When riding my bicycle I treat it as if I were on my motorcycle, all cars are threats and if I can see someone in a car I am passing they will open the door so I plan for it
The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
271–280 of 612 posts
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#272The 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…
So where should the cars park then? Parking is a real issue in large cities and we won't solve it by removing even more spots. Other solutions (which are potentially more expensive) should be looked into before we consider removing street parking.
Remove street parking, narrow the streets (the space that used to be parking spaces doesn't need to be part of the street). Use some of the reclaimed space to build space-efficient parking (i.e. a high-rise parking garage), sell some of what's left to cover the cost, use the remainder for things of civic value (whatever we consider those to be - parks, museums, low-income housing, cafes...)
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taking the lane is precisely what allows you to make room for motorists. If a motorist makes a close pass when you've taken the lane, you just steer away from them and create some space. If a motorist makes a close pass when you're already hugging the kerb, you have nowhere to go. The best case scenario is that you'll crash into something without too many sharp edges. Taking the lane doesn't mean acting as an immovab…
There are more cyclists than young agile males. And your advice only applies to those. I'm trying to imagine a 60 year old lady on a bike applying this advice and fail to see any happy endings. And where I live old ladies on bikes are extremely common. Cycling advice should apply to all cyclists, not just to those giving the advice.
Some of the most assertive cycling lane-takers I have witnessed were elderly ladies. Might be because they are old enough to have first hand experience with traffic not yet completely dominated by cars. Even after nominal mass motorization (median household has a car), it took a few decades to displace other modes of road usage to the point were drivers routinely assume that there can be no other vehicles on a regular road, effectively declaring public roads to limited access motorways by negligent threat.
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#274The 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…
Why not get rid of bike lanes where you have street parking?
Sure, that's a choice we have to make as society, deciding which we consider more valuable.
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#275Earlier 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.
If you've tried driving in the Netherlands, you know why so many people prefer to ride a bike instead. Well maintained, but narrow and extremely busy roads, densely packed with tiny vehicles. Wearing a helmet while cycling in the Dutch bike lanes is a bit like wearing a helmet while walking on the side walk. I used to only wear it while racing. Since I had a bad crash after being hit in the eye by an insect, I wear a…
This comment is important in how it shows biking is totally different in The Netherlands. The first type of bike most non-Dutch think of when they hear 'bicycle', where the rider sits hunched forward poised to race is not even considered a regular bike here. If you go faster than 15mph you are basically considered to be comparable to a moped and doing it without a helmet is frowned upon even here.
When you are not in The Netherlands you should most definitely wear a helmet no matter what kind of bike. The fact that you can ride a bike without a helmet in The Netherlands is a sort of democratic miracle of the 70's where the public convinced the politicians to make bikes a first class mode of transport. The effect of this is that almost every road in The Netherlands has some sort of provision for bicycles, or has at least been considered to have some. And in most cases not just in the form of a line but actual infrastructures, curbs, asphalt, specifically constructed in a way to make bicycling safe.
And even when there would be no infrastructure for bicyclists, every motorist is trained to deal with cyclists. From the driving lessons (usually 40-50 hours are necessary to pass the exam these days) where a considerable amount of time is spent on being aware of cyclists, to the fact that when you're on a Dutch road and you want to turn right you are almost guaranteed to wait for cyclists you have to yield to, so not having a shoulder check habit wouldn't get you 100m out of your driveway without an accident.
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Wearing a helmet in your car would prevent a lot of injuries as well, and nobody does that. This is just a risk/reward trade off and I (as a Dutch cyclist) feel a few additional deaths on the total population is not worth the effort. And the things are uncomfortable and impractical: what are you going to do with it when you arrive on your destination? Lug it around all day? Bring a bag everywhere?
Don't you carry a bag around already? If your commute is one hour cycling in guessing you might sweat and need a shower?
