Years of promoting bike-friendly initiatives in Madison have helped the city earn a reputation as one of … the most bike-friendly cities in the country. Bike lanes on the UW campus make it possible for students to jet between classes without running over pedestrians, and strategically-placed bike paths help commuters ditch their Toyotas in favor of Treks. However, up until recently Madison’s bike-friendliness lulled cyclers into a false sense of complacency with its utterly silly law that fined, actually fined, bikers who were assaulted by malevolent car doors in an act infamously known as “dooring.”
Fortunately, Madison’s inner-biker came through last month, as several Common Council members sponsored a bill that reversed the “dooring” law, and actually made it the car-door-opener’s responsibility to look before opening. State legislators have picked up on Madison’s lead, and have proposed a state-wide law making car drivers responsible for preventing biker-door collisions. Promoting bicycle use in Wisconsin is a noble endeavor from an environmental, health, and transportation perspective, and thus passing of a state-wide anti-“dooring” law is something that needs to be done.
The most famous local assault on a biker by a malicious car door occurred last August when a local biker crashed into an opening car door while biking down Henry Street in downtown Madison. She was then issued a $10 citation for riding too close to a parked car while laying on a hospital bed recovering from her injuries. This drama brings a couple thoughts to mind. First, shouldn’t that police officer have been at a State Street bar issuing drinking tickets to underage drinkers? And second, is this ultimate example of adding insult to injury not ridiculously stupid?
The laws of physics have generally made it possible for combustion-engine powered automobiles to travel much faster than people-driven bicycles, and thus the City of Madison has granted bikers their own lanes on the side of the road to keep them from slowing up traffic. The problem is that in many parts of campus and the greater city, these bike lanes are immediately adjacent to the areas reserved for parked cars. Thus, bikers who wanted to avoid being crushed by angry motorists were forced by the City to violate the draconian “dooring” law. I don’t know if the bike lane setup and “dooring” law were a diabolical scheme concocted by a bike-hating bureaucrat to elicit revenge upon hapless bikers or what, but it was definitely a really stupid combination.
Most bikers want to avoid holding up traffic and do their best to be as small a nuisance as possible. It is only fair that these good-natured folks are protected against the wrath of car doors by the power of law. Actually, with the new law in place, perhaps that cop who gave the doored woman a ticket should abandon his assignment to issue tickets to inebriated football fans at Camp Randall and ride on down to City Hall to issue Mayor Dave a ticket for constructing bike lanes within three feet of parked cars.
Now some detractors may make the claim that most bikers are a bunch of out-of-control douchebags of the road who weave in and out of traffic and disobey traffic signs. While some of these jerks do exist, extensive statistical analysis, conducted mainly on my commute into work today, reveals that most bike riders in Madison are either kind old folks looking to save the environment or some cash on gas, or students riding really crappy bikes trying to make it to their next class before the bell rings.
While I’m sure the raving pricks will ultimately get their comeuppance, the real reason for the anti-bike backlash by unfeeling meanies is due to the douchebag “bikes are entitled to use the road too” crowd. These are the folks who rarely face the threat of getting doored because they are usually holding up traffic by riding down the middle of the street. I would be remiss in my journalmalism if I failed to acknowledge that the hatred inculcated in delayed drivers by these miscreants is pretty justified.
However, the proposed anti-“dooring” law does provide a solution to this problem. The new law will force motorists to check their rearview mirrors for approaching bikers before opening their doors into busy roads. This act of looking before opening will also allow peeved motorists to scope out the scene for any douches and ask themselves how they want to spend that $20 in their wallet. I don’t know what the esteemed reader was thinking, but the answer to that question is obviously “donate the $20 to the charitable cause of their choice.”
Ultimately, the small task of looking in the rearview mirror is a small price to pay for motorists who do not want bikes on the side of the road where they are not holding up traffic. Passing a law making “dooring” the legal responsibility of door-owners and not bikers is an absolute must for the Wisconsin state legislature. Madison has paved the way for this bike-friendly act to be introduced to other urban areas in the state, and now bike riders everywhere deserve this minimal protection against the tyranny of opening car doors.
