About

The ‘Dutch Reach’ anti-dooring project began in tragedy, anger, fear, and sorrow. A vibrant and loved young woman was killed blocks away in perhaps the commonest of in-city bike/car crashes.

Doorings, being doored, or 'near-door experiences' are dreaded daily by urban cyclists: A car, parked or just stopped in traffic. From left or right a door flung open just in front of you. Shout!! Brake if you can, swerve as you must. Pray as you crash - into, over, under, strewn into on-coming traffic. Or not. Curse, bike on. Shaken. What if...?

A day after Amanda's death I got a disturbingly obvious 'what if' revelation from another shook cyclist:

Ask the question, “Which hand do you use to open your car door?” Puzzlement. “Why, this one, my left…of course.” “But the Dutch do it differently.” “Oh???” ”They use their right, their far hand. It’s much safer." “What?! …Ooohh! I get it! It makes you turn, it’s easier to look! So simple! It’s obvious! I just never thought about it!”

Far smarter than handing out doored-prizes.

Cyclists, drivers, passengers, we need each other to make our daily travel safer and less hassled. And at one time or another we ARE each other.

So let’s tell everyone the Dutch secret. It's commonsense.

-- Michael Charney, Cambridge, MA, USA

Since November 2019, it being winter in the Northern Hemisphere followed by Covid which sidelined motor vehicles, there has been an apparent respite from doorings while fostering a glorious and temporarily safer bicycling resurgence. Even so, the Dutch Reach has modestly progressed, especially in Germany where several states, cities and national road safety organizations have launched Dutch Reach associated anti-dooring campaigns and produced quality outreach materials, videos in particular. Also, Dutch Reach driver's manual inclusion bills have now been filed both in New York State and California. However they have as yet not reached First Hearings, postponed in part by the pandemic shutdown. Also, the Canadian Automobile Association of South Central Ontario and New York City's DOT each posted new social media promoting the far hand method. Also a delayed discovery: In 2017 he District of Columbia did a trial social media campaign for the "DC Reach". Apparently it convinced their DMV and as of 2019 the far hand method is featured as an advisory in preface of the D.C. Driver's Manual! Thus D.C. now joins MA, IL, WS & PA. Finally, on invitation by the OECD's Observatory for Public Innovation, we assembled a Dutch Reach Case Study, now published in OPSI's website archive.

As noted in the prior update Lyft's Dutch Reach alerts entered all of its 22 U.S. cities' markets immediately. Uber however started with a 4 city pilot program in May. However since then, Uber claims to have introduced warning alerts in 200 of its market cities around the globe and in 50 languages, having issued several million alerts since. Apparently though, not all sites or 'trips' include the Dutch Reach advisory. [Whether this is due to algorithm determined estimates of need for a given rider destination or market is not yet known to DRP.] No documentation been seen by DRP to back up Uber's claims. However news & social media have begun to report sightings of Uber's Dutch Reach alerts now UK in collaboration with Cycling UK, in Australia, Canada, Germany & USA.

Lyft & Uber's Dutch Reach alert program announcements were seen by plaintiffs attorneys and business observers as not mere public relations gestures. Rather, as the San Francisco Examiner & Consumer Safety [an online legal news site] noted, it was motivated as well by business & liability concerns. Lyft's Lime e-scooter and Uber's Jump e-bike's users compound the risk of dooring liability lawsuits for the two transportation network companies (TNC). And the fear of dooring - and other VRU incidents undermines demand for these services.

More big news arrived in June as the National Safety Council (USA) rolled out a 4 pronged "Far Hand Reach" campaign with a web page, a high quality video, a teen training module, & a Q&A with DRP. NSC had already added the method to its Defensive Driving Course 10th Edition back in January 2019. Meanwhile, the Automobile Association of America (AAA) has been taking orders for its 15th Edition of How to Drive - Making Driver Education Fun and Easy! (2020). for student drivers & their instructors. It presents the Dutch Reach in sections on Stopping & Securing the Vehicle, and Bicyclist Safety.

In Germany „Holländischer Griff“ campaigns were launched in Hamburg & Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, coincident with an important anti-dooring campaign & video by Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat (DVR) which also now specifically recommends de Griff. The Berliner Kurier noted that the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club (AFDC) - Germany's national bicycling organization (as well as the Senate of Stadt Berlin which endorsed it last year) now promote der Griff. Currently, even ahead of the UK, Germany has the most active and creative Dutch Reach engagement by state & municipal governments, private companies & NGOs - with multiple videos, social media posts & even street theatre.

