Driving Tip

October 19, 2016

Have you ever been parked by the roadside and had opened the driver’s door when you were hit, or almost hit, by a passing cyclist?  It’s a common occurrence and increasingly so with the encouragement to cyclists these days to share the road with cars.

A big help is to use your left hand to open the door.  This means you have to stretch across, turning your head and body to the right.  This results in having a much wider view of what’s happening on your right hand side, and what’s coming up from behind.  Try it.

The practice is now part of the driving licence test in the Netherlands and is believed to have dramatically reduced the number of bicycle/door collisions.