The Door Prize
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.17.05
Toronto is not historically a bicycle friendly city, but in the last few years has been trying hard to change, pointing out that switching to bikes reduces congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and obesity. Unfortunately the drivers are not, and the Door Prize- a driver getting out of a parked car and opening the door in your face- is very common. Consequently the City of Toronto has started an awareness campaign, including stickers to put on your side mirror saying "watch for bikes". While we can think of better places for bigger stickers (if they are looking at the sticker they already have got the message) it's a start. Treehugger is interested in hearing what other places do about this problem. ::City of Toronto
Here in winnipeg, its the cyclist's obligation to yell at the errant driver loudly and angrily enough to make sure that they won't make the same doorprize mistake again.
Here's a more constructive suggestions - the bicycle air horn:
http://www.velotique.com/horn.htm
I was in Montreal recently and as I stepped out of the cab from the airport (at night in the rain) I nearly walked right into a cyclist moving at a good clip.
It turns out that Montreal has "bike lanes" on one side of the road that support bike traffic moving both ways.
Close call and lesson learned - every city handles bike traffic differently.