As other regions & linguistic families of nations are learning about the Dutch Reach, we have added web pages to concentrate information about their activities. Under Advocacy Toolkit > International > now find: Canada, Deutsche, Español, France/française, South Asia/Hindi etc., & United Kingdom & Australia [left side driving english-speaking nations]. These are not all up-to-date yet; search Current News for possible new sightings].

And speaking of new sightings, DRP has found new reports of the Reach in Czech Republic and in Indore, Madhya Pradesh where the Road Safety Officer for the MP Police has started a social media campaign for the "Far Hand Rule" in Hindi and is receiving media attention for it. Also, New York City Dept of Transportation has now issued two "Reach Across" themed social media posts on Twitter & FaceBook. A NYS Senator has also submitted a bill calling for NYS DOT to add the Reach to this NYS driver's manual though no further progress on this has been reported. Miscellaneous news & social media reports for this period include: editorials by The Sacramento Bee (CA) & Bloomberg (podcast)

Very significantly, out of the blue DRP was contacted by a Dutch citizen Jeroen Bakker, who was skeptical about Dutch provenance for the reach method. He independently pursued the question - expecting to disprove the claim - by searching Dutch newspaper archives online for terms such as door crash or car door accidents. Contrary to his expectation, Jeroen succeeded in tracing the method - use of the far hand - back to a 1961 article in De Telegraaf written by J. Adama Zylstra who credits a reader S.V. of Rotterdam, NL for the tip, which Zylstra then elaborated upon. Zylstra clearly defined the method much as DRP does today. An article two years earlier describes the need for a shoulder-check though without noting the far hand advantage. Other articles, including the 1972 opinion piece by Vic Langenhoff which galvanized the Stop de Kindermoord movement, was also recovered. This and later documentation has been posted on the Is The Dutch Reach Really Dutch? & Stop de Kindermoord web pages.

Lastly Fred Thomas, host and producer of All Things Bike, interviewed the Project's principal in October. You can view it here.

Sunday June 23 makes three years since Amanda Phillips' needless death by dooring in Inman Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This project and what progress it may have achieved over these three years toward greater motorist diligence upon egress was directly spurred by her tragedy. Hopefully bicyclist and other vulnerable road users' lives and bodies are increasingly though unknowingly spared by our efforts - 'our' in its true collective sense, of countless known and unknown promoters of this simple hand swap. Whether by word of mouth, social media, blog, electronic or print news, by video, gif, graphic, podcast or advocacy actions, by surviving victims, anxious bicyclists, parents, government employees and elected officials, voters, road safety and bike-ped organizations, all have contributed, both in quiet and in highly visible ways. To all who have and are helping, thank you and let us thank eachother.

Even since two months ago significant gains have been made. In May the Uber TNC followed on Lyft announcing a pilot program in NYC, SF, DC & Toronto deploying push notifications to riders while enroute, to prompt caution and the Dutch Reach upon egress. A Dutch Reach animation and related pick up and drop off advice are linked to the notification. While Lyft is a domestic US TNC, Uber is international in scope and one must hope (and insist) that the advisories will be rolled out in all its markets - and that Bolt and other TNC's will follow suit.

On governmental fronts, Ontario's proposed Dutch Reach legislation continues to receive additional recognition and support, including two appropriate but unexpected sources: The Dutch Ambassador to Canada resident in in Ottawa was interviewed by the CBC and demonstrated his nation's now eponymous method via television and Twitter. Also, a group of Ontario physicians held a public rally in support of the bill, which is progressing. Meanwhile, Ontario's Peel Regional Police distributed its own Dutch Reach video via social media adding further legitimacy and authority to the legislative push. Also but with little fanfare, in June the State of Pennsylvania unveiled its 2019 Driver's Manual which now teaches the Dutch Reach by word and diagram. PA is now the fourth US state to do so, following MA, IL & WA. Members of PennDOT's Pedalcycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee deserve applause!

Meanwhile, California and New York State have yet to initiate legislative or DMV action to consider the far hand method, this despite the high prevalence of doorings and dooring injuries and deaths in their respective major cities. Greater advocacy is needed in both these titantic states. But in a testament to the Power of One, a radio call-in caller called out New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio on the total lack of attention given to dooring and the Dutch Reach on the Mayor's social media 'pulpit', despite the City's commitment to Visison Zero. Within minutes Mayor de Blasio was a convert. Within hours @NYCMayor broadcast the Mayor's sudden enlightenment to 1.3M followers, accompanied by Tanya Mohn's influential NYT's Smarter Living column as illunination.

