Door zone

Dooring is a traffic collision in which a cyclist is struck by a car door. The width of the door zone in which this can happen varies, depending upon the model of car one is passing. The zone can be almost zero for a vehicle with gull-wing doors or much larger for a truck.

Most areas have laws that require car users to check for bicyclists before opening the door of their vehicle, but there have been serious injuries and deaths caused by drivers illegally opening their doors in the path of a passing cyclist where this is prohibited by law.

Many areas have laws may be interpreted as requiring cyclists to ride in the door zone, meaning they may expose themselves to danger in order to keep out of the way of motorized traffic. These laws typically have exceptions; avoiding hazards, such as an open door, is sometimes among them.

The problem lies with avoiding this 5 feet (1.5 m) zone, which should be part of the parking zone, when there is a bike lane or the perception by law enforcement or motorists that one should be riding their bike out of the travel lane to not impede faster motorized traffic. In most jurisdictions, a cyclist is considered a driver/operator of a vehicle afforded the same rights as the driver of a motor vehicle; however, in some jurisdictions cyclists are further restricted by laws such as "ride as far right as practicable." From a cyclist's point of view, "practicable" includes safety, and safety is noted in many of these laws through exceptions; however, many law enforcement, judges, motoring public and even cyclists stop reading at "as far right." Most motor travel lanes adjacent to a bike lane are only 10–11 feet (3.0–3.4 m) wide, so if a cyclist has to use that lane to avoid hazards in the bike lane, it is too narrow to safely share with passing traffic and he/she should ride in a "lane-control" method as is allowed by most of these ordinances.

Because it is rarely possible to see and react safely to a suddenly opening door, traffic cycling educational programs teach cyclists to ride in the travel lane outside of the door zone despite the fact that in at least one place, New York, 96% of deaths have occurred outside of the door zone. This is easier than locating bike lanes outside the door zone and increasing the width of parking lanes.

Motorists can make dooring less likely by practicing the "Dutch reach" - opening the car door by reaching across the body with the more distant hand. In the Netherlands, drivers taking their license exam are required to open the door with their right hand, thereby turning their torso and allowing them to see any oncoming cyclists, hence the term "Dutch reach". This move does not have a Dutch name, but in 2016 an American physician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, coined the term to help promote the Dutch method which was little known in the United States.International interest in the term and method followed its coinage, suggesting that the far hand method was or remains little known across the globe.

...
Wikipedia