Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Any info on just how many "deaths by dooring" have occurred in the U.S. and/or Canada over the last decade or two? Or perhaps info on the percentage of bicycle fatalities that have been the result of a "dooring"?
....
One back of an envelope guesstimate after many years of observation of city riding in Philadelphia.... the always-take-the-lane guys seem to exist more on the Internet than in real life on busy urban streets.
Around here, Dana Laird in 2002 and Amanda Phillips in 2016 are the most recent dooring related fatalities, but both were thrown under large vehicles after being doored or hitting a door (MBTA bus and landscaping truck).
However, killed is the opposite of canary in a coal mine.
In seriously injured, studies in Boston and Cambridge put dooring as the number one driver factor in causing bicyclist injuries at about 20% of driver factors. (SMIDSY is number two at about 15%. Though really, both together are SMIDL.)
Cyclist factors are riding like Joey (running red lights, stop signs, too fast for conditions, riding into oncoming traffic) at nearly 50%.
However, caveat. Most police department crash reports lack reported driver factors or cyclist factors. And many reports are cursory at best.
BTW, got any studies to back up your "guesstimate?" (Of course not.)
But I'll agree with you that the "always" crowd is vanishingly small.
But there is a fairly large and growing pragmatic crowd, at least that's my annecdote looking around here. Of course, around here there are lots of people riding bicycles. And lots of car doors.
-mr. bill