Substantial reinforcements however do keep arriving! During May Bike Month the National Safety Council began releasing a series of (Dutch) Reach media following on its inclusion of the "Far Hand Reach" in its 10th Edition Defensive Driving Course curriculum released back in January. NSC posted a Q & A with your's truly, followed by its own (bouncy!) Far Hand Reach video, an accompanying webpage to the video, and a DriveItHome Far 6and posting for parents & teen drivers.

As now typical, the Current News page continues to grow with additional DR sightings & news from around the world, new videos and graphics materialize, harvested by Google Alerts or gathered by obsessive 'searches' with dooring related terms - a young photographer in India composes a visual DR PSA, a German Reach safety poster, and even a Dutch Reach yoga video! - along with more somber news.

Thus ending as we began, on May 15, 16 year old Yisroel Schwartz swerved to avoid yes, a thrown door, and was run over and killed by a truck - Brooklyn's 2nd dooring death [Hugo Gargia d. 26, 1/1/19] and 3rd reported major dooring [unnamed cyclist hospitalized, 1/7/19] since New Year's Day.

And now a word about this site, project and its future.

After three years I am hoping the DRP has generated sufficient momentum to sustain progress by the many many hands and voices, past current & future, of those who have found this simple cure worthy of civic adoption & promotion. For my part, I see most of my 'heavy lifting' done, and hope I may now taper my involvent, which has been considerable, and do some catching up on life & tasks neglected during these 3 years. If anyone reading this is one - or knows another - who might wish to assume a direct part in furthering DRP and continue this labor now more energetically than I may, please do email me to discuss the possibilities - which are many, vast, and life sparing.

-- Michael Charney, June 23, 2019

Must we have martyrs?

New Year's Day 2019 Hugo Garcia, 26, was fatally doored by a taxi driver in Brooklyn. His was New York City's 3rd dooring homicide in 9 months, followed by another dooring 5 days later for which the unnamed victim was hospitalized in serious condition. The Brooklyn Eagle decried the carnage, but in a later story reported on the Dutch Reach. Then March 8 in San Francisco, Tess Rothstein, 30, swerved to avoid a flung door and was killed by a passing truck. Outraged, SF's bike community demanded immediate installation of long put-off protected bike lanes. Soon after, SFGATE, the San Francisco Chronicle's online portal, added the Reach to the city's solutions mix. The SFMTA & Vision Zero SF have since dusted off their 2015 Urban Driving Safety video, excerpting its anti-dooring segment into a stand-alone but little viewed video - 127 views after 1 month - it being apparently weakly promoted, as Vision Zero: Dutch Reach. Perhaps a full-bodied VZ-SF Dutch Reach campaign will follow.

Meanwhile, the NYT's Smart Living story of October continues to resonate. On Jan. 9, Governing Magazine brought word of the Reach and it's addition to Massachusetts' and Illinois' driver's manuals, to its audience of state and local govenment officials. Then on Feb. 10, the editorial board of financial giant Bloomberg declared "Give the Dutch Reach a place on American roads."

Elsewhere, news coverage appeared in UK's The Guardian; the Telangana Police, India tweeted the Reach to 86,000 followers; Renault auto company advised the Dutch to do it (!); and Bicycle Network, AUS, wrote up a thorough explanation for its national anti-dooring campaign, after two cyclists were injured in a 'follow-on' dooring crash in Adelaide. A story in Fast Company about DR's rapid spread ran in March, and was then followed by an overview of dooring and the Dutch Reach by Zeit Online in April, the web version of Germany's prestigious national newspaper. [Note: If correct, Zeit Online's dooring death statistics for Germany and Berlin are staggering. - ed.] [See Current News for these stories & more.]

But media hits are but the means. Real news are the ends: On January 1, Illinois' Dutch Reach legislation and inclusion in IL's Rules of the Road, went into effect, accompanied by state-wide media notice.

In February Washington State DOT published its 2019 Washington Driver Guide with newly added Dutch Reach instructions - in 7 languages! In March Marit Stiles, an Ontario MMP introduced legislation for Dutch Reach inclusion in that province's driver training, which prompted The Netherlands Ambassador in Canada Henk van der Zwen, resident in Ottawa, to enact his country's trick on CBC Ottawa Morning. He remarked as well on his own near doorings in Canada. Also to be noted, in January New York Bicycle Coalition posted a very clear & accurate Dutch Reach video on Vimeo.

