety campaigns. Examples include: Great Britain , Commonwealth of Massachusetts , Illinois , Washington state, Pennsylvania , South Australia , Washington D.C. , City of London , Berlin , New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Burbank, California . In 2018, Addison Lee launched its own anti-dooring far hand reach campaign branding it 'the Addison Lean'. In April 2019 Lyft ,

4602-675: The method was common to the Netherlands before being 'imported' to the U.S. It was described as a Dutch road safety measure in the American mainstream press in 2011 by the New York Times and the Boston Globe in 2013. The method can be traced beyond northern Europe starting in the 2010s. From 2011 to 2016 several bicycle advocacy organizations and road safety agencies in the United States, Canada and Australia added advisories or launched anti-dooring campaigns which included or featured

4680-459: The method. Until 2018, the scientific safety literature had been silent on the relative merits or flaws of near hand versus far hand egress from vehicles. However a human factors research paper Validating the Dutch Reach presented at the 7th International Cycling Safety Conference in October 2018, found initial evidence for its safety advantage. In 2019 British automaker Aston Martin introduced

4758-460: The oncoming rider to swerve to avoid collision (with or without loss of control), resulting in a crash or secondary collision with another oncoming vehicle or another vehicle that is directly next to the cyclist. The term also applies when a door is negligently left open, unduly blocking a travel lane. Many countries are aligned with the Vienna convention which states: "It shall be prohibited to open

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4836-705: The other part of the lane, or obtain right-of-way to move over through signaling/negotiation before moving laterally into that space. For example, California's CVC 22107 Rule of the Road specifies, "No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal." Any cyclist who moves into lane space used by overtaking traffic without signaling and yielding until safe would be in violation of CVC 22107 in California, or in violation of similar rules of

4914-507: The presence of oncoming traffic. Auxiliary side view mirrors are now available which fit on the B- pillar to assist rear-seated passengers preparing to exit. Road safety advocates also call for greater enforcement, fines and penalties, while insurance companies and personal injury attorneys apply sanctions after the fact in the form of increased premiums and liability lawsuits. Improved training in road sharing by motorists with vulnerable road users

4992-458: The road in other jurisdictions. Vehicular cyclists use "speed positioning" between intersections. The basic principle is "slower traffic keeps to the outside; faster traffic to the inside". When lanes are marked, vehicular cyclists generally operate in the outermost travel lane. When lanes are not marked, vehicular cyclists generally operate as far to the outside of the traveled way as is reasonably efficient and safe. As vehicular cyclists approach

5070-404: The roof rather than the side. They are so named because, when opened, the doors evoke the image of a seagull opening its wings . Swan doors operate in a similar way to conventional car doors, but they open at an upward angle to helps to clear curbs, especially on lower sports cars. Sliding doors open by sliding horizontally or vertically, whereby the door is either mounted on or suspended from

5148-445: The same lane, and encouraging drivers of overtaking vehicles to change lanes when they pass. Due to the relatively narrow nature of bicycles, road lanes are sometimes wide enough to allow them to safely share lanes side by side with motor vehicles. In lanes where this is possible, vehicular cycling suggests riding about 1 metre (3.3 ft) to the outside of overtaking traffic and about the same distance from roadside hazards such as

5226-418: The side wing mirror , look out to the side and then over one's shoulder to scan for traffic before opening. Once the door is partly opened, as one leans out one's over-the-shoulder view is now clear, no longer limited by side pillar or door frame. Reaching across helps to curb wide, sudden opening as a further safeguard against dooring. Even as the maneuver is becoming known elsewhere as the "Dutch Reach", in

5304-781: The side of the road—is increasingly compromised by reality.” Segregated cycle facilities exist in some areas, allowing cycling without sharing roads with motorized traffic. Cities that are structured that way report a high degree of bicycle usage and low injury rates, such as in the Netherlands . A 2001 study in Edmonton, Alberta , Canada concluded that cyclists found 1 minute of cycling in mixed traffic as onerous as 4.1 minutes on bike lanes or 2.8 minutes on bike paths. A study of cyclists in Washington D.C. found that cyclists were willing to spend on average 20.38 extra minutes per trip to travel on an off-street bicycle trail when

