Yes, cyclists are generally pretty annoying. They disobey traffic signals, swerve stupidly in front on your car, and when they’re not cycling, they spend the majority of their time talking to you about it. But, despite this, no one deserves to be cardoored by someone not paying attention when exited a vehicle. Yes, this even includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt in that stupid-looking movie of his.
Yesterday, the NYC department of transportation dispersed 26,000 of those little stickers to cab driver’s around the city. What’s the big deal about cardooring? Well, let me tell you about it: When you get car-doored, the impact is like getting plowed over by an NFL defensive back while running a receiving route over the middle of the field. Also, cardoors usually happen as a surprise, so cyclists have absolutely no way to brace for impact. Then, you either find yourself either going through a car window, flipping over the top of the door (the best case scenario), or being flung into traffic. Depending on the street, the third option also comes with the added chance of death by being run over. So, it should come as no shock to you that after the first time I was car-doored, I walked away from city cycling for a year.
In other words, there are many way to show cyclists that you hate them. You can flip them off, honk at them, and hurl obsolescent at them. You can even slyly follow them to their local hipster coffee shop and steal their bike seat while they’re inside. But, please, don’t take out a cyclist. It hurts.