But what must be the quickest (if long overdue), 'e-massive' and well-targeted Dutch Reach intervention to ever, U.S. ride-share Lyft has stepped up. Petitioned by 14 'Fed up' Boston bike groups, Lyft representatives met with the advocates to discuss solutions. Lyft acted within weeks on one key safety demand: That its' passengers cease dooring cyclists. (Read advocates' letter here.)

So as of mid April Lyft now sends Dutch Reach 'push notifications' to users cell phones ten minutes into every ride! As Lyft books ~1 million rides per day in cities across America, these timely 'point of use' PSAs are an amazing free win for Lyft and at-risk vulnerable road users. Lyft also issued a policy statement on sharing the road, and links its push notifications to a Dutch Reach advisory, and GIF. The GIF features a Lyft passenger who avoids dooring a (Lyft?) scooter user by doing the Dutch Reach. Then in May Uber acknowledged it had begun piloting it own anti-dooring advisory via in-app push notifications in four cities: San Francisco, Toronto, New York City & Washington, D.C. , and released a Dutch Reach YouTube video rivaling Lyft's gif. Days later a 16 year old was doored; swerved and killed by a truck in Brooklyn, NYC as the toll continues.

To pause on a lighter note, I've assembled 5 popular + 1 high brow sightings of the Dutch Reach on a webpage of their own, here. Most a propos? It's appearance on Jeopardy! Talented but lowest brow? Springbo's Dutch Reach ditty. Elitest? Lingua Franca's celebratory blog in The Chronicles of Higher Education!

June 23rd will be the 3rd grim anniversary of Amanda Phillip's death. Too many have preceded and followed since. Progress is being made. Your help promoting road safety for all is welcome.

30 Months On - December 16, 2018

The wave continues. Again, the best way to view our progress is to visit Current News & New since mid-summer. The big story from the UK is that its Dept. of Transport will likely include the Reach in its next revision of the UK Highway Code. In the US a major development slipped out quietly: the National Safety Council & American Automobile Association will each teach the Reach in their 2019 Defensive Driving Courses starting in January 2019. Together each year NSC & AAA train & retrain several million individuals, members, court referrals, corporate employees & fleet drivers via online and in-person classes. No doubt but that their endorsements will strengthen road safety efforts across the US to add the Dutch Reach and other road sharing advisories to their state driver's manuals, as have Masachusetts & Illinois.

The Dutch Reach wave has also broken on antipodal shores of culture, from academe to pop TV. In December Jeopardy! quiz show viewers -- numbering in the millions -- witnessed a retired Pittsburgh police officer answer a Dutch Reach demo'd question, while in October human factors researchers at University of Nottingham, UK presented the first evidence-based study supporting the Dutch Reach claim of increased head rotation and hence expanded field of vision back compared to the near hand habit. Also a Munich-based linguist praised the Dutch Reach coinage for improving respect among nations! Meanwhile the New York Times served up a Smarter Living column on the method seven years and two months after Russell Shorto first reported the technique in English - quoting Ruth Oldenziel - back in 2011, also in the NYTs!

On the homefront, the Project gained two valuable additions: First, a handsome virtually self-explanatory graphic suitable for stickers or other uses (at left, by Nick Moore). And second, a comprehensive Officials' Dutch Reach Instruction Guide to assist driving instructors, policy experts, advocates and public officials.

25 Months On - July 24, 2018

Since the last update of October 2017 frankly too much has happened! To cope with the harvest best to visit Current News< and the archived News & New: July - Dec 2017. Noteworthy is how widely the message has been travelling internationally and multi-lingually, going beyond Western Europe to Bengladesh, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Croatia, Turkey & Qatar, not to slight sightings in Portugal, Finland and Greece. It even popped up on a popular cable mystery series, Elementary,

Elsewhere, Illinois became the second U.S. state to add the Reach to its Rules of the Road for instructing new drivers, and Illinois DOT will now include a question on the Dutch Reach on its licensing exam - a first in the US. Meanwhile, Stadt Berlin .de launched its own behavior change campaign for Der Holländischer Griff! A branch of the Canadian Automobile Association together with Share the Road Cycling Coalition Ca produced a new Dutch Reach video, while New York City Vision Zero incorporated the tip into a video to retrain for-hire and fleet drivers. City of London Corporation, UK, has declared its own initiative to teach the reach to taxi and ride share drivers and passengers. And after a long embarressment, Wikipedia finally has an accurate, well-documented entry on the Dutch Reach.

