Barry Spencer, Berkeley, CA

The Dooring

I've cycled for 40 years, raced, never owned a car, rarely drive, yet have only been doored once. In 1994 or thereabouts I was heading North on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, having just crossed Ashby Avenue, when I ogled a woman walking on the sidewalk. A man opened his car door, I tried to swerve around it, but my ogling had cost me precious tenths of a second, and the door caught the end of my handlebar. I was pitched forward, and my foot got hooked onto the frame of my bicycle somehow, and while I flew through the air some torque was applied to my knee. This was painful, because I had dislocated that knee several times in the past, the latest time only about two years earlier, and the knee has some torn ligaments. Then I hit the asphalt. I couldn't get up and off the street because I was busy writhing in pain, but a police officer, along with the man who had doored me, helped me to the sidewalk. The lady police officer asked me questions about my health, which I could not answer because of the severe pain. But soon the pain subsided. I was not injured. The funny part was when the woman I had been ogling came along and stepped over me as she continued on her way. I thought it was funny, anyway. The man who doored me owned the restaurant he was parked in front of. He was apologetic and offered to buy me a new bike. I told him that was unnecessary. He may have worried I might sue him. He offered that I may have run into his car, as there was a scratch on the side of his car behind the driver side door. I just said, "Nah." This was wishful thinking on his part; he was casting about for some way he would not be responsible for the accident. The bicycle I was riding at the time was an old mountain bike with very wide handlebars. If the handlebars had been a more normal width I would have eluded the door. I went home and sawed about four inches off both ends of the handlebars. The bike had a very long wheelbase, too, which may have contributed to my failure to avoid the door. That particular block of Shattuck Avenue is dangerous for bicycles. It's busy, fast and narrow; there's not enough room to stay a safe distance from parked cars.

--Barry Spencer