Cycling & Road Safety Organizations

 
Tweet this page link:
 

WHAT CYCLING, ROAD SAFETY & HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS CAN DO TO PROMOTE THE DUTCH REACH

Bicycling and road safety groups and organizations can readily incorporate Dutch Reach education and advocacy into their on-going bike & road safety mission.  Reforming drivers' and passengers' faulty near-hand exiting habit is an essential part of dooring prevention.  Below you will find examples of what some cycling, bike-walk and general road safety organizations are already doing.

CalBike's Dutch Reach Petition

National Safety Council Video

Bike League USA

Drive It Home - Far Hand Reach for Teens

‘Teach the Reach’ to Keep Bicyclists Safe, - Your teen driver can learn the far hand reach in four easy steps, .DriveitHOMEn , June 14, 2019. Video.

NSC - The Far Hand Reach

When drivers and passengers open a vehicle door from the inside to exit the vehicle, they should use their far hand (the hand farthest from the door) to open the door. As you reach across your body to the door handle, your body will naturally swivel, and you will automatically look at the side-view mirror and look back for oncoming bikes and traffic. Open the door slowly and remain vigilant.Car Dooring Michael Charney

Protect Bicyclists with the Far Hand Reach..This simple technique will stop you and your passengers from opening your door in front of an oncoming vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian. This works for streets, sidewalks and parking lots. Naitonal Safety Council, Road Safey, June 2019. Video.

AU Bike & RAVC Campaign for Dutch Reach

Australia Bike & Road Safety Organizations Call for New Rules for Drivers Exiting Vehicles, Feb 2022. Read press release here (pdf)..

NSC Defensive Driving Courses, 10th Edition

National Safety Council includes 'Far Hand Reach' (aka Dutch Reach) in its Defensive Driving Courses, > 10th Edition, (Jan 2019). It will be taught by NSC instructors in classroom courses for courts, licensing authorities, auto insurers, US military etc. .Click image to enlarge. NSC video here..

Vélo Québec

L'ouverture pivot pour éviter l'emportiérage à vélo, Vélo Québec et Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), 2 Sept 2022.

Ford & Gilllett Go Dutch Reach in Australia

Ford Australia & Amy Gillett Foundation to teach the Dutch Reach.  Driving Skills for Life program teaches young drivers to share road with cyclists, by Robbie Wallis, GoAuto.com.AU, 18 Sept 2019.

AGFK Twist & Look Anti-Dooring Campaign

"Dooring"-Unfälle vermeiden - Verkehrssicherheitskampagne "Twist & Schaut" der AGFK Bayern. Campaign includes poster, flier, disc window sticker & press release. [nb. Twist & Shout was 1962 top hit in US,  Schaut in German is Look] 24 Sept 2020.

American Automobile Association

League of Michigan Bicyclists

The Dutch Reach, explained in the 2018 issue of Michigan Bicyclist, p 6. published by the League of Michigan Bicyclists.

Cycling UK Pitches 'Reach' to Driving Instructors

Sharing the Road Safely | CAA

Canadian Automobile Assn:  Calling All Neighbours, June 9, 2021.

We Are Cycling UK promotes the Dutch Reach anti dooring technique in Great Britain UK as part of its bicycling and road safety campaign work.

CyclingUK, Uber, Team Teach Reach

We Are Cycling UK Dutch Reach campaign with UberUK illustrative image of campaign video & website campaign content

WeAreCyclingUK & UberUK team up with videos, driving instructors, web & push notifications for major Dutch Reach Campaign,  Includes DIY social media teachout: #TeachtheReach via Twitter, Facebook & email.

WeAreCyclingUK Dutch Reach Campaign Materials (2)

Montage of CyclingUK's Dutch Reach Campaign content including 15 FAQ's, slides for social media, (scroll to bottom), posts on car dooring &  PDF guide for driving schools and road safety organisations, and the campaign's rationale within its broader prevention efforts.

CyclingUK Claims BikeBiz Advocacy Award

Cycling UK’s road safety campaigns takes top award. Cycling UK’s campaigning on close passing and car-dooring has won the BikeBiz Cycle Advocacy Award 2019 to its palmares. As the Cycle Show at the NEC Birmingham

CyclingUK wins 11th BikeBiz Cycle Advocacy Award for its two digital campaigns: #TooCloseForComfort & The Dutch Reach, Sam Jones, Road.cc, 23 Sept 2019

CyclingUK & UberUK Warn About Dooring

Cycling UK and Uber announce new Dutch Reach csafety campaign, by Michael Murphy, TaxiPoint, 25 Jun 2019.