Yet the needless, heedless, senseless dooring deaths, injuries, swerves and crashes continue, with 2 deaths and a Rudy Guiliani pedicab dooring in NYC, several crashes - with at least one death - in Berlin .de, and a fatality in Burbank, California which prompted its police department to publish its own Dutch Reach advisory flier. This website has been cleaned up some, the menu tinkered. A summer lull may have set in, but new initiatives are expected come the fall....

Michael Charney

15 Months On - October 3, 2017

Over the past four months the wave rolls on. Massachusetts' Driver's Manual's inclusion propelled Dutch Reach attention across and beyond the United States, as carried by the Associated Press and National Public Radio's anchor program, All Things Considered. Then, by last minute addition, New York Bicycling Coalition brought the Reach to the attention of NYS' Governor's Traffic Safety Committee and City of Albany's Police Academy, their partners in producing a new safety video. Voila! Sharing the Road - Bicycle Law in New York State (July, 2017) teaches the Reach. Weeks later, the US Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) highlighted the Dutch Reach in its new safety report: A Right to the Road: Understanding & Addressing Bicyclist Safety (September, 2017) [See page 58].

In mid September, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and We Are Cycling UK - Britain's national bicycling organization - launched simultaneous anti-dooring campaigns featuring the Dutch Reach. The BBC, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Telegraph and Huffington Post UK all reported the story. RoSPA posted How to Do the Dutch Reach, a most engaging video situated in The Netherlands. The case is made by a young woman who had been doored. Then a charming Dutch driving instructor delivers both exit lesson and living proof -- that the Dutch Reach really is Dutch!

In Canada as well - from Halifax on the Atlantic to Vancouver on the Pacific, but most forcefully in Toronto - cyclists and officials grappling with doorings' toll ever more visible, so has the call to retrain passenger and driver habit become louder, and the Reach solution obvious.

Finally, in late September our friends at NY Bicycling Coalition took Reach visibility a steep step higher. They devised a, and perhaps the, long-sought Missing Graphic: a universal Far Hand Reach symbol, a 'cut-out' silhouette icon suitable for window decals, parking & Caution! signage.

May it go forth and multiply!

Dear Reader,

Another update: Founded due to a needless death by dooring, this project sought to change one inconspicuous but dangerously flawed habit: Stop using our near hand to open car doors when exiting...and use our far hand instead.

As the Dutch realized 50 years ago, this simple swap makes a life's world of difference. I hoped to popularize Holland's nameless, safer habit, a behavioral 'countermeasure' for dooring. Making it into public policy seemed a bit quixotic, but a worthwhile, possibly feasible, long-term goal.

Well, big mistake. It only took eleven months! It is now, as of May 30, in the 2017 Massachusetts' Driver's Manual! New drivers will now learn this better way in driving class and more likely do it. Hopefully to them it becomes "the way you open a car door."

So may I declare: This Dutch Good News! -- though decades delayed -- has finally arrived. Another Dutch beachhead in the Americas [the first being Manhanttan] is now Officially established at MassDOT.

At the same time, more and more cycling and road safety advocates, as well as 'regular' people are discovering it too. They puzzle over the quirky terms 'Dutch Reach' and 'doorings'. The need for better road sharing practices & etiquette is growing. And more people are discovering that when it comes to road sharing, the Dutch -- not to slight Denmark or Sweden -- have an awful lot to teach us!

And breaking bad habits is famously difficult. But to mash cliches, we older dogs do have our flawed habit to cut out for us - and by us. For safety sake.

There is help however! Tie a ribbon - orange makes sense - to the car door latch, or put stickers, post-its or mark up tape as a memory aid. And practice practice practice. 30 days in a row may do it, 60 for sure. Teach your kids & they'll bug you to do it! But I digress...

The Dutch Reach has gone international & multi-lingual. It's incredibly much bigger Good News! than I, or perhaps anyone, expected. But it turns out the demand is truly vast and in many places urgent.

But Massachusetts' government has now performed a great service -- and not just for Bay Staters, as we are called. It makes policy of this humble habit, and even helps legitimate its suspect name! Their gentle Dutch Reach video is sincere and clean of innuendo. Compare & contrast eight months ago.

So thank you for joining this bike party. Let's keep pedaling the Reach. But right now, stop a moment, raise a glass, celebrate, and sing...

L'Dutch Reach Internationale

Arise ye cyclists from your slumbers
Arise ye fearful of the hoard.
For reason in revolt now thunders
To end at last the doom of Doored.
Away with all your superstitions
Servile arms arise, arise
We’ll teach away that flawed tradition.
To Reach Across and use our Eyes!

