Doorings are far more common than hit-from-behinds. The simple reason is that the people behind you are looking in your direction. The people opening car doors are not.

My personal, daily cycling experience is that if there’s traffic behind me, they WILL adjust for me. They have no choice, really.

“I really can’t imagine that a significant number of rational human beings are going to embrace the “it’s safer to ride out in front of the SUVs” philosophy.”

The “rational” person knows the real risk factors and rides to minimize them, even if the least risky way to ride is the least obvious.

The concept is simple: Act like traffic and you will be treated like traffic.

I know this is counter-intuitive. I know many cyclists would rather be separated by paint or segregated onto paths. And most people have as much interest in cycling as I have in playing tennis (none).

But if you like cycling and you want to cycle-commute, it’s worth knowing what the real risks are, it’s worth knowing that the risks are relatively low, and it’s worth knowing the best ways to integrate into the existing traffic.

As for the whole bicycle-open door-lane of traffic debate, I really can’t imagine that a significant number of rational human beings are going to embrace the “it’s safer to ride out in front of the SUVs” philosophy. I’ll take my chances with a stationary car door any day over an 18-wheeler going 60 mph. On the other hand, I became quite happy scooting past rush-hour traffic in downtown Oakland on my way to the Jack London Square Amtrak station. The traffic was almost always as slow as I was, and often lined up for a red light. Now I’m faced with fewer red lights, faster traffic, more tractor-trailer rigs. I may not be the world’s biggest wimp, but I am not ashamed to say that I do about 40 percent of my riding beetween work and the Amtrak station on the sidewalk. One of these days i’m going to start packing a whisk broom, making regular stops to sweep the glass…

So true, I never did see Jerry Sienfeld ride that mountain bike hanging from his apartment ceiling.

As for biking, there is a chicken and the egg issue going on here – I think it is patently true that commuting via bike is not easy and is scary in the majority of the Bay Area. Whether that is because the infrastructure doesn’t exist or if the infrastructure doesn’t exist because people don’t do it is besides the point. It just is, and the better question is how do we get from point A where we are to a mythical point B where we want to get to?

Investing heavily in infrastructure (whether that be bike lanes, buses and/or railway) that people don’t use is a difficult sell, even in the Bay Area. We’ll need a fundamental shift in individual behavior, and that will only be accomplished by either appealing to people’s self-interest or by a concerted effort ala smoking. However, the risks are not as obvious as smoking, so I think that one’s out at least for the moment. That leaves self-interest: commuting via car will have to be painful enough and commuting via public transit easy enough for people to want to do it. As long as we continue to invest heavily in expansion of roads and bridges but not nearly as much in public transit, this is unlikely to occur anytime soon.

That “babbling psychiatric out-patient” is a lot safer than your average mainstream Jane or Joe babbling away on their cell phone while driving in the lane next to you!

The solution to this fear is to ride outside the “door zone”. That requires getting over the “hit from behind” fear.

It’s counter-intuitive, especially in our culture, but riding to the left of such hazards, being firmly in the travel lane, is the safest way to ride a bike. This is especially true at intersections.