TIL about this small, but potentially life-saving habit.
Reaching across turns one’s upper body and head outward. It encourages drivers and front passengers to use the side wing mirror, look out to the side and then over one’s shoulder to scan for traffic before opening. Once the door is partly opened, as one leans out one’s over-the-shoulder view is now clear, no longer limited by side pillar or door frame. Reaching across helps to curb wide, sudden opening as a further safeguard against dooring.
From the rest of the wiki article, I got the impression this technique had it’s peak popularity in the past 10 years.
Have you heard about it? Do you use it? Have you stopped hearing about it, or stopped using it?
The reason why this technique is preferred over simply checking your mirror is for a few reasons.
Simply checking your mirror doesn’t catch blind spots.
It’s a good habit for passengers where the mirror isn’t going to adjusted for them at a glance.
And if you do happen to miss a cyclist coming, you can’t swing your door out into them because the way you’re reaching across prevents them being door’d. It allows for a slower and more telegraphed opening.
I know the reasoning, but I just move my head so I can see without having a blind spot. I’m not going to change the way I get out my car. It works for me.