Refrain:
So comrades, come rally
That dread door no longer face.
Far Hands unite the human race!

P.S. If any volunteer graphic artist out there can devise a universally understood iconic image to officially intone: "Do the Reach," suitable for public signage, please contribute! This remains our high mountain challenge for graphic design. Patrick Bibbin's logo homunculus, Marie Macchiarolo's bird's eye diagram, or Lissy Herman's profile line drawing, & now the Boston Globe's graphics' staff' frontal cut-away have all provided excellent images. May they lend you inspiration!

On 1, February 2017 the UK's Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has elevated the humble expatriate 'Dutch Reach' anti-dooring method for inclusion on its esteemed roster of recommended traffic safety practices, posting this on its Road Safety website.

For 50 years a nameless commonplace habit in the Netherlands, largely unknown and ignored beyond its physical and linguistic borders, the Dutch Reach has now achieved authoritative standing in the judgement of one of the preeminent safety and accident prevention bodies in the world.

So please share widely, and perhaps even rejoice!

Many lives and limbs will be spared when RoSPA's recommendation to prevent doorings becomes known, officially adopted, taught and practiced in the UK and beyond.

So thank you RoSPA-- and thanks to all who read this and have contributed in large or small ways to this progress. And congratulations. The far hand reach is now percolating across the globe and in the awareness of at least several million people worldwide who had never heard of this method before. Even with -- or perhaps because of its curious name it now travels much more easily past customs control!

Much of the heavy lifting was accomplished no doubt by Outside Online's The Dutch Reach - Safe For Work video. Outside's staff produced and published it on a dime, a mere eleven days after the term Dutch Reach first appeared in print. Views on OO's in-house and You Tube portals alone top 1.3 M views to date. [Update: Now over 2 million views on OO's in-house & OO's YouTube portals combined; myriad other sites world-wide carry it too. - 4/25/17.]

In the five months since the original Boston Globe report, Outside's video and PRI BBC World Service's radio account forced the creation of this website, scores and scores, perhaps hundreds of online news services, blogs, tweets, FaceBook posts etc. have amplified and developed the teaching. And a few legislators, one head of state (Canada) and countless bicycle, pedestrian and safe roads organizations have picked up the beat.

Additional videos, Dutch Reach graphics and animations, TV accounts, talk radio, print and podcast journalism can now be found, from North America to Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand! It has roused advocates' support in many cities around the globe where dooring is a scourge. And it currently figures in the controversy over British Transport Secretary Chris Graylings dooring of a cyclist by NOT using the Dutch Reach!

With this website now decently built out, it offers open source one-stop shopping for activism to promote its teaching, adopted by traffic and parking, transportation and public heath officials, corporate and public fleet divisions, ride share drivers and their passengers, etc. and ultimately make it part of every state's Drivers Manual, written examinations and road tests. Hopefully the Dutch Reach with our help can keep up the pace already set, or even raise it up a gear.

- mc, 2/3/17

Dear Reader,

Please note that this project only started 6/24/16, now three months ago. I purchased the domain 5 days ago at this writing (9/27) and immediately began construction in response to rapid media attention -- the 9/8/16 Boston Globe article "To avoid dooring, this cyclist...", and fast on, the unexpected 9/19/16 Outside Magazine Online article & video "How the Dutch Reach Could Save Lives" featured on the Home page, and upon being taped days ago for a broadcast on PRI/BBC's The World, which ran Sept 27, 2016.

Plain to see, my site savvy, design and editing skills are weak, and anyone with interest and WordPress mojo please your mentoring would be most welcome!

Hopefully it - this site - will get better! (The Comment section and Contact page are likely to be sub-par if not non-functional for a while. So rather than spend too talking to ourselves -- please help spread the word with links, Likes, tweaks, whatever. For starters there's Outside Oneline's video, Steve Annear's Boston Globe's story, and www.DutchReach.org itself to share. This is a small 'ask' which is unusually well received. Yet it can go a long way to increase vigilance and respect for cyclists while automatically making car exit safer for everyone.

You can find links to share at Media Coverage above.

