Cyclists and Boarders Know! Cardoors are a Deathtraps! When you hear a "Click" get out of the way fast! Watch Out! Always look inside parked cars as you pass! Look for faces in the side mirrors! Assume every door you pass will suddenly be thrown open! Taxi cab passengers are the worst! Be extra careful around taxis! Take the Lane! Keep riding! Don't be afraid, be aware! We pay taxes and have the same rights to operate on the streets! Don't give up the fight! You car drivers out there Remember to check your mirrors! Then check again just before you open your door! Cyclists and Boarders can appear faster than you might think! Always assume a cyclists or boarder is about to pass your door! Lets work together! Share the streets! We can prevent these types of accidents! An injury to one is an injury to all!

Monday, July 11, 2005

Interesting post from James Doherty, Oakland CA

Jeepers I've been an urban cyclist for 51 years now and I've never been doored.

But, almost, of course. I am always vigilant that it could happen, and besides, the best advice is that given by the Leauge of American Bicyclists: Do not ride in the door zone. OK, OK, easier said than done on skinny streets with two busses or two Hummers trying to pass each other- AND a bicyclist or two, all converging in the same space at the same time. WATCH OUT especially for those grand old Cadillacs, a two door '77 Biarritz Caddy has doors half the size of a football field. The two door cars are always most dangerous, those doors have to be much bigger than the four-doored vehicles to allow any access to any back seat or stowage area.

Anyhow if any of you bikers out there would like to hack, or help, it seems the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) is ignoring my plea of many years ago to configure cars so the driver door SLIDES back. Such an arrangement helps protect kids who may prematurely jump out of a back door into the street side, a slider prevents this too, and hundreds of kids die from this every year, too. You all can think I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Please realize almost every FEDEX and USPS and UPS truck in the US already has a sliding back driver door, and the Honda Odyssey's sophisticated electronics sliding back prove it could be done on any car, the only thing missing is the mandate. How about an internet campaign to get a mandate rolling so bikers can stop taking it on the chin?

My name is James Doherty. I live in Jerry Brown's Oakland, just across the Berkeley, California border. I can bicycle to free speech famous Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley in just about 10 minutes on one of my hyper bikes. I'm a member of several bike clubs, including the aformentioned League, and am now webpublishing some great stuff on urban biking. I rode Berkeley's Critical Mass last Friday and had a great time. Check out http://www.danceswithbicycles.org/, http://www.freewebs.com/bicyclesrus and see my bike warrior pedal-powered rants on the UN Environmental Programme indexed http://www.CultureChange.org/

"For city bicycling to catch on we need a revolution in our society's infrastructure. Right now a city rider needs to be a road warrior, and the bike needs to be cheap and ugly so it won't get stolen. That's not a bike friendly culture." - Gary Fisher

James Doherty
jimisfun@mac.com