Drivers manuals in the state of Massachusetts now include a new instruction designed to cut down on “dooring” accidents involving cyclists. The new and trending procedure is being called the Dutch Reach, in reference to what has become common practice in the Netherlands due to the high popularity of cycling there.
Not to be mistaken with the Dutch Rudder, the Dutch Reach is simply the action of using your right hand to open your car door instead of your left after parking on a busy street. Using your right hand to open the driver’s side door forces your body to swivel to the left, opening a field of vision that can enable you to see and save the life of a passing cyclist.
Michael Charney, the man responsible for preaching the Dutch Reach said “When you use your far hand, you can’t fling the door open,” in his interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. “And it makes you swivel and turn your body. And you can look out and then turn your head, and you can look back. So you can see oncoming bicyclists,” said Charney.
Massachusetts state transportations reportings figure that over 200 dooring/cyclist accidents occurred in Boston between 2009 and 2012 according to MassLive. The Chicago Tribune reported that over 300 dooring incidents involving cyclists in Chicago were reported in 2015 alone.
Carney’s website dedicated to evangelizing the maneuver, DutchReach.Org, states that “The ‘Dutch Reach’ anti-dooring project began in tragedy, anger, fear, and sorrow. A vibrant and loved young woman was killed blocks away in perhaps the commonest of in-city bike/car crashes.”
According to Flanzig and Flanzig, the self proclaimed New York bike crash attorney’s office, one of their several successful lawsuits involving dooring cyclists resulted in the recovery of $210,000 after a cyclist who is a model and bartender required surgery for a laceration to his bicep.
The Dayton area has over 340 miles of paved trail for cyclists to utilize and enjoy, which significantly cuts the number of cyclists on Dayton roads. Nonetheless, the number of Dayton cyclists is increasing fast as more and more people ditch their cars for bicycles as their primary mode of commuting around the city.
Whether you plan to stay in Dayton or move to a larger city after graduating, the Dutch Reach is an easy enough habit to form that can save you money and heartache as well as a life. Charney recommends that you use stickers or post it notes to remind yourself, and to teach your kids the Dutch Reach, if you just can’t break the habit opening the car-door with your left hand.
Will Drewing
Managing Editor