My grandson told me that he was once cycling to school and passing a standing queue of cars waiting to enter the drop-off area. A pupil opened the nearside door just as my g/s was alongside. My g/s rode into the door, breaking the door stay and folding the door against the front wing. He quickly collected himself and rode on hoping that the driver was too confused to react, which he was.

Alternatively, cyclists could be educated to use road positoning to protect themselves by not skimming parked cars.

Motorcyclists training for the CBT or the test proper have this drummed into them.

Q - How much clearance should you give a parked car?

A - At least an open door and half's width.

www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2012/jul...s

In an ideal world.

I would have thought that the use of so called 'suicide doors' would be slightly better for cyclists ?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_door

On impact the cyclist would then be deflected way from the car and the door would be forced back to close.

More seriously I tried the 'Dutch Method' yesterday and it does remind and ensure that you look backwards

I've never heard of the 'Dutch reach' but that's the way I usually open the door anyway, at least if I'm stopped in the street, as it prevents one automaticaly from opening the door more than a few inches.

I can't remember any near misses with car doors when I've been cycling past parked cars or with bicycles when I've been getting out of the car. But I do clearly remember a car passenger flinging the door open wide when I was driving past in my car though, luckily I managed to stop - only just!

Edited by Sofa Spud on 12/02/2017 at 18:46