01623131

Component

This paper reviews a) the available data on “dooring” crashes to determine their prevalence; b) bicycle facility design standards to determine how they account for the door zone, and c) observational data on bicyclist position with respect to car doors under different types of road markings. The conclusions are: 1.The full extent of the dooring problem is not known, since most data sources exclude this type of incident by definition. 2.The studies that do include door-opening incidents reveal that the problem is not a minor one, but is one of the most common causes of urban bicycle-motor vehicle collisions, accounting for 12% to 27% of the total. 3.Current standards for ordinary bike lanes insufficiently account for the door zone, as demonstrated by several studies that show most bicyclists using bike lanes are not far enough away from parked cars to avoid a suddenly opened door. 4.The requirement of a 3 ft buffer for separated bike lanes is inconsistent with the lack of this requirement for ordinary bike lanes, and also the reason for the claimed superiority of separated lanes in terms of safety from opening doors. 5.Shared lane markings help move bicyclists away from the door zone but cultural norms keeping bicyclists to the right are apparently powerful enough to keep many bicyclists too close to car doors, despite signs and markings. Recommendations for improvements to bike lane and shared lane marking standards are offered, along with other changes that could improve the understanding of the dooring problem and reduce its incidence.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF20 Standing Committee on Bicycle Transportation.

01618707

17-04633

English

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Bicycle crashes; Bicycle facilities; Bicycle lanes; Crash data; Cyclists; Design standards; Doors (Vehicles); On street parking

Buffer areas

Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-04633

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:46AM