-- MC
[revised 4/30/18]

Anonymous 'shook cyclist'; Nudge Blog; Prof. Ruth Oldenziel, Eindhoven University, NL; Russell Shorto, The New York Times; Deputy Police Chief Stephen Carrabino, City of Somerville Police Dept.; The Boston Globe & staff reporters Steve Annear & Martine Powers; Amy Saltzman, Editor, Cambridge Chronicle/Wicked Local; Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, Richard Fries, Exec. Dir.; Jon Ramos, Boston Bike Party; Lissy Herman - 'Dutch Reach' illustration & line drawing; Montreal Bicycle Coalition; Dr. Anne Lusk, Harvard School of Public Health; City of San Francisco's SFMTA & SFGOVTV with Vision Zero - SF, SF Bicycle Coalition & Walk SF; Hans Voerknecht, CROW.NL; Diane Daniel, Eindhoven, NL; Simon Rios, WBUR; Jennifer Molina, City of Somerville; Ken Carlson, & Somerville Bicycle Committee; Reporter Ben Fox, videographer Marie Sullivan, Fitness Editor Wes Judd & all members of Outside's Editors' Video Team, Outside Magazine Online; Cambridge Bicycle Safety; Marco Werman & Bradley Campbell of WGBH, PRI/BBC World Service 'The World'; Diane Jenks, The Outspoken Cyclist; Dennis _, Ronkonkoma, Inc.; Dan Strollo, In Control Safety; John Paul, NE AAA; Jeffrey Larason; [City of ~] Cambridge Community Development & Marie Macchiarolo: Cambridge Street Code; Pat Bibbins & Emily O'Brien, Medford Bicycle Advisory Commission; UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents - Road Safety; Canadian Member of Parliament Joël Lightbound & staff; City Council of Winnipeg Manitoba & Councilman Matt Allard; Washington Area Bicycle Association; British Transport Secretary Chris Grayling (unintentional assist); Jaiqi Liu, UK; Laurence de Hoest, UK; Henry Stewart, London, UK; LBC UK; CB TV - Manitoba; Dutch Cycling Embassy; Michael O'Reilly, Executive Style; Bike Saves PH; Femke Zeilstra, translator; Rahel Wachs, illustrator of child using far hand reach; Alex Bowden, road.cc; Sam Jones & Duncan Dollimore, CyclingUK; Doug Smith & Washington Area Bicycle Assn; John S. Allen; Cycling Savvy; David C. Read, Longwood Area Cyclists & Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Healthy Homes/ Healthy Work program of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; graphic designer Patrick Bibbins for new Dutch Reach icon & logo; Steve Evans, Director of Licensing, MassRMV & staff; Massachusetts Dept of Transportation; National Public Radio - All Things Considered; Bill Nesper & Ken McLeod, League of American Bicyclists; Paul Winkeller & Ken Crandall, New York Bicycling Coalition, with John Glenn of Glass Planet Videography; Albany Police Dept. & Academy, City of Albany, NYS; NYS Governor's Highway Traffic Committee; (US) Governors Highway Safety Assn; Emily Stein, Parent's Supervised Driving Program of Massachusetts; Stephen Bingham, Sylvia Bingham Fund; Cycle Toronto; Chris Glover, Board of Health, City of Toronto, Ca; David R. Large, U. Nottingham, UK, Human Factors Research Group; State of Illinois; City of Chicago; Ride Illinois; Nick Moore, graphic artist; Kia; John Williams Show; Samsung Firetalk; Elementary; Police de la Ville de Montréal; Polizei Brandenburg; City of London Corp., UK; Vision Zero NYC; Share the Road - Canada; Canadian Automobile Association of South Central Ontario; Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr & Klimaschutz, Berlin, de; Bike Cleveland; Police Dept., City of Burbank, CA; Bike Pittsburgh; Bangkok Post, Thailand; Cycling Action Network, NZ; Jeopardy!; National Safety Council; American Automobile Association; Brake.org, UK; Liikenneturva, Finland; Jesse Norman, MP, Minister of State & Dept. for Transport, UK; League of Michigan Bicyclists; SanskritFritz, YouTube; Marblehead High School students & Sustainable Marblehead; Sam Says campaign & the family of Sam Boulton; SanskritFritz; Illinois State Rep. Theresa Mah of Chicago, & Carol Ammons of Urbana; Dr. James Solomon & National Safety Council; Bicycle Network, Australia; Automobile Club of Southern California; Telangana Police, India; Arval Austria; Springbo; Cartoq - Noida, Uttar Pradesh; Barb Chamberlain & Washington State DOT; Adam Morris, Oregon; Eva Orbuch, CA; Michael Keating, Esq. Illinois; MPP Marit Stiles of Ontario; Renault FR; Tess's Beloved Community, San Francisco, CA; Lyft; Dutch Ambassador Henk van der Zwen; Uber; Guardia Civil, Spain; Kevin McGrath, Somerville Bicycle Committee & co-signing 14 Greater Boston bike & road safety groups; Pat of Staten Island; NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio & his social staff; Kathy Balcazar & Dustin et al. of National Safety Council; Toronto physicians; Onlia Yoga lady; photographer Hafiz Sajeev of India; Ty Cratic, Chicago; Chester County Commuter TMA, PA; Peel Regional Police, Ontario; Jeroen Bakker, NL - archival research; Felix Ortiz, NYS Assembly; Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat (DVR); Mr. S.V. of Rotterdam, NL c/o J. Adama Zylstra of De Telegraaf (1966);Vic Langenhoff (d.) of Stop de Kindermoord, De Telegraaf; Aston Martin 2019 Vantage Creative Design Studio; Ford Australia; Lincolnshire Police Rural Crime Team, UK; Met Police, London, UK; Road Safety Commission of Western Australia; Prévention Routière, FR; Road Safety Authority, Ireland; New York City Department of Transportation; Prévention Routière, FR; Acces Transports, FR; fotograzero, TH; 픽플러스 PickPlus, KR; Karl Doyles, Addison Lee Group, UK; Wegwijzer, De Telegraaf, NL; Reformatorisch Dagblad, NL; Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijdersbond (ANWB), NL; Ed Richards, Madonna del Ghisallo's - Cycle Safety Project, UK;

