New highway code rule.

As both motorist and cyclist I can see both sides but a nearby local authority somewhat forces your hand if cycling. A cycle lane 1m wide, hoorah, on the left side are parking bays for cars, on the right side very busy, nose to tail, traffic. Much as I would like to give the parked vehicles plenty of clearance I have nowhere to go. I could of course cycle on the pavement! That in fact happens a bit further down the High Street as the cycle lane suddenly disappears from the road and is diverted up onto the pavement to play with the pedestrians and then back onto the road about 20m further on. Whoever designed it is definitely not a cyclist and probably not a motorist either.

John

I agree. The cyclist was also shown approaching from the front and the driver still managed to cause a collision.

The new rule seems to complicate the matter - what's wrong with something like Check for other road users before opening the vehicle door?

My method involves looking to the front & side, along with a glance in the door mirror to check for danger - just watch what I'm doing really.

Martin.

You were lucky! Round here if you are stopped at traffic lights at a crossroads as your lights change to green the guys on bikes are still appearing from nowhere and crossing in front of you.

As a matter of interest does the 'wrong hand rule' still apply if the door opens backwards as it does on many older cars and a few (including some Rolls Royces!) today?

It hurts quite a lot if you open a car door into the path of a pedestrian. One can easily get a broken arm when the door is slammed shut again...

JasonB	23/01/2022 07:34:03
Moderator 21985 forum posts 2534 photos 1 articles	I'd like to know why the cyclist in the photo is riding on the footpath!

Hi, the photo is probably staged, but it looks to me as it the cyclist has mounted the pavement in order to try and avoid hitting the car door. Assuming this is in the UK, the women has parked on the wrong side of the road anyway. There is a road fairly local to me, where the pedestrian path is shared with cyclists in at least two sections, one on one side of the road and the other one on the other side, these are denoted by a white line next to the kerb stones, along the length where the cyclists are allowed to ride their cycles. The road is a little narrower than most in these areas, and is frequented by busses and delivery lorries to shops and a couple of supermarkets, whether this is local authority laws, I don't know.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 23/01/2022 13:34:24

If he mounted the pavement to avoid the door then was he previously on a path straight into the parked car?

The photograph in question is a stock image, meaning it has nothing to do with the article; a harassed subeditor typed in "car door cyclist" to a stock image library and selected the first image that came up. Since so few of us pay for our journalism nowadays, these things are hardly a surprise.

As for looking in a mirror, I am surprised and concerned that so many posters have forgotten or never learned what a blind spot is.

I was cycling past a car on the cycle path on the inside of a stationary line of cars waiting for the traffic lights. Without warning, the rear door of a car was flung open and the pointy bit of the door corner hit my thigh. It caused a massive haematoma in time and they had to slice it open and give it a good rogering with a vacuum cleaner or something in hospital to clear it out.

Stupid? I hardly think it was I who was stupid.

In Weston Super Mare, cyclists are allowed on pavements and that works quite well, but you do see old fogies driving their electric buggies along the roads which is illegal if the buggy does not have numberplates.

I was a regular cyclist from the age of eleven until my late twenties and a motorcyclist until I was sixty. The cycle lanes that are now fashionable along the side of a road encourages cyclists to undertake stationary vehicles which as you have discovered is fraught with danger. I would be reluctant to use lanes that put me at risk in this way, cycling to school from eleven through city traffic I learned to avoid risk, I bet the idiot who opened the door on you never felt a thing even though they are in the wrong. Being hurt and in the right is not where you want to be so I regard those sort of lanes as a trap.Before the appearance of these traps the traffic would be close to the kerb and so like all the other traffic I would wait in line and be clearly visible to the car behind me and of no concern to the one in front. There is no need to be at the front of the queue unless you are one of the many cyclists who ignore traffic lights so just wait in the queue in safety. Pavements were for pedestrians and I feel these shared spaces we now have even if a painted line is supposed to separate us are just dangerous. The passing distance that is recommended is just not achievable in many situations and how can it be achieved with oncoming traffic on a country lane? The requirement to pass wide must be to allow for avoiding a wobbling or crashing cyclist but they can still wobble or crash into oncoming vehicles and do. I long ago decided that everyone else on the road was an idiot so you have to look after yourself and ride or drive defensively, so far it is working well and the idiots certainly keep coming.

Mike

Good post Mike!

I have been practicing opening the car door with my left hand. Its not difficult, but when you transfer to the right hand to fully open the door, wind can snatch the door away from you and the door opens uncontrolably. I cant work out how this give anybody any advantage and i cant see how i might get seen opening with the wrong hand. But hey, hoe, its fun playing to different rules

I havent seen the new rules at rounderbouts yet, im working on one rule at a time, still got 5 days to work it out

The Dutch reach (ie with left hand for us in UK) makes it more likely that you will see me coming past you. I will, of course, be a car door's width away if there is space for it.

You just got to accept that the roads in this country are managed by people with no comonon sense.

Evidence, driving on the wrong side of the road from our continental friends.

Road signs that people cannot understand, especially if you are from abroad, they are always asking you what the speed limit is.

Steel pillars with wire rope down the centre of the motorway, will rip a motorcyclist to shreds and probably the car too.

Not so SMART motorways.

Cars parked along the side of the road, its illegal but the Police take no action.

Probably just one of the reasons people are leaving this country for good every year.

We have been nice for to long.

Yep. If it isn't already a rule, it should be. I think it is a rule in CA, here in the States. I futilely argued this with a motorist, explaining that he was "throwing a large metal object into traffic". His response was that I "should be in the line of car traffic". Uh huh, right...and he'd be the first one to complain about me holding up traffic at my 14 MPH and that I should keep to the side. Can't win. I think all able-bodied people should be forced to get around entirely by bike for at least six months before having an opinion on the matter.

Since I was one of the first to make the point of using mirrors instead of the latest trendy nonsense - I have made sure there are no blind spots which would affect the situation in question.

Always have a good look round before opening the door, not only to the rear, you don’t know wether anything coming from your front may come close as well.

How many dog owners restrain there animal in the back of the car, not a new law.

Done my driving test almost 50 years ago but never heard of the "Dutch reach" and I am sure 99% of my countrymen also. But if you do not look over your shoulder when opening your car door you will fail your driving test in The Netherlands. Niko.

As an ex motorcyclist it took me forever to stop looking over my shoulder when pulling out instead of checking mirrors. Cycle lanes make me chuckle. The ones outside the Lab (both sides of the road) are used by cyclists travelling in either direction. So you can have two cyclists approaching each other on the same cyclepath. Usually one either pulls over onto the road or the pavement. It make it interesting leaving the Lab car park as you not only have to check for road traffic but for cyclists travelling either way on the bit of cycleway you are about to cross. But then it is Cambridge and we are reasonably close to the language school.

regards Martin

Edited By Martin Kyte on 24/01/2022 13:59:59

Edited By Martin Kyte on 24/01/2022 14:00:28