The Dutch methodor dutch reachit’s a small precaution inopen the door which could however save the lives of many cyclists and motorcyclists. Let’s see what it’s about.
Anyone who rides a bicycle knows that one of the most common risks is that someone who parks the car opens the door without it check the rearview mirror firstthus putting cyclists or motorcyclists on the road at risk. This scenario is much less rare than you might think. We must consider that, in general, bicycles are unfortunately often subject to road accidents due to the carelessness of those driving. Every day in Italy more than 40 cyclists are involved in a road accidentand accidents involving bicycles account for 10% of total road accidents.
If we are car drivers, the precaution we can adopt for this type of situation is very simple: open the door with your right hand. It may seem trivial, but it is actually a small gesture that can really make a difference. Usually, in fact, we are used to opening the door with the hand closest to it, i.e. the left. However, this could cause us to instinctively open the door without checking the mirror. In fact, you can’t open the door with your left hand it forces us to direct our gaze towards the mirroras it would be right to do before getting out of the car.
If, however, we open the door with our right hand, we are forced to twist our torso in the direction of the door. In this way, our face will necessarily be turned towards the rear-view mirror and in the direction of the road, making it very easy and intuitive to check other road users before getting out of the car. This custom is called the Dutch method, because probably comes from the Netherlandswhere the use of bicycles is very common and therefore raising awareness on these issues is central.