I cycle to work (in the UK, similar climate I guess) for about 15 minutes each way with no steep roads and I gotta be very careful with my pace if I don't want to sweat.
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#277Is it just me, or is the cyclist in this gif(from the article): http://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2016/09/doorzone.g... Cycling way too fast on a narrow lane like this? I'm not saying that he's at fault, obviously the fault is 100% on the side of whoever opened the door, but if I was driving 60mph next to a lane of standing traffic, that would be completely irresponsible, because if someone pulled out into my…
So clearly cyclists can't win. If they travel at the same speed as other traffic you'll complain they're travelling too fast. If they slow down other people will complain about having to share the road with slow vehicles.
Well, I was thinking more about some studies that show it's the difference in speeds on the road that creates dangerous situations, and not the speed itself. So if the traffic is moving at 30mph, there is no problem with a cyclist cycling at 30mph. But if they are cycling at 30mph next to standing traffic, that's really dangerous. If you watch the gif it looks like the cyclist is travelling too fast for the conditions of the road - a pedestrian has to literally jump out of their way, and there's no time to react to something like an opening door - in fact, there's a pedestrian crossing after that taxi, if there was anyone crossing the road there's 0 chance that cyclist would stop in time.
I would feel exactly same way if it was a car driving this fast next to standing traffic - the same sort of danger.
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people in China don't wear helmets either. Helmets prevent brain injury, but generally you'd have to be going pretty fast, or get hit by a car really fast to land on your head to require one (and then you probably have other injuries to contend with). Also, we have bike light laws in California, but there are plenty of cyclists that don't use them. Personally, if I had to choose between riding without a helmet,…
> Helmets prevent brain injury, but generally you'd have to be going pretty fast, or get hit by a car really fast to land on your head to require one (and then you probably have other injuries to contend with). This is wrong. There's some research done on that over here (Finland). First of all, about two thirds of severe bicycle injuries happen without any third parties involved, cars or not. Head injuries are the wo…
I've seen research in the past that suggested wearing helmets on average was neutral or negative (something to do with adding weight to the head?) but can never find it when this topic comes up. Do you have a reference for the Finnish research?
Around the time I read about this research I also read that Switzerland and UK had been reluctant to regulate it in part due to conflicting research. Are you sure it's as clear as you make out?
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#279This is very old, for as long as I can remember (decades) you will fail to pass your driving test in Greece if you try to open the car's door with your hand closest to it and without checking the side mirror first.
Re: The Dutch Reach: Clever Workaround to Keep Cyclists from Getting “Doored”
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wear one when rock climbing, kayaking, snowboarding, skiing, motorcycle, bicycle, skateboard, football, etc. Pretty much any time I go over 8mph. I even considered one in aussie rules football but they were hard to find in the states. I found that helmets for winter sports are better than hats. They don't soak up sweat like a hat does so do better in cold and are better vented than a hat as well. They also really h…
That's a completely different situation than the average Dutch cyclist faces. First, there are no hills to be seen, so not that easy to pick up speed. Especially on a city bike which is 99% of the fleet. It's unusual to even reach 20km/h. People carry their shopping, kids, furniture and pets in them. They cycle in whatever they are wearing - suits, skirts, jeans, whatever; the fact you can just hop on a bike without…
> There was also this study from a university in Utrecht showing that [in the Netherlands] cyclists wearing helmets are more careless and cause more accidents, nullifying any safety benefit..
Are there any links in English to that study?
Someone said only people racing (or with racing bikes) trend to wear helmet in Netherlands. Knowing that it feels like that study confuses correlation with causation, but a university probably knows more than I do, hence why I'd like to read the study. Maybe it's just the press getting the wrong conclusion out of the study for agenda purposes.
I don't know. The helmets are not weird nor nerdy. They save lives even though you might not need it ever if you're lucky. I always wear helmet, high viz, reflective vest, lights everywhere... You know, I don't want to be that guy in the statistics.