Two weeks ago, several friends and myself left our neighborhood around 6:30 PM to ride bikes downtown and join a semi-organized bike ride around San Francisco. We were nearly at the meeting point when my plans were cut short because I was doored. We were riding in the bike line, in between a lane of parked cars and a traffic lane. As always, I was wearing a helmet, had bright lights on my bike, and was wearing light colors (my messenger bag is white).

The rule of thumb when riding in the bike lane is to stay close to the left side, in case someone in a parked car on your right opens a door in front of you. It was rush hour, so all of the car traffic was stopped. In a freak occurrence, as I got past the intersection, someone decided to get out of a cab on my left, into the bike lane and that’s how I was hit.

We had just been stopped at a red light, so I wasn’t moving nearly as fast as I could have been. My left hand collided with the door, I pitched forward and hit my shoulder, then fell sideways off of my bike, running my knee into my pedal on the way down and bruising that, too. It was fairly painful but didn’t merit a doctor visit until a few days later, when I decided I wanted to get my hand checked before going out of town for the holidays. I didn’t want to find out three or four weeks after that fact that my hand was broken. It isn’t fractured but is still bruised and tender.

Why am I telling you this? The moral of the story is, regardless of your feelings toward bikers, where and when we should be riding, and whether or not we are assholes, please please please look before opening your door into traffic.