On 11/06/2020 10:55, Simon Mason wrote:
On Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 10:01:54 AM UTC+1, Kelly wrote:
If cyclists ride outside the car door width area of supposedly safely
parked cars they face criticism from some drivers for taking up
precious road space that those drivers insist they urgently need.

The people who complain about ccyclists giving parked cars too wide a berth when overtaking forget one thing.

Highway Code 239.

QUOTE:
It is an offence to open, or cause or permit to be opened, a car door so as to injure or endanger anyone (section 105, The Roads Vehicles (Constructions and Use) Regulations 1986 and section 42, Road Traffic Act 1988).

This is thus expressed as a ‘MUST’ in Rule 239 of the HC, which states that you “MUST ensure you do not hit anyone when you open your door”, with further advice to “check for cyclists or other traffic”.

This rule, however, is not well-known or publicised, and fails to adequately alert drivers to the specific risks to cyclists and motorcyclists if car doors are opened into the road without looking behind first.

ENDS

So it is **illegal** to open a car door in a way which puts a cyclist in danger, which clearly puts the onus on the car driver, not the cyclist.

If an overtaking* cyclist gives the same clearance to a parked vehicle
as he would wish a driver of that vehicle to give to him were the
positions reversed, it becomes impossible to "door" the cyclist.

It's all just arithmetic.

[* The word means the same as "passing".]