Cyclist vs. car door crashes will be counted in Illinois

Posted by Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel on April 25, 2011

The get doored be counted campaign launched by Chicago bicyclists scored a victory in Illinois on Monday.

Gov. Pat Quinn announced that the Illinois Department of Transportation would count "dooring" crashes in a separate statistical category to help guide roadway design and safety campaigns. In the past, crashes that occurred when a motorist opened a vehicle door into the path of a bicyclist were not counted in the DOT statistics.

Similarly, in Wisconsin, those crashes are not recorded or kept in a separate statistical category. Dooring a bicyclist in Wisconsin is a traffic violation with a $40 fine.

Quinn announced the policy change in Illinois on Monday.

"As more people are riding bicycles and embracing other green modes of transportation, we need to ensure that Illinois collects data that presents a complete picture of what is happening on our roads," he said. "This new initiative will address a major safety issue for bicyclist and drivers, and will make our roads safer for everyone."

22 Comments for "Cyclist vs. car door crashes will be counted in Illinois "

@ ekk. U R not alone in this situation. I have experienced this same behavior here in Waukesha and every year during the Trek bike-a-thon also here in Waukesha county. The arrogance is mindboggeling.

I am in favor of the dooring law, the oblivious arrogance of motorist is also mindboggeling.

I blame this on the failure of Drivers Ed. and the present attitude to let driving instructors teach the driving habits they want and not the right way.
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hassmer Apr 26, 2011 11:25 AM
okiefo-best part was, the incident occurred on a portion of North Ave. which is 4 lane. He had another lane to use. I didn't as the curb lane was filled with parked cars. My point is, this is the type of misunderstanding, impatience and dangerous behavior that leads to accidents.
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JsMom46 Apr 26, 2011 11:25 AM
@ okiefo if your in the vicinity of the one car it is traffic. Wise up.
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hassmer Apr 26, 2011 11:27 AM
@ JsMom46: I totally agree... we all just need to be more aware and courteous of eachother! Unfortunately, I have witnessed scenarios like the one you experienced with a driver almost literally getting in your face and throwing some of the more colorful words in his vocuabulary at you. I live on the east side of Milwaukee, take Lake Drive through Shorewood and Whitefish Bay regularly, and actually live ON the Downer Avenue bike race route. I feel that I am more aware and courteous than most due to my constant exposure to them, but the above situation did try my patience a bit. I seem to remember that this particular day was some sort of Ride-Your-Bike-To-Raise-Awareness thing, so I think that's why all the drivers tolerated the display... to honor the intention behind it (probably not the right way to go about it, but that's just my opinion). It was almost like we were all watching a toddler throw a temper tantrum... all we could do was wait it out.
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ekk Apr 26, 2011 11:37 AM
We rode our bikes in the "Ride of Silence" last May in Fox Point and stayed to the right, staying pretty much single file, at least the more experienced bikers did. (There were some young kids on the ride that probably shouldn't have been there.) But even there, we had car drivers who just HAD to turn right through the line of cyclists, couldn't wait or turn left and find another way. We let them go through us using hand signals to stop the following cyclists.

There will be some more "Ride of Silence(s)" in May of this year, on Wednesday, May 18. These rides are very, very serious and somber, where the participants remember their friends who have been injured or killed in bike crashes.

We were involved with the original SAAGBRAW rides in the early 1980s. There used to be a bike parade from Greenfield Park to State Fair Park of 1000 or so cyclists on a Saturday afternoon at the end of the 3 rides. Even with police motorcycle protection, some motorists just had to drive across our parade. Do you insist on driving across a funeral procession? I think not.
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BikerRon70 Apr 26, 2011 11:58 AM
I agree with all that are posting both need to be cognitive of each other. I always give the biker the space they require and if I am not sure of on coming traffic I will ride at least a car length behind them until I am in an area I know it is safe to pass. However, I am sick of cyclist not obeying traffic signs and signals. I have been flipped offed and cut off by cyclist as I proceed though a 4 way stop intersection and I had the right of way and they do not even stop. We all need to obey the traffic laws and watch out for each other on the road.
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SMGorgen Apr 26, 2011 12:47 PM
They're called Bike Trails, try them out sometime!
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Anvoy Apr 26, 2011 1:09 PM

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[quote=ekk]I was driving late at night, got off the freeway at Jackson/Van Buren, hopped onto Wells and worked my way over to Farwell. Almost immediately after getting onto Farwell (a one way street) traffic started to slow down. There was a string of bicyclists... seemingly hundreds of them... that stretched all the way from Kilbourne to North Avenue. They were riding several bikes abreast and took up the entire right-hand lane. All motorized vehicles were forced into the left-hand lane. Several cars attempted to make right-hand turns (slowing down, turning on their blinker, trying to edge slowly into the right-hand lane when there was a break in the flow) but the cyclists wouldn't allow it. They would immediately speed up to cut the driver off and temporarily spread themselves thinner (single file) so they were sure not to allow space for cars to merge. We were all trapped. All we could do was keep going straight, but then one of the bicyclists decided didn't want to allow us to do that, either. When we reached North Avenue, he broke away from the pack and started to ride around in circles in the middle of the intersection of Farwell & North. He did it through all the green lights, all the red lights, he ignored turn arrows and Walk signals for pedestrians. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and we all just had to wait. To everyones credit, no one honked or shouted; there were no untoward displays of anger. We all just waited. And waited. And waited. He finally got bored and moved on to catch up with the rest of his group.

Now tell me... who was acting like King of the Road?[/quote]

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