CyclingUK & Uber 'Reach' Video

Uber/Canada’s Pickup & Dropoff Safety Pilot

Brake the road safety charity UK logo

Bike Smart - Road Safety Week 2018, UK

Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat (DVR)

Ride Illinois & Chicago DOT seek updates to Illinois Road Rules & Driver's Manual to teach road sharing safety practices to Illinois drivers & passengers. The Dutch Far hand method for avoding dooring of bicyclists is included. Graphic & text promote use of the far hand showing a driver using right hand to reach to door latch, swiveling left to look over shoulder for on-coming traffic before opening car door.

Click pix for story.

RIDE ILLINOIS, CITY OF CHICAGO DOT & ILLINOIS TRANSPORTATION

"Ride Illinois is working with Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and ILSOS on expanding bicycling-related content for next year’s manual...

"Both CDOT and Ride Illinois suggested content on the “Dutch Reach,” in which drivers in parked cars use their right hand (and passengers their left) to open their doors, forcing them to look back to help reduce “dooring” crashes with bicycles and other vehicles."

-- Ride Illinois website, Sept 27, 2017

 

 

Alberta Cycling Coalition Cycling Safety Pamphlet

Travelling Safely on Alberta's Roads, Dutch Reach advisory included in Alberta Cycling Coalition's education pamphlet.

Bicycle Network Australia anti dooring education webpage promotes the Dutch Reach far hand technique to prevent bike crashes into car doors.

The Bicycle Network - Australia

Dooring causes serious injury and death for bike riders

Together we can focus attention on dooring and establish effective prevention

For drivers
Victoria’s road authority, VicRoads, advises drivers:

1. Get into the habit of always using your mirrors and doing a head check before opening your car door (one way to do this is to open the car door with your left hand)
2. Reach for the door handle with the left (inside) hand. This will twist your body slightly and make checking easier.
3. Open the door a little and look back up the road for bikes and other vehicles.
4. If clear get out of the vehicle and cross to the footpath at the rear of the car so you have a view of traffic approaching from behind.
5. Don’t be distracted by using your mobile phone.

The second recommendation above is also known as the Dutch Reach and its promotion has an advocacy movement of its own. You can read more about it at the Dutch Reach Project.

Passengers should also use the Dutch Reach, opening with their inside hand, to look before opening as well.

Cycling UK

Cycling UK is the UK's major bicycling advocacy organization and has for years campaigned for dooring prevention.  It added the Dutch Reach to its road safety agenda in February of 2017.  Seven months later, together with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Cycling UK has made adoption of the 'Reach' a national issue.  Here are examples of their campaign:

Do you do the Dutch Reach?

New Highway Code review on right path for safer cycling

Update of UK Highway Code Overdue

Major British cycling advocacy organization calls for overhaul of UK Highway Code to address bicycling safety concerns.

Inclusion of the the 'Dutch Reach" The above recommendation was one of over 80 we made in our 'Cycle safety: make it simple' response to the Department for Transport's Cycle Safety Review.. Click image or here for article. We Are Cycling UK, 5 July 2018

Bike Advocacy with TNCs

14 MA Bike Groups Petition TNCs

Bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups sent letter February 25, 2019 to Uber & Lyft,TNC's calling on the ride-share companies to improve driver education about the hazards of stopping and pulling over in designated bike lanes.

‘Fed up’ cyclists send letter to Uber, Lyft asking drivers to stop obstructing bike lanes, by Steve Annear, Boston Globe, March 1, 2019. Link to letter here.

Share The Road CC & Uber

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition logo. SFBC prompted inclusion of the Dutch Reach into road safety videos for truck drivers and Uber ride share drivers.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's promotion of the far hand method pre-dates the Dutch Reach Project.   Consulting to the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority, SFBC added the opposite hand opening technique into SFMTA's Large Urban Vehicle Driver Safety program and video in 2015. Likewise, as a consultant to Uber-SF, the maneuver again appears in Uber's training video Sharing the Road with Bicycles (2016).  Now SFBC promotes it by the moniker 'Dutch Reach' here on its website.

 

Let's go Dutch with the Dutch Reach. Do not use left hand to open the door. It's too easy to miss what's coming up behind you, and your door might cause a crash. Do Reach for the door handle with your right hand. You'll automatically turn toward the door and notice approaching traffic and people biking. San Francisco Bicycle Coalition sfbike.org

Let's Go Dutch...Reach! SFBC. More here.

Tess's Beloved Community - San Francisco

Family and Friends of Cyclist Tess Rothstein Speak Out A heartwrenching letter from loved ones mourning Rothstein includes a call to take planned street safety improvements even further. Ida MojadadTue Mar 19th, 2019

Family and Friends of Cyclist Tess Rothstein Speak Out. SF Weekly, Ida Mojadad, March 19, 2019.

