Check Your Mirrors

The other day I was kickin' it around on the internets machine, looking at stuff on various blogs when I came across something that I thought was really really cool, but unfortunate that it has to exist in the first place... I was looking around and I came across a picture of a parking meter with a little, 2" big sticker on it. Upon closer inspection I saw that this was the picture:



I got an e-mail from a fellow blogger about the sticker who directed me to this website: www.anti-dooring.org. It appears that these folks are really just advocating for people to take a second and look in their rear view mirror before they go swinging their door open. It's unfortunate that most folks who understand what these stickers are advocating are the folks who don't need to be reminded however it's a step in the absolute right direction. I've been doored once, fortunately I was going real slow and I was able to get mostly out of the way and I only clipped my elbow. There are many more folks however that have been killed by the very simple action of opening a car door with out looking first.

Aside from pleading with the general motoring public to be more careful when they open the door, the steps that need to be taken are this: We need wider bike lanes that keep cyclists out of traffic, but out of that 3 ft. "Door Zone". Where wider bike lanes are not an option we need "Sharrows" or painted reminders that single lanes are shared between bikes and cars, and that cars must drive in a fair and respectable manner.

It is truly unfortunate that these stickers have to be made in the first place, however I can't wait to get some of them and put them up where they are needed the most.