Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

99percentinvisible.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 612 posts

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#151

Post by jacalata »

solatic wrote: post #129
Zanni wrote: post #51

The real answer is to get rid of street parking when you have a bike lane. They're incompatible. In fact, just get rid of street parking altogether. As a bicyclist, I've been doored. As a pedestrian, I find it difficult to see around parked cars to know if it's safe to cross the street in some locations. As a driver, I find it difficult to to see around parked cars to know if it's safe to enter the street AND I have…

Getting rid of street parking hurts people with handicapped permits. In Israel, if you are eligible for a handicapped permit then you can get a street parking space in front of your apartment building reserved for your car (with signage saying that if the car parked there doesn't specifically have license plate number X then it will be towed). Telling these people to go a few blocks to an underground parking garage,…

Well in America that doesn't exist, so street parking must not affect disabled people on America. Or maybe "street parking" is too vague a term.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#152

Post by cateye »

Bullshit article: the rule that everyone learns is to check your mirror and double check by looking over your shoulder. I have never heard of the right hand rule.

It gets a habit because the chances are pretty high because of narrow roads and a lot of other traffic behind you.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#153

Post by et-al »

astrodust wrote: post #43
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #15

Or, as a bike rider one can simply look into a cars cabin and see if a person is inside. I assume everyone is a terrible driver, have no idea I'm on the road. I am a regular bike commuter on traffic heavy Los Angeles. I'll never understand the mentality of bicyclists who are more concerned with asserting their rights as opposed to exercising caution and restraint. Graveyards are full of people who had the right of wa…

This is a reasonable approach when the world is full of hostile cars, but it doesn't have to be that way if drivers are more careful. Some parts of town here riding a bike seems like attempting a trench run on the Death Star, there's innumerable hazards and if you're not hyper-aware of everything you will get smacked hard by one of them. This is completely unacceptable. Nobody should have to maintain absolute situati…

I agree with your points, but the reality is that we live in a town where everyone else is distracted, so the onus is on us (bikers) to be aware. That's it.

Things are improving, and maybe one day biking in an American city may be as relaxing as a European bike path, but until that day, I think it's extremely important for cyclists to realise the dangers that are out there, and how to minimise that risk. And for some reason, this is a discussion that I rarely hear about.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#154

Post by Arnt »

tluyben2 wrote: post #136
djsumdog wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of bicycles in The Netherlands is absolutely surreal. Both in major cities and out in the suburbs, bicycles are everywhere. I also find it interesting the Dutch rarely ever wear helmets. Large cities in Germany or the UK or anywhere else I've seen cannot compare to the magnitude of people on bicycles in The Netherlands.

> I also find it interesting the Dutch rarely ever wear helmets. Good or bad; I am Dutch and I would confidently say that all people I know would never ride a bike again if they have to wear those silly helmets. More likely if it would be mandatory, they just would refuse and not do it, but if largely enforced they would just not use bikes anymore.

You learn to appreciate a helmet if you share roadspace with a certain subset of vehicles and drivers. Which you, blessedly, don't.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#155

Post by deanclatworthy »

tluyben2 wrote: post #136
djsumdog wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of bicycles in The Netherlands is absolutely surreal. Both in major cities and out in the suburbs, bicycles are everywhere. I also find it interesting the Dutch rarely ever wear helmets. Large cities in Germany or the UK or anywhere else I've seen cannot compare to the magnitude of people on bicycles in The Netherlands.

> I also find it interesting the Dutch rarely ever wear helmets. Good or bad; I am Dutch and I would confidently say that all people I know would never ride a bike again if they have to wear those silly helmets. More likely if it would be mandatory, they just would refuse and not do it, but if largely enforced they would just not use bikes anymore.

Odd that you say this about helmets. It only takes one mistake, one cyclist not paying attention, one mechanical fault, one swerving car or an obstacle in the road - and you'll be landing face first into the tarmac wishing you wore a helmet.

185 cyclists died last year in the Netherlands [1]. I wonder how many of those weren't wearing a helmet.

I also found this interesting article [2] going into a lot more detail on why the Dutch don't seem to want to wear them.

[1] http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/04/traffic-accide...

[2] http://tedx.amsterdam/2015/08/why-doesnt-the-dutch-bike-cult...

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#156

Post by rosege »

smartbit wrote: post #55

It is true that getting doored is not part of the Dutch vocabulary as it is not something that happens often. But there are more reasons than grabbing the handle with the opposite hand. A non extensive list: 1) Dutch car drivers all have been bicyclist before they get their driver license, everyday to school more than an hour being nothing being frowned on. 2) Major transit bike routes have separate bike lanes, the t…

There are other risks though - I always found it odd that motorised scooters are allowed on the bike paths. My Dutch neighbour had a very bad accident when one hit him on his bike and was off work for quite some time.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#157

Post by CorbenDallas »

Amsterdam resident here. Such a good infrastructure and laws for the bycyclists make them not giving a single shit about the way they are actually driving their bycicles. And their behaviour and driving style is often very offensive to both pedestrians and car users. So it's not that straight and black and white.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#158

Post by lukaslalinsky »

I'm honestly surprised this is such a common problem in the US. Most of the parallel parking spaces here are next to the road, so if you open your door without looking, some other car will crash into you. We have been trained since we were children to always look when exiting a car parked on a street. We were not even allowed to exit from the road side of the car most of the time. As a driver, you have to be super careful, because when you are parked, there is usually a steady traffic less then 50cm next to your left. You basically always have too look and double-check before opening your door on a street. I live in Slovakia, but I think my experience matches most of the countries in this part of Europe.

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#159

Post by mafribe »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #155
tluyben2 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also find it interesting the Dutch rarely ever wear helmets. Good or bad; I am Dutch and I would confidently say that all people I know would never ride a bike again if they have to wear those silly helmets. More likely if it would be mandatory, they just would refuse and not do it, but if largely enforced they would just not use bikes anymore.

Odd that you say this about helmets. It only takes one mistake, one cyclist not paying attention, one mechanical fault, one swerving car or an obstacle in the road - and you'll be landing face first into the tarmac wishing you wore a helmet. 185 cyclists died last year in the Netherlands [1]. I wonder how many of those weren't wearing a helmet. I also found this interesting article [2] going into a lot more detail on…

Typical bicyle helmets don't help much with a face-first landing on the tarmac, your chin takes most of the pounding. I can confidently say that from repeated ... 'experiments'. In contrast, a motorcyle helmet that also wraps around the chin would be of great use in most bicycle accidents.

   185 cyclists died
A more interesting statistic would be: how many of those deaths would have been prevented by a bicycle helmet?

Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”

#160

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #135
stouset wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure, that's the theory. But in practice some drivers will see it as an aggressive move to take 'their' lane. Having commuted by bicycle for almost a decade, this is the theory. In practice, if you take the lane, virtually every driver will simply move over one lane to pass. Some consideration needs to be taken, of course — if doing this is causing traffic behind you, you should move over and let cars pass (or bike…

You are likely young and able to keep up with traffic. But not everybody is young and able to keep up with traffic. Older people will cycle slower (and are far more vulnerable if they should fall or get into an accident), and kids are going to get clobbered if they should occupy whole lanes. Keep in mind that any advice that you give for a class of traffic should apply equally to all members of that class, not just t…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN