Dooring no more

Riding a bike along a row of parked cars often puts the bicyclist into what is known as the "door zone", i.e. within the reach of car doors suddenly swung open by drivers or passengers. This can of course lead to fatal results and countermeasures include "taking the lane" i.e. riding in the car lane, as well as educating people to always look for cyclists before opening doors.

In Copenhagen I snapped this picture a while ago, the text on the door says "Catch the cyclists with your eyes, not with the door"

Now an ingenious method for reducing these types of accidents is being proposed by researchers from BMW and the University of Munich. It is based on using ultrasonic sensors and a haptic feedback device in the car door to increase the force required to open the door if there is an obstacle near it. This includes cyclists but also other types of objects, no more dinging doors against parking meters or light poles.