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Chicago cycling advocates say get doored, be counted

Posted by Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel on March 21, 2011

cycling

The Chicago-area Active Transportation Alliance has started a campaign to prevent bicyclists from being hit by car doors opened by motorists.

Part of the effort is focused on persuading the Illinois Department of Transportation to include dooring incidents in its crash statistics. At present, only crashes involving moving vehicles are recorded by the state.

John Hilkevitch provides some excellent statistics showing the frequency of car vs. bicycle crashes, in this front-page story in the Chicago Tribune.

Amazingly, police in the city of Chicago recorded 76 dooring crashes in 2010 and 62 in 2009. In a city of roughly 2.9 million people, that seems to undercount the number of doored cyclists by a significant margin.

In Wisconsin, motorists could be fined up to $40 if they open a car door into the path of a bicyclist. The Legislature approved the law in 2009.

Larry Corsi, a state safety program manager with the DOT, said dooring incidents in the state are not tracked separately. The standard crash report - the  MV4000 - does have a category that lists if the car was parked, legally or illegally.

"We would then need to go into those crashes and see how many involved “dooring," he said.

12 Comments for "Chicago cycling advocates say get doored, be counted"

  1. Put some punctuation in that headline.

    ockfener Mar 21, 2011 1:49 PM

  2. Sure.... it's real easy to see a bicyclist buzzing along at 30 miles an hour as
    one gets out of his vehicle. How about giving the bicyclists tickets for
    hogging the road and riding 2 and 3 abreast.

    dfrer Mar 21, 2011 1:54 PM

  3. dfrer...so are you in support of creating bike trails all over the city to prevent having to share the road with us?

    It astounds me how many people are against bikers when all we are doing is trying to save gas, get some exercise, be healthier and promote a healthier lifestyle and environment. We can share the road safely!

    Convinced of the Hex Mar 21, 2011 2:28 PM

  4. It's ignorant people like dfrer that are responsible for so many cyclists being hit by cars. 99% of cyclists will never hit 30mph in their lives, by the way. Look before you open your door, unless you're too fat to turn that far around, I guess.

    rivwst Mar 21, 2011 3:17 PM

  5. And per Wisconsin Bike Laws, bicyclists are allowed to ride 2-abreast on any street as long as other traffic is not impeded. So please slow down and once the cyclists sees you, they will move to single file and let you through, but please slow down first.

    Cyclist know that they are in a disadvantage against cars, so if you give us a short time, we will move over. DO NOT just barrell on through, keeping the same speed...and worse barrell on through without the 3ft passing distance.

    Cyclists are also allowed to ride 2 abreast within a single lane when riding on a 2 or more lane roadway.

    Again...just give us time to notice you and we will move over.

    yellingatclouds Mar 21, 2011 3:32 PM

  6. From the rider's viewpoint: What about the downtown streets where the marked bike lanes are at the left edge of the parking lane - riding in that lane with parked cars present is asking for trouble. What's the ruling in that situation? Sometimes the traffic is heavy enough or a situation develops that you may be caught in that scenario... And if you do have a door opened in front of you in congested traffic - what is the best out-swerve left and maybe go under the bus or whatever is back there (there was a case in Boston like that - which is maybe an argument against bike lanes)? Take the door and hope the driver cushions your impact?
    In the old days, even if someone opened one of those monster Eldorado doors in front of you, you had a good chance of walking away from that crash due to all the padding of the door and the flex in the door frame; maybe even springing the door off the hinges. Modern cars and SUV’s are more rigid and unforgiving, also much taller, which is great for the safety of the driver but not so good for the biker on the receiving end of the collision.

    stoker Mar 23, 2011 11:16 PM

  7. allOverAgain - that's fine, I'll take the lane and you can wait impatiently behind me as I climb that hill instead of hugging the parked cars trying to be courteous and let you go on about your merry oblivious way, since it's so vital you get home as quickly as possible to catch your 'shows'.

    sbilek Mar 24, 2011 4:26 PM

  8. it always confounds me how there are always nutso anti-bicycle morons
    posting on here about how bikers get in "their way" while they are
    driving. news flash, idiots (like dfrer): it's not YOUR road, it's
    everyone's and bicyclists like us share it with you just as you should
    share it with us. if there is no bike lane, we still get to ride on the
    street and if you are parked and getting out of your car, you had better
    put down your supersized slurpy and turn your obese neck to look and
    see EVERY time you exit to make sure there's not a bicyclist coming. if i
    hit your door while you're opening it, you're going to have a heck of a
    lot more than $40 to pay the state in fines. you're going to have a
    lawsuit on your hands that will make you weep.

    on a less defensive note, bicycle lanes are OK but even better are
    cycletracks. they are common in Europe and elsewhere-- indeed, it's
    how bicycle lanes SHOULD be and COULD be, if we didn't have such
    spiteful and backwards thinking leaders like Scott Walker (who is a bike
    hater as well) to deal with. Cycle tracks are essentially bicycle lanes
    that exist inside their own curb way between the parked cars and the
    sidewalk. this way, there is plenty of space and much less danger to
    bicyclists, motorists and pedestrians alike.

    time for Milwaukee to wake up and build some cycletracks.

    Maximilian77 Apr 25, 2011 8:38 PM

  9. What happened to that 3' clearance that cars are required to give to bicycles? Aren't bikes supposed to be 3' away from cars than as well?

    If so, how exactly are you creating a 'lane' between traffic lanes and parked vehicles? Another exception to the 'rules' of the road for bicycles?

    Chucksa Apr 26, 2011 11:53 AM

  10. It seems that the bicyclists who are posting here are courteous and know the rules, however, I sure have come across some morons who all but dare me to proceed through a green light, or proceed after stopping at a stop sign. I try and give them all the room they need, but there are times when they just push my buttons and do their best to "prove that they have rights, too." They definitely do have rights and there should be enough road to safely share, but along with rights comes responsibilities - for BOTH cyclists and drivers, and that includes motorcycles.

    BettyV Apr 26, 2011 1:01 PM

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