The Door Zone

I regularly tell trainees that car doors are the most common cause of accidents for cyclists in London- but I've realised I have no statistical basis for this claim and have no ide where I got it from (another instructor no doubt).
Can anyone back it up?

The last figure I saw said 10% of cyclists had been doored. I have an idea in my head that for children cycling off the pavement in to the road is a common way for them to get injured but I don't know why I think that. Maybe we all have these beliefs that we can't back up?

Oliver! Oliver! Come here.

Also, you said accident! Tut tut tut.

Tut

Sorry, too much chat. Posts deleted.

Avoid talking stats to trainees personally.
Most often the well burnished 'door and a bit more' to get it into kids heads

Most definitely not 'the most common cause' but a very common cause. Without having stats, I would say that injudicious left turns by motor vehicles (right turns in right-hand traffic countries) will top the table every time.

You can get stats (where it's been recorded) from the London Accident (sic) Analysis Unit, part of TfL's London Road Safety Unit. There's no separate statistical category for them but they should be searchable. Beware of a likely high degree of under-reporting, though.

I don't have up-to-date numbers as it's quite clear that people should stay out of door zones, anyway, for reasons above and beyond the crash risk, and that street design should always take account of it. No need to be pressed into quoting numbers for something so clear-cut, although if you want to shore yourself up, you can always look for them. Just looked, there's a Wikipedia page, but that's also quite threadbare on the stats front.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_zone

Also, you said accident! Tut tut tut.

I know, I did think twice, but I also think that dooring is usually done entirely unintentionally, and however easily avoidable, still qualifies as an accident.

I know, I did think twice, but I also think that dooring is usually done entirely unintentionally, and however easily avoidable, still qualifies as an accident.

Katie, I intentionally left that one wide open for you! You could have said 'sorry, it happened by accident'.

Avoid talking stats to trainees personally.
Most often the well burnished 'door and a bit more' to get it into kids heads

I would never use stats with kids but they can be quite helpful for adult trainees.
Plus 'width of a door and a little bit more' is a bit of a shite expression IMO- 'door zone' encourages them to think of the margin they leave as an area they may move into with caution; it's less rigid and relies more on their assessment of any given situation.

Plus kids tend to love the idea- they can envisage the zone itself as a discrete area if it helps

I have recently dropped the rhyme... "door and a bit more"

Now I ask them to imagine all the car doors are open. Where would you ride?

Seems to work better. I think it's because it's a visual cue rather than a rule to follow. They work it out for themselvs...

10% of casulties result from "dooring" is the figure I have heard.

I have recently dropped the rhyme... "door and a bit more"

.

That's good. I loathed that:)

Re stats: In the Pedal cycle casualty report by TfL done in 2005 Car Doors was listed as the joint number one cause of KSIs (with rider pulling in front of drivers from the pavement ) but the numbers where statistically insignificant. (9 people). In the 2008 report car dooring went down to 3rd place I think. Despite the numbers being statistically too low to mean anything TfL are using this kind of data for safety messages which is good especially when they start targeting messages at drivers such as 'expect cyclists to be in the middle of the lane when they need to or want to.

I find it useful to mention the stats while training drivers which explains to them that while the rider may be seen by them to be 'in the way' they are actually getting seen and avoiding a whole host of other hazards.

Door and a bit more

Back in the day we just used to say "ride wide"

Ah well, we used to prefer 'circulate with the distance great'. Back in the old days, that is, before language became so casual and all those horrible young people stopped going to the barber's.

'circulate with the distance great'.

I didn't know Yoda was a cycle trainer

Always wish I could say 'lock that fucker down' (meaning vehicles)
Never do though

why is the driver on the wrong side of the street and opening their door?

Obviously not an English poster