If you are a cyclist, or a motorcycle rider for that matter, you probably know about the dangers posed by cars and trucks while you’re on the road. As a matter of fact, anything that is on wheels and is in motion can be perilous to cyclists. And if you think that parked vehicles pose no harm to cyclists, think again.
In 2006, my wife and I decided to go for a leisurely spin around our village using our newly purchased road bikes and helmets. Just 20 minutes into our ride, a driver of a parked van to our right suddenly opened his door and hit the front part of my wife’s bike.
She fell off her bike and since I was closely following behind, I slammed into her fallen bike, and suddenly found myself lying flat on the pavement.
My wife only had a few bruises and was lucky to have avoided any serious head injury even after a part of her helmet got shattered. In my case, I ended up with a bleeding chin and a dislocated pinkie.
My wife just got “doored”, a colloquialism and a sort of “rite of passage” among cyclists who get hit by a vehicle’s door that was accidentally opened by its driver or passenger, smack into a cyclist’s path. The sad thing is, getting doored could result in serious injuries or at times, even death, to the cyclist.
As to the biking accident involving my wife, the vehicle’s driver was apologetic and explained that he did not notice that she was already at the side of his van’s door since he already had a missing side mirror which was damaged a few weeks earlier.
We were thankful that nothing serious happened, so we just reminded the driver to have his side mirror fixed right away to avoid a repeat of what happened and especially, for everyone’s safety.
We were also relieved that the dooring occurred while inside the village where only a few vehicles were passing. It would have been a different scenario had it happened along a busy road with many speeding vehicles.
Underestimated danger
Indeed, getting doored is something cyclists don’t want to experience, but its danger is underestimated. However, vehicle manufacturers strongly disagree, stating that there must be ways to prevent such accident from happening.
The severity of the injury involving dooring depends on the speed of the cyclist or when he or she hits the door at a dangerous angle (the edge of a vehicle door is quite sharp and has the potential to cause severe injury).
In a report by online magazine CarScoops, both Ford and Volkswagen in Europe are now making an active effort to prevent occupants in their vehicles from dooring cyclists.
Ford will initially be equipping its European delivery vans such as the Transit Custom and the Tourneo Custom with an Exit Warning. The company also announced that their Explorer compact SUV and Mustang sports car, will soon be equipped with the said safety feature.
Ford said that delivery personnel always figure in dooring incidents since they are always in a hurry, closing and opening the doors of their vehicle many times each day to a point that they sometimes fail to notice cyclists and non-motorists on the road.
Aside from delivery personnel, a number of dooring incidents also involve children whenever they excitedly get off a vehicle and adults fail to monitor them when opening a vehicle’s door.
Ford’s Exit Warning uses the vehicle’s radar and other external sensors to see if a bicycle (or any vehicle or a person) is approaching. If it senses that opening a door could be dangerous, an LED indicator on the side mirror illuminates, as does a warning light on the dashboard, to alert the occupant.
Exit Warning works on both sides of the vehicle. This can be useful in instances when the driver or other occupants exit the vehicle from the passenger door and cyclists might be on the pavement, or a cycle lane is running parallel to the road.
VW version
Volkswagen, according to CarScoops, has introduced a similar technology and installed them to some of their popular passenger models in Europe, namely the Passat midsize sedan, the Golf compact family car, the new Tiguan SUV, and two of their pure-electric models, the ID.4, and ID.5.
An enhanced version of this safety feature is what Volkswagen installed in its new ID.7 electric luxury sedan.
In addition to the visual and audio warnings, the EV will prevent its doors from being opened even if the occupant intentionally ignores the warnings. The safety system will still work for up to three minutes even after the EV is shut off.
The anti-dooring safety feature isn’t a new technology. As early as 2018, automakers Audi and Hyundai revealed their versions of the technology at the Geneva Motor Show.
Audi displayed its A8 full-size luxury sedan equipped with an Exit Warning system that also uses radar sensors to scan the area behind a parked vehicle and will lock doors if a cyclist is spotted.
The A8’s rear sensors will scan for cyclists for up to three minutes after the car’s engine has been turned off, and the system works for both passengers and the driver.
The Exit Warning is a safety feature improvement that the German luxury carmaker made as it previously only had a dashboard-based visual warning system to alert the driver.
Hyundai, in that same motor show, presented its fourth-generation Santa Fe SUV that is equipped with Safety Exit Assist. It senses cyclists approaching from behind and temporarily locks the doors.
When the driver or passengers attempt to unlock child lock doors and the system detects cyclists, the vehicle maintains the child lock and also issues an acoustic warning.
The Santa Fe was also fitted with Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist for pedestrian and cyclist detection, a safety feature that alerts drivers to emergency situations and would autonomously activate the brakes if required.
Unfortunately, these safety features are not available in all the vehicles sold in the Philippines. Even cases of dooring are often not reported unless there’s a fatality.
As more and more people in the cities are riding their bikes, kick scooters and similar personal mobility vehicles, there’s a big chance that dooring incidents will increase.
Vehicle manufacturers should consider dooring accidents as something to ponder on and eventually include exit safety features in all their next vehicle offerings in the country.
It’s a must for everyone’s safety, and not just for cyclists — and motorcycle riders — on the road.
