Sir, – As Rodney Devitt (Letters, August 1st) points out, while the the left-handed “Dutch-hold” method of opening car doors does help prevent doors being opened into the path of cyclists, it’s unlikely to become widespread any time soon.
I wholeheartedly agree with his remedy of deploying X-ray vision when approaching parked cars, but there is another, more practical, option that is available in most cases, namely riding in “primary position”.
This entails cycling in the centre of the lane and keeping a distance of more than a metre from any parked cars. There are other good reasons to adopt this approach, including to avoid debris and potholes, to improve lines of sight for motorists waiting at side roads, and to discourage motorists behind from overtaking when approaching a choke point in the road. Obviously, in cases where none of these apply, the cyclist can revert to riding more to the left of the lane.
Riding in this way is encouraged by many road-safety bodies worldwide and it would be good to see the Road Safety Authority (RSA) promote this, not only for the benefit of cyclists, but for the minority of motorists who view a cyclist “taking the lane” like this as a deliberate affront that hinders their speedy progress.
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Obviously, the gold standard for cycling in cities is the existence of segregated cycle routes, but given the glacial progress in many local authorities in this regard, understanding when and why cyclists might ride in primary position should be seen as an important part of the “sharing the road” messaging that agencies like the RSA seem so keen on. – Yours, etc,
DAVE MATHIESON,
Salthill,
Galway.