5382-503: The state of Florida, USA, found that 1 ⁄ 3 and 3 ⁄ 5 of drivers respectively did not check for oncoming road users before opening. Cyclists are advised to avoid door zones and exercise great caution if in range of open doors from either side when in traffic. Motorists and passengers are advised to exercise heightened caution and vigilance before and during entry or egress from their vehicle. Passengers are advised to exit curb-side only, and never when vehicles are paused in

5460-415: The streets of America." The makeup of vehicular cycling advocates as a group in the United States was criticized in the 1990s for being typically club cyclists that are well educated, upper-middle income or wealthy, suburban, and white, representing a social and economic elite that are able to dominate public discussions of cycle planning issues. Vehicular cyclists have also been disproportionately male. In

5538-488: The ten-year period between 1996 and 2005 were from striking an open door or swerving to avoid one. In London , three people were killed in car door opening incidents between 2010 and 2012. In two peer reviewed studies, 124 deaths in London during 1985–1992, and 142 deaths in New Zealand during 1973–1978, none of the fatalities occurred in door opening incidents. While there were 1112 collisions caused by opening doors in

5616-429: The then-rapidly developing doctrine of comparative fault and there was a high risk that the jury may have improperly applied the doctrine of contributory negligence to treat such inflammatory evidence of the decedent's negligence as a complete defense. Door switches are simple on/off mechanisms connected to the interior light (dome light), and may also be connected to a warning light, speaker, or other devices, to inform

5694-583: The use of bright and reflective clothing, vests, reflectors and front lights. Marked caution, slow speed and preparedness to brake when in the door zone are also counselled. Motorists and passengers – both front and rear – may be able to make dooring less likely by practising the "Dutch Reach" – opening the car door by reaching across the body with the more distant hand which promotes a shoulder check – out and back – to scan for cyclists and other oncoming traffic. Reaching across turns one's upper body and head outward. It encourages drivers and front passengers to use

5772-582: The use of the adjacent lane, move into that lane, and then repeat the process for any additional lanes. The cyclist moves only when there is a natural gap in motor traffic to move into, or after someone slows down explicitly to allow them to move over. The steps of the process for each lane change are: Some have claimed that transportation engineers in the US have become too focused on separating cyclists from pedestrians and motorists. According to an Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal piece by Martin Pion,

5850-549: The user before opening the car door if a bicycle is approaching. However, the introduction of automatically folding side view mirrors may increase the risk of dooring should the mirrors retract before the occupants exit the vehicle. 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, USA bike crashes found that there were 344 reported dooring crashes reported in 2011, for

5928-510: The vehicle body with latches that may be locked to prevent unauthorized access from the exterior. There are a variety of car door locking systems. Door locks may be manually, or automatically operated, and may be centrally or individually operated. Also, they may be operated by remote control, with the transmitter often integrated into the main vehicle access and a key for the ignition. Additionally, rear passenger doors are frequently fitted with child safety locks to prevent children from exiting

6006-415: The vehicle unless the door is opened from the exterior. These are also frequently used on police cars, to prevent suspect criminals from escaping whilst in police custody. Vehicle door latches on practically all vehicles today are usually operated by use of a handle which requires the user to pull , lift , or tug —with some force towards themselves—rather than push . There is a reason for this. As late as

6084-740: The vehicle, the wind resistance will work against the opening door, and will effectively force its closure. A suicide door is hinged on its trailing edge. The term "suicide door" was coined due to the potential for the door to fly open when the latch was released while the car was in motion. Scissor doors rotate vertically upward and are hinged at or near the end of the windshield. They are used in Lamborghinis, Alfa Romeos, and other brands. Butterfly doors are similar to scissor doors, but while scissor doors move up, butterfly doors also move outwards, which makes for easier entry/exit, and saves space. Gull-wing doors are hinged on their uppermost edge, at

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