I was just in Chicago recently hangin with  Brian Kachinsky and Kevin Porter biking around the area when, well let me give you what Kevin wrote, he was the one hit by the door and almost got wasted...

"Yesterday,

while riding with Chad Degroot and Brian Kashinsky.  I GOT DOORED, and really hard too.

The thing is we were on a street in the city that is not very bike friendly, lets face it when you are riding around a city you are never really in a bike friendly zone.   That's the best part about riding BMX, you can hop up on the sidewalk and pull yourself out of sticky situations.  But not this time...

Here are the details,
The three of us were riding back to Brian's place.  We were heading down a street called Western Ave. The street is double wide and has cars parked all along the side of the road.  Brian was leading, I was following him and Chad was right behind me.  Normally on a street like Western I like to stay about 2 feet away from the parked cars.  Since we were kind of moving and there where cars passing us already on the left, it was kind of hard to stick out (hog that far right lane).   Well, I seen the girl in her car as BrIan was passing it and just then I saw the door crack open. It had a little delay because she opened it a little as she checked her glove box for something. There where about three cars right next to us at this point.  I reacted enough to dodge her door with my bar, but just as my bar passed she swung the door open. She swung the door hard, it caught my leg and through me over the bars.  This was the part that scared the living shit out of me,  I was laying in a ball holding my head about two inches from the passing cars on my left.  Since Chad was behind me he helped stop the traffic. There was about four cars and some girl on a scooter inches away from piling up next to me.

The girl came out of her car, she sounded like a broken record.  I had a really bad bruise on my leg from the door.  I told the girl I was fine, I really just needed her to be quite for a minute so that I could collect myself as I realized how lucky I just got.  The girl was talking about giving me her number in case I needed to go to the hospital.   I believe she said " Here, here take my number in case you get home tonight and see a Bonzai tree growing out of our eye."   She stated that her friends are riders and she is aware of the bikers on the road, she didn't have her mind on it this time.   After I told her that I didn't need here number and that it was fine, she offered me a beer.   I know it is a weird situation for her to be in, but please the last thing I want to do is sit with this girl and have a beer just after she hit me with her car."

I got home and decided to check the rules on Chicago Cycling.  Low and behold, there is a law that states "It is illegal for a driver to open doors into traffic well cyclers are visible in there rear view mirror."