Bicycle Network Victoria: Behaviour

 Opportunity knocks for dooring campaign

9 January 2012. Two Thousand and Twelve is shaping up as the Year of the Door, with growing media and community interest in the dooring issue ahead the Operation Door Knock campaign which rolls out in the coming months.

Operation Door Knock is a response to the rise in doorings which suddenly spiked in 2009 and 2010.

Preliminary research for the campaign is due to get underway soon, to be followed by a series of road user engagement exercises on Melbourne streets focused on drivers and riders.

The operation is a joint venture of Bicycle Network Victoria and Road Safe Action Group - Inner Melbourne (RSAG-IM), together with Victoria Police and VicRoads.

The Coroners Inquest late last year into the tragic death of James Cross in Hawthorn in 2010 seems to have triggered a new level of awareness of the problem across the community. See The Age feature.

The Coroner was told that the rate of doorings had increased dramatically, reaching 171 in 2009 and 161 in 2010. In nearly all the recorded crashes there was an injury of some kind.

The trend is also reflected in Bicycle Network's own membership crash data, which shows doorings doubling in a year.

Dooring made the media again in late December when the Chief Officer of the CFA, Euan Ferguson, had a door opened on him while riding on Riversdale Road at Hawthorn on Christmas Eve, breaking his hand.

It is also expected that the long-awaited VicRoads campaign aimed at improving driver-rider awareness will kick off next month, and may further highlight the dooring issue, among others.

The Door Knock campaign this year will test a number of initiatives aimed at making drivers more aware of the likelihood of riders on the street, and the of the need to be mindful when opening doors.

One behaviour change concept being looked at is to develop in drivers the habit of opening the door with the left, or inside hand. This method, taught to drivers in several European countries, has apparently been successful as it forces drivers to swivel in their seats and positions them to look for bikes, as well as restricting the initial arc of the opening door.

A dooring is always the fault of the driver, but there are measures riders can take to manage the risk and prevent injury. The campaign will also remind riders, especially those new to commuting, to stay out of the door zone so as to reduce the chance of being surprised by an opening door.

Door Knock will probably start in locations in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, St Kilda Road and Chapel Street.

For further information on the car door issue see here.

Channel Ten's, The Project, Car Dooring Feature

Crossy's Gig

Crossy's Gig is staged by the James Cross Charitable Trust in memory of James Cross, who died tragically in a dooring incident in Hawthorn, a Melbourne suburb. The festival is supported by Bicycle Network, which will work with the Trust to support road trauma prevention, improve road safety and cycle safety awareness through education and research.