PSA - Look before you open your car door.

[kitewithfish]

Seriously, please, just LOOK out the window before you open the car door.

A school aged girl nearly doored me tonight on my way home, in the bike lane, with a headlight on and everything, because SHE DID NOT LOOK BEFORE SHE OPENED THE CAR DOOR.

So she opened car door into the bike lane a couple feet in front of me, and by the grace of God and good brakes and the fact that I was suspicious of the car not having any turn signals on approaching a T-intersection, I managed to stop before I hit the car door headfirst with her between me and the door.

Just say, "Check for bikes!" to your passengers before they leave the car. That's all you have to do. Literally, you can save someone's life with this one, very simple thing.

But *you* have to do it. The person on the bike cannot do it for you.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Glad that didn't end up badly. It's a good reminder. I don't think I generally open a car door unless in a parking space but on other occasions, yeah, I've rarely thought about it.

[kitewithfish]

Well, I mean, I did potentially traumatize a schoolgirl, which makes me feel rather bad. But less bad than if she's successfully put a steel and plastic wall in my path? I was particularly annoyed because I live in a very popular bikey area, and I was in a bike lane.

There's actually a trick to train yourself into so you don't even have to think about looking for people on bikes! The Dutch reach! You just open the car door with your far hand, which causes you to turn
your head towards the window and makes it easier to spot people approaching on bikes from behind. Diagrams here: https://www.dutchreach.org