Every year, more Australians – particularly in cities – are riding to work. More cyclists means fewer cars on the road, less congestion, less pollution and fewer health problems. But every year more people are injured riding bikes, many of them following crashes with opened car doors. Are we doing enough to keep cyclists safe?
Officially known as “cyclist-vehicle door opening crashes” (but usually called “dooring” or being “doored”) these crashes happen when the door of a vehicle that is parallel parked on the side of the road is opened into the path of an approaching cyclist. The cyclist collides with the door, falls off their bike, and is sometimes then in danger of colliding with moving traffic. In Victoria, one person has died in a dooring incident.