Tess Rothstein swerved to her death to avoid a car door flung in her path. San Francisco bike advocates, led by People Protected mobilized dramatic protests demanding rapid implementation of protected bikelanes on Howard St and other hazardous arteries. Tess's friends, family, co-workers and religious community published heart-felt letters to City & State officials listing and demanding comprehensive preventive actions - with the Dutch Reach included & described. Their letters to the Mayor, SF Board of Overseers, CA State Legislature & Governor are found here.

'Tess' Demands for CA Governor

We need you to prioritize bicyclists’ safety. Here are our demands: 1) Prioritize at least $50 million in state budget funding this spring to establish a complete, low-stress bikeway network program; 2) Appoint a Secretary of Transportation who will prioritize bicyclists’ needs; 3) Appoint California Transportation Commissioners who reflect Californians’ diversity and range of lived experiences, and who will prioritize building a transportation system that serves all Californians; 4) Require that the California Department of Motor Vehicles provide training about the “Dutch Reach” in driver’s education programs and include more bicycle-related information in the Driver Handbook; 5) Encourage your colleagues in the legislature to pass SB 127 (Wiener) to ensure accommodations for all users of state-owned roads running through cities; 6) Leverage the Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force to ensure that Vision Zero can be realized across the state; and lastly, 7) Invest in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The amount California spends on this vital, life-and-death infrastructure is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of dollars that are still being invested in expanding highways.

List of demands sent to Governor of California by Tess's Beloved Community. One of three open letters expressing grief & each calling for comprehensive anti dooring & bike protective actions by city & state officials. Note: Lists of  demands are specific to each recipient. Read letters here. Click to enlarge.

League of American Bicyclists Logo, tri-foil wings emanate from hub of a spoked bicycle where. Links to "Does your state do the Dutch Reach?" encouraging states to adopt the Dutch anti dooring technique into driver's manual.

League of American Bicyclists - USA

The League of American Bicyclists, the national educational and advocacy organization for cyclists in the U.S. supports inclusion of the Dutch Reach in state driver's manuals, and encourages state bike groups to campaign for its use by the motoring public and promote it to local and state transportation departments:

BICYCLE FRIENDLY STATE

DOES YOUR STATE DO THE "DUTCH REACH?"

 

LAB: Dooring & the Dutch Reach

Bike Cleveland Adds Dutch Reach

Photo of line of parked cars with large question mark beside each door, suggests fear of cyclists as the approach, whether they will get doored by a careless driver or passenger dooring the.

Drivers: Are you doing the Dutch Reach? - from Bike Cleveland's Dutch Reach anti dooring webpage. Click image to view.

BIKE PITTSBURGH'S DUTCH REACH VIDEO

Washington Area Bicyclists Association - DC

Do you know how to safely open a car door? by Doug Smith, Washington Area Bicyclist Association webpage on the Dutch Reach, February 1, 2017.

Share the Road Cycling Coalition of Canada & CAA jointly teach the Dutch reach to prevent dooring collisions, injuries or death to bicyclists & exiting passengers & drivers.

Advised by Canadian Automobile Association, SCO.

Canadian Automobile Assn & Share the Road Cycling Coalition - Ca


Share the Roa the Dutch Reachd and CAA want you to do the Dutch Reach

Drive It Home - Far Hand Reach for Teens

‘Teach the Reach’ to Keep Bicyclists Safe, - Your teen driver can learn the far hand reach in four easy steps, .DriveitHOMEn , June 14, 2019. Video.

NJ Bicycle and Pedestrian Resource Center endorses the Dutch Reach in a blog post.

New Jersey Bicycle & Pedestrian Resource Center

 New Jersey Bicycle & Pedestrian Resource Center reviews & recommends the Dutch Far-Hand 'dooring' countermeasure in this review article on its website: Home » Blog » Bicycle and Pedestrian Policy »

"The Dutch Reach: A Doorway to Safer Streets"

"Approved by RoSPA" emblem to note the RoSPA endorsed the Dutch Reach in an advisory issued February 1, 2017 in UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RoSPA How to do the dutch reach start video cover art w button

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents - UK`

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) - Britain's foremost road safety and accident prevention organization - recognized the Dutch Reach in early February 2017 with this best practice advisory:

Dutch Reach

What is the Dutch Reach?

Dutch Reach
Dutch Reach4

The Dutch Reach is a practice for drivers and passengers where, rather than using your hand closest to the door to open it, you use your far hand1. This choice sets off a series of five linked actions: reach, swivel, look back, open slowly, and then exit facing traffic. This practice requires you to reach across your chest to open the door, forcing you to swivel your upper torso. This enables you to look in the rear-view mirror, out to the side, and then look over your shoulder to see any oncoming traffic. You can then look back through the window and begin to open the door, which allows a continuous view of oncoming traffic while preparing to exit, opening the door and stepping out2.

