Sorry...mini vent

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yesterday I just narrowly avoided getting "doored" by a woman as she opened her door into my lane-I try to ride at a safe distance from cars parked at the side but I had just been passed by a car and had moved over to the right when it happened. Thankfully, there was not another vehicle behind me as I swerved to miss hitting her door.

Hi,
That sounds very scary, I'm sorry.
But if you are having frequent close calls with cars, you might want to reexamine your traffic riding methods.

yes, it's always 'wrong' for people in parked cars to fling their doors open without looking carefully....but they do it (especially old folks who can't turn their necks well- to my horror, my elderly mother used to do that as a passenger when I was taking her somewhere) and people will keep doing as long as there are cars in this world.
You were in danger only because you were at that moment riding in "the Door Zone". Doesn't really matter why you were riding there, but if you are, then expect someone to fling their door open unexpectedly. The question is, why did you move over into the door zone to let a car pass you? I'm sure you were trying to be safe or courteous in some way, but I would never move into riding in the door zone even for a minute, regardless of any car passing me or trying to pass me. You mustn't put your life in danger so that some car can pass you. Did you know that cyclists regularly get KILLED when impacting with flung open doors and flying off their bikes over the door and then landing in the path of another moving car? Don't let a car wanting to pass intimidate you into a dangerous place:
http://www.riinsrants.info/bikes/doorzone.htm
http://bicyclesafe.com/doorprize.html
http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/...or-zone-video/
In the end, it doesn't really matter what your reasons were for moving into the door zone for a moment....when you do move into the door zone you are doing something that will risk your life. In situations like that I take the lane. If that causes a bunch of cars to accumulate behind me, I pull over for a sec once in a while as a matter of courtesy to let them pass.

As for the busy 4 lane street intersection crosswalk on the bike trail, I know for sure that I would get off my bike in a situation like that and walk it across the intersection as a pedestrian. It only takes a sec. Believe it or not, that makes you much safer when crossing. I read somewhere that the majority of bike/car accidents occur at bike path/street intersection/crosswalks. A 4-lane one is especially hazardous.
At extra dangerous intersections I routinely hop off my bike and become a big ol' in-yer-face PEDESTRIAN for a moment.

Just because you have right of way in certain traffic situations never means someone is going to give it to you. When I started riding in traffic I did a lot of things to try to stay out of cars' ways, thinking that would make me safer, like hugging the curb and creeping along the right side of a line of moving cars instead of riding right in the lane along with them. I now realize I was putting myself into dangerous situations, into drivers' blind spots, and leaving myself no escape route.
Always always assume a car is going to do the wrong thing.
And always assume the driver does not see you.
Here's a great webpage that briefly gives some very good defensive biking safety tips:
http://bicyclesafe.com/

Ride safe, i really hope you don't have more of these frightening close calls.