Also: Credit is due to all who have picked up, shared and elaborated on the Dutch Reach method on the web: Kurt Kohlstedt, 99% Invisible; Upworthy.com; Lloyd Alter, TreeHugger.com; Jack Elton-Walters, Cycling Weekly; Wikipedia; BikeAccidentLawyersBlog.com, Cleantechnica.com; GwynTopham, The Guardian - UK, The Telegraph - UK, mumset, ycombinator; Tanya Mohn, NYT; Carleton Reid, Forbes.com; Josh Kramer, Mobility Lab; Eben Weiss, Bike Snob; Rose Jacobs, Lingua Franca; Laura Bliss, City Lab; Daniel C. Vock, Governing; Kieran Smith, The Guardian; Paula Katinas, Brooklyn Daily Eagle; Bloomberg Editorial Board; Ruth Reader, Fast Company; Murray Lachlan Young, UK; David Curran & Michelle Robertson, SFGATE; Hallie Cotnam, CBC; WeLoveCycling & Škoda; Rebecca Häfner, Berliner Kurier; StreetsBlogNYC; Zoomer Radio Podcast; Quite Interesting (QI); RTL, Luxembourg; Puliane Frisse, Zeit Online, Germany; San Francisco Chronicle; WISO, Germany; All Things Bike, ME; François Grenie, Magazine Centdegres, Québec; Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC; Molly Quell, DutchNews.NL; ake Offenhartz, Gothamist & Shumita Basu, WNYC; Epoch Tim, es, Australia; Sacramento Bee Editorial Board; Diego Lacave, MotorLu News; Antenne Niedersachsen, Lower Saxony, de; El Liberal, Santiago, CL; & myriad bloggers, reddit members, diverse bike groups, auto dealers, radio stations, etc. etc. who are getting out the word.

Note: More to come. Contribution to this effort, formal or informal, witting or unwitting is here acknowledged and appreciated, though all who have or are helping develop &/or promote the message could now never be known, let alone listed.
Listing does not necessarily imply endorsement (!) or participation, as a few have "contributed" their valuable skepticism or unintended example or foil.

Ghost Bike for Amanda

Why...

All Things Bike Recaps DR Project

Yes, it is Dutch!

Case Study of Dutch Reach Project

Doored! An Introduction

In-Depth Dooring & Dutch Reach Slide Presentation

Dutch Reach per Wikipedia

PSA Series on Social Media

We Teach the Reach - v25Feb2020

Teen Killed in Bklyn Dooring

'All Things Bike' re: Dutch Reach Project

Indore Police Advisory, Madhya Pradesh, India

Four Years On - June 2020

3 1/2 Years On -- November 19, 2019

New York City DOT: Reach Across

Noteworthy Media Coverage - v19Febv2020

AAA Novice Driver Textbook, 10th Edition

3 Years On - June 23, 2019

34 Months On - April 30, 2019

It's 'Elementary'

Burbank, CA, USA

June 1, 2017 - Local Success! Larger implications.

L'Dutch Reach Internationale

Victoria, British Columbia

Seven months on, now it is 'My Lord Dutch Reach'

State of this Project & Website

Credits & Acknowledgments, Witting & Unwitting*