密歇根新闻广播 骑脚踏车者要求司机按照荷兰式开门法开门

Riding a bike to work might be good for the environment, but automobile¹ drivers are still getting used to the idea of sharing the road.

Bicycling to work sometimes can be an obstacle course of cars. But, since this storyis about making bicyclists safer, it only made sense for John Lindenmayer to ride his bike to the interview.

We met on Michigan Avenue in downtown Lansing less than a block from the capitol. Cars were parked on both sides of the road and traffic was swirling² in the nearby roundabout.

"Bicyclists are inherently vulnerable. They don't have air bags and seat belts and steel casings to protect them," said Lindenmayer, the Executive Director of the League of Michigan Bicyclists. It's his job to work to make bicycling safer.

Cities have been putting in a lot more bike lanes. Road engineers are designing buffers³ to give bikes and cars some separation. That's encouraged more people to commute⁴ towork on their bicycle. In Michigan about 20,000 people bike to work.

"There's more and more people who are choosing to be more environmentally conscious and choose a more sustainable mode of transportation. They're burning calories not carbon,helping to show that uptick in bicycling in our communities," Lindenmayer said.

Designing roads to make bicyclists safer only goes so far. There's one problem that'sbeen around as long as bicycles and cars have been sharing the road as an old 1969 bicycle safety film describes: "If there are cars parked on the street on which you are riding, always watch for car doors being suddenly opened."

Now, bicyclists are asking motorists to also watch for them.

"One of the things that's really important is making sure that when they get out oftheir vehicle, they're specifically looking for bicyclists," Lindenmayer said.

When a car door pops open right in front of a bike, riders crash. Sometimes they'reseverely hurt. Bicyclists call it "dooring" or "getting doored."

But there is something motorists can do: the Dutch Reach. But, through interviews on the street, we found not too many people have heard of that.

"If your bicyclist friend said to you, 'Hey, I want you to start using the Dutch Reach,' what would they be asking you to do?"

Brian Heusel, Saline: "Probably pedal different."

Kyle DeWitt, Tecumseh: "The Dutch Reach? Nah. I don't know what it is."

"Have you heard of the Dutch Reach?"

Julie Schiller, Tecumseh: "I have not."

Stephen Mitchell, Adrian: "This is embarrassing because I do ride a bicycle, but I'm afraid I don't know."

Alara Gerrell, Swanton, OH "I'