This practice can help to avoid collisions, often referred to as 'doorings' or being 'doored'. Dooring is defined as when a driver or passenger opens a vehicle door into the path of oncoming traffic, resulting in a collision or avoidance manoeuvres, such as swerving or braking, which may also result in injury or even death3.

The Dutch Reach method can also protect drivers and passengers themselves from being struck by an oncoming vehicle, as well as reducing the risk that their car door could be damaged or torn off by a passing vehicle.

Tips for drivers

  • Check your rear-view mirror and side-view mirror before opening your car door with your far-side hand. The ‘Dutch Reach’ forces your body to turn, making it a habit to look for cyclists.
  • Open your door slowly at first, do not fling it open3.

In September 2017, RoSPA launched a national campaign against dooring centered on the Dutch Reach method. A press release stimulated print and web coverage across the UK. It was accompanied by this video featuring a Dutch driving instructor who demonstrated the teaching:

UK's Automobile Association - Dutch Reach for Safety

The AA Blog: Could the Dutch REach Save Lives?

The Automobile Association (UK) Blog:“…trivial at first glance, this simple change in habit could help make the roads safer for cyclists as well as those climbing out of the car.” 15 Feb 2017. See post here.

 

An organization with 15 million subscribers, The Automobile Association of the UK provides motorists with vehicle insurance, breakdown service, driving lessons, road safety & travel advice. 

New York Bicycling Coalition logo in color with outside of NY State in orange, with half a bicycle spoked wheel superimposed.

New York Bicycle Coalition

New York Bicycle Coalition joined the Dutch Reach campaign in the summer of 2017 and made two significant contributions:  Together with the City of Albany and NYS Governor's Traffic Safety Commission, they produced an excellent video for police training and driver education.  Shortly after NYBC designed a candidate 'universal' graphic suitable for window decals and road signage to cue and teach the Dutch Reach..

New York Bicycle Coalition

New York Bicycling Coalition designed a semi transparent window decal for cars, trucks, taxis, ride share vehicles to educate and prompt drivers & passengers to use the far hand Dutch Reach method or maneuver to prevent dooring crashes with bicyclists or other on-coming traffic when they exit parallel to travel lanes & bike lanes. A box of text explaining the maneuver accompanies this image of a human figure reaching for the door latch, & pivoting to look over shoulder look back & scan for cyclists. An adjacent image shows an bicyclist approaching & now can be seen by the driver or passenger.

Cycle Action Network of New Zealand logo, gear ring disc against orange background

NEW ZEALAND - CYCLE ACTION NETWORK

NEW ZEALAND ANTI DOORING CALL

Video & article describe dooring of young woman Nov., 2017 to help explains serious danger of open car doors for cyclists in New Zealand. Far hand method is described; graphic image of doored victim included.

New Zealand video & article reports on Dutch ReachN as Cycle Action Network raises call to kerb doorings. Stuff.co.NZ, Damian George, Jan 18, 2018.

Write a Letter to Editor

Letter: 'Dutch reach' needed to save cyclists from dooring, New Westminster Record, British Columbia, 14 Aug 2020.

Editor:
Re: Increase in fines for ‘dooring’ cyclists
I doubt anybody will change their behaviour by increasing fines for dooring cyclists.

As far as changing infrastructure, I will have put my bicycle away and be using a scooter long before cycling infrastructure will protect me.

A better solution is to educate drivers to do the “Dutch reach,” which is a practise where you use your right hand to open the car door.

This means a driver has to automatically swivel their body and position in order to look past their side-view mirror and to the back of the vehicle to where a cyclist might be approaching.

Make this a part of driver education and a public relation campaign and we will all be riding happier.

Dale Darychuk, New Westminster

Additional examples coming soon!

Other examples of  current Dutch Reach education and advocacy efforts by organizations may be found under News & New.

 

Fleet Training: Road Skills Online UK

5 Key Steps to the “Dutch Reach”, Road Skills Online, Oct 2020. RS consults to fleet operators in UK providing road safety guidance to professional operators & trainers.

Train professional #drivers to avoid #dooring #crashes
https://roadskillsonline.com/blog/5-key-steps-to-the-dutch-reach #fleets #driver @Roadskillsbiz #fleetmanagement #roadsafety #parking #transport #License #OLicense #infrastructure #trucks #truckers #lorries #vans #rigs #boxtrucks #delivery #fleetservices #coach #CPD