Bike lanes next to on-street parallel parking

For decades it has been the conventional wisdom that crashes involving bicyclists and opening car doors are rare. This belief is based on motor vehicle crash reports, but these reports generally exclude this crash type by definition. More complete sources show that dooring crashes are one of the most common causes of urban bicycle-motor vehicle collisions, accounting for 12%-27% of the total. This paper reviews all available studies of bicyclist position in bike lanes adjacent to on-street parking. With bike lanes meeting current minimum standards, almost all bicyclists were observed riding within range of opening doors. However, when an additional three or four feet is provided between the bike lane and parked cars, hardly any bicyclists are observed in the door zone. All of the design guides recently developed in North America for separated bike lanes include a buffer to account for the door zone when the bike lane is placed between on-street parallel parking and the curb. However, only the Ontario design guide has a similar requirement for standard bike lanes. The buffer requirement for standard bike lanes adjacent to on-street parking should be incorporated into all design guidance. When there is not room for this necessary buffer, an alternative is to place a shared lane marking in the center of the travel lane, which encourages bicyclists to ride outside the door zone. Increasing the number of bicyclists who ride outside of the door zone may require lowering speed limits and repealing laws that create a presumption that bicyclists must always keep to the right of the travel lane.