How to do the Dutch Reach (and potentially save someone's life)

Titter all you like but the Dutch Reach is no laughing matter.

It's no euphemism, but the name of a simple manoeuvre that, if widely adopted by motorists, as charity Cycling UK believes it should be, could save lives and help elevate the reputation of Britain’s roads to that of those of oft-revered cities such as Amsterdam or Copenhagen.

Originating some 50 years ago in (no prizes for guessing where) the Netherlands, the Dutch Reach is a method of opening a car door with the hand furthest from the handle, so in the UK, the left hand of the driver, or right hand of the passenger. This means motorists are forced to turn their body towards the door, allowing them the opportunity to look over their shoulder to see whether a cyclist - or motorcyclist - is coming.

In the Netherlands it is taught to children both in school and from their parents, as well as being a required section of the driving test. In October, the UK Government said it intended to include the Dutch Reach in a new revised Highway Code, but it remains something of a mystery to much of the British public.

The method has become a central pillar to groups campaigning to put an end to “dooring”, the rather literal name that describes when a cyclist is knocked off their bike by an opening car door.

“Dooring” was responsible for 474 accidents across the UK in 2015, according to the Department of Transport (DfT), and made the news in 2016 thanks to a careless Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, who sent a 35-year-old cyclist flying when he exited his ministerial car without looking.

Hitting someone with a car door may sound trivial, but has been involved in the deaths of dozens of cyclists around the world (as of 2013, 25 killed, according to Bicyclesafe.com), including Sam Boulton, a Leicester teacher knocked into the path of van on his 26th birthday in 2016, Robert Hamilton, killed in 2014, when a motorist opened the driver’s door into his path, and Sam Harding, when he wa knocked under a bus by a car door in 2012. Further analysis of DfT data by Cycling UK reveals that between 2011 and 2015 there were 3,108 people injured, eight fatally, where "vehicle door opened or closed negligently" was a contributing factor in incidents attended by police.

How to do the Dutch Reach

An instructional video by Outside magazine has become one of the most popular blueprints for how to learn the method, with a YouTube video watched more than three million times.

• In the simplest terms, the Dutch Reach is opening the car door using your 'far hand', allowing your body to pivot to look behind.

• The Dutch Reach Project says: "Look out, at mirror and easily back for bikes and traffic. All clear? Then open slowly, remaining vigilant.

Though opening a door - or cause or permit it to be opened - so as to injure or endanger anyone is already an offence, campaigners believe cyclists need further protection.

“We frequently cite our European neighbours as examples of what we would love to have here, in countries like Denmark or Holland, and it’s the little things like this that can make a difference,” explains Sam Jones, from Cycling UK, a cyclist charity.

“We know of families who have lost loved ones because someone has literally just opened a car door. It’s been a big issue for us for a long time.

“It’s safer not just for the cyclist, but motorcyclists, or someone jogging or walking with a pram.”

Cycling UK has long been keen for the Dutch Reach to be part of a DfT THINK! Campaign, and has pressed a series of cycling ministers to help promote it as well as including it in driving tests.

Another push for the Dutch Reach has come from across the pond, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Michael Charney, who founded dutchreach.org after 27-year-old Amanda Phillips was killed by a car door, has been lobbying, among others, UK charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to include the practice in its guidance.

Last year the charity adopted it in its recommended best traffic safety guidelines.

“Sometimes the most simple ideas, make the most sense,” says Nick Lloyd, RoSPA’s road safety manager.

“Actually it makes such a lot of sense. Many people who cycle regularly will have experienced the problem where, at best, you worry if that door is going to be opened, and at worst, it does open and you have to take evasive action.”

“Using the Dutch Reach, by using their ‘far hand’ to open their door, they are saving themselves from risk, too.”

RoSPA said it will be making its 10,000 driving instructor members to ensure the Dutch Reach becomes part of the education process of learning to drive.

Jones from Cycling UK said that an improvement in the UK’s cycling reputation could help its tourism industry. He cites how a growth in open-access trails in Scotland has drawn cyclists “on all types of bikes” to the region.

“We had cyclists from the Dutch embassy come over to London on a Sunday and were like ‘wow, this is really nice’, but then they saw it on the Monday morning and thought it was like a battleground,” says Jones.

So what next for the Dutch Reach?

Cycling and walking minister Jesse Norman told the BBC in October that there was more to be done to protect cyclists, pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, though Britain has “some of the safest roads in the world”.

"Cycling and walking are increasingly being understood as crucial parts of an integrated approach to issues of health, obesity, air quality and town and city planning.

"But this will only happen if people feel safe on the roads," he said.

RoSPA says it will continue to promote the method, believes notices should be placed inside taxis warning passengers of exiting the vehicle with caution and that it should be included in driving tests, while Cycling UK says it will continue to lobby the Government.

The latter also says it pressing the Government to consider stiffer penalties for dooring. It currently carries a maximum penalty of a ￡1,000 fine. “We’ve been campaigning on this for over three years, and despite some heart-breaking cases, have been told no by officials,” says Jones.

In the meantime, it is hoped that more and more British drivers will be inspired to “go Dutch”.