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The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

nytimes.com

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Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#51

Post by dfox »

emptybits wrote: post #14

The Dutch Reach is a reach to ask for, IMO. I write this as a cyclist living in Vancouver (one city named in the article) who has been doored and nearly doored. IME, shoulder checks while actually driving seem to be a dying art form. So asking for a while-parked check like the Dutch Reach ... seems optimistic. But no harm in trying. The illustration is great. I applaud all efforts to make this technique more known. F…

I used to do shoulder checks often but stoped to do so unless absolutely necessary because the practice also causes you to lose awarenes of what is in front of you and more importantly you can lose awareness of the direction of your movement.

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#52

Post by afarrell »

The door handle of some models of the Mini Cooper affords doing the Dutch Reach.

It is a circle with a shelf that faces forward in a way that makes it awkward to use the hand nearest the door to open. So, you reach across your body with your other hand and in doing so, you turn your body and head and your peripheral vision can catch a moving cyclist.

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#53

Post by [deleted] »

Symbiote wrote: post #26
mattlondon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to also check the "blind spot" (1) which is big enough to lose a truck in let alone a cyclist. 1 - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=car+blind+spots&t=brave&ia=images&...

Is this novel enough that you felt you needed to give a link?!?! It was literally the first thing my driving instructor spoke about, after I'd got in the driver's seat, and something the examiner was particularly careful to ensure was being checked.

[deleted]

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#54

Post by dminor »

Swizec wrote: post #34
emptybits wrote: post #14

The Dutch Reach is a reach to ask for, IMO. I write this as a cyclist living in Vancouver (one city named in the article) who has been doored and nearly doored. IME, shoulder checks while actually driving seem to be a dying art form. So asking for a while-parked check like the Dutch Reach ... seems optimistic. But no harm in trying. The illustration is great. I applaud all efforts to make this technique more known. F…

As someone who’s gotten doored once or twice and nearly doored all the time on my Boosted Board I make sure to shoulder check prodigiously when driving to the point it annoys my girlfriend. I also make sure to always open passenger doors with the wrong hand when Ubering. I don’t think it’s ever saved anyones life, but I do what I can. Biggest thing cars can do and I always do is don’t pass a cyclist only to turn righ…

There's no such thing as the American driving test - every state has their own test and their own rules.

Using the far right lane to turn is supposed to be safer for cyclists by reducing the possibility of right hook collisions. It is, however, less convenient for cyclists since they may be blocked by a car waiting to turn.

California requires cars to merge into the bike lane before making a turn.

Oregon on the other hand forbids cars from using the bike lane for turns.

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#55

Post by kbenson »

rocqua wrote: post #49

I'm dutch, and I've only ever heard about this on the internet, never here. Notably, I don't recall this whilst getting my driving license only 2 years ago. To check, I got my theory book. It says the following: > After the part about doing visual checks > When it is visually safe, hold the door handle with the left hand, and open the door using the right hand as far as is necessary and exit the vehicle. So it explic…

> After the part about doing visual checks > When it is visually safe, hold the door handle with the left hand, and open the door using the right hand as far as is necessary and exit the vehicle.

That is the Dutch reach, to my understanding. 99% Invisible did a story on it a couple years ago, and that was covered here.[1] 600 comments.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12674533

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#57

Post by moron4hire »

I don't need to awkwardly reach across my body to remember to check for traffic before exiting my car after parallel parking.

Here's what I do. I pop my door open an inch, just crack the seam, to give people behind me a signal that I'm exiting. Once the door is ajar, I do my check to see if the way is clear. As much as you should be worried about dooring a cyclist, you should be worried about getting cracked in the skull by your own door should a bus clip it.

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#58

Post by jernfrost »

I think the key to safety for bikers in the Netherlands is simply the sheer number of them. When you visit the Netherlands. Within 15 minutes you have gotten used to scanning for bikers everywhere. There are so many of them and they come so frequently that you cannot not get into the habit of looking for them.

The importance of numbers is something often overlooked. I read an article discussing the different approaches to biking the Netherlands and my native Norway has. Here in Norway we are obsessed with bike helmets. The dutch never use helmets. Yet we have more head injuries in Norway for bikers.

So the number of bikers in the Netherlands seem to create a better protection for bikers than the usage of helmets. And here is the kicker: If you don't demand that people use helmets when biking, the number of bikers will rise to a level, where the number of injuries will be lower than if everybody used helmet.

That is what the research suggested anyway. I will probably still use a helmet in Norway due to the terrain, but it is still food for thought I think.

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#59

Post by IkmoIkmo »

wool_gather wrote: post #30
twblalock wrote: post #25

This "Dutch reach" thing is an example of a phenomenon I've seen several times before. People who promote a practice seem to think their argument will be more persuasive if the practice came from an admired foreign country, yet the people who live in that country have never heard of it and/or do not commonly do it. In this case it's the Dutch, but I've seen all kinds of similar nonsense about Japan.

The article explains clearly that it is a thing in the Netherlands; it's a standard part of driver education there. > “It’s just what Dutch people do,” said Fred Wegman, professor emeritus of Traffic Safety at Delft University of Technology and the former managing director of the National Institute for Road Safety Research SWOV in the Netherlands. “All Dutch are taught it. It’s part of regular driver education.”

Never heard of it. /D

Re: The Dutch Reach: A No-Tech Way to Save Bicyclists’ Lives

#60

Post by huskyr »

Like many people already mentioned in this thread, it's silly to attribute bike safety in the Netherlands to just this. To get a better view on why bike safety is so much better here, i think this video really explains it very well in five minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2THe_10dYs. The other videos are very much worth the watch as well.
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