Doored

This account might not have covered everything, but 1) Where was the driver? 2) with a four-inch long, half-inch deep gash, shouldn't EMS been the first priority, and 3) why was it the biker's job to call authorities himself, when he was "wincing and breathing hard?" Was no one else willing to do so for him?

Just curious. This sounded serious.

Your list of do's for cyclists omits one of the most important rules for defensive riding: ride your bike far enough away from the cars so that if one opens you won't get doored.

The rule of thumb is to assume that every single driver's door is open, which means you have to clear all the cars by at least a yard.

It's very simple for bike riders. Don't ride where doors will be open.

To paraphrase Dennis Leary:
"That where I ride man!"
"No it isn't!It's where you open the %^#$!@%%^ door!"

The amazing thing about most of the responses is that they are critical of the intent of the original poster. The important message here is that bicyclists are common in our city and most drivers are not sufficiently aware of their presence. Inflicting pain, whether intentional or not, it not acceptable on our roadways, and drivers and passengers alike need to be aware of the narrow passage near the side of the road that bicyclists are allotted for travel. I nearly got doored myself this morning by a stopped car in traffic and I learned my lesson about parked cars several years ago after getting doored and am lucky to not have been run over by moving traffic. Veering out into the road to avoid parked cars is necessary to do at times, especially on narrow streets, but this practice obviously introduces its own dangers, and most drivers aren't sympathetic.

While I am of the opinion that drivers and passengers are most likely to blame in these situations, assigning blame should not be the important issue here; educating drivers and passengers to be aware of bicyclists is. I rarely yell at drivers when near-accidents are avoided but simply ask them to look more carefully next time. Aggression is not the answer.

Next time, please take a moment to slow down and keep an eye out for bicyclists.

Lets use this situation:

A car owner parks in a spot. He looks back, doesn't see anyone comming, (there is a biker 50+ yards back), the owner sees it is safe to open the door, opens his door, now the biker riding in the bike lane is distracted by another vehicle in the rightlane drift over into the bike lane. The biker is distracted by the vehicle comming into him and then crashes into the open door that he never saw in the first place.

Now when the police come, the biker could say the car owner opened the door right before he got there. The car owner, telling the truth, now has to question if he looked good enough and really isn't at fault.

Of course the vehicle that drifted into the bike lane should be at fault, but most of the time it is a situation like this that leads to an accident. In fact, maybe the driver that drifted never actually came into the bike lane, he was just close enough to distract the biker?

And I would hope people would only call the fire department, EMS and police if they really needed medical attention right at that moment, and not just to find out if the operator was suspended or not. Bikers should get the license plate and that will tell you exactly if the owner (not operator) has a registered vehicle, insurance, or an active license.

I don't ride a bike myself, I'm content with the T and walking. I tend to agree with most of the bikers here that drivers of cars need to be more aware. If a bike is colliding with a car in ANY situation, regardless of fault, the biker is probably going to get hurt and the driver of the car probably won't.

My issue, however, is with the crazy bikers who can't make up their minds about whether they actually would like to be treated as a car or as a pedestrian. If you're riding your bike in the road with traffic, follow the traffic rules! I can't even count how many times I've been stepping off a curb (with a walk sign) only to be nearly run over by a biker who thinks the red light doesn't apply to them simply because their vehicle of choice doesn't have four tires and an engine. And cars aren't allowed on the sidewalk, so why do you get to use it when the traffic is momentarily inconvenient for you?

I have a lot of respect for all the bikers who are respectful and just want to get to where they're going in peace (I couldn't do it, I'd be on the ground in the first five minutes); but being on a bike doesn't somehow make you immune to common courtesy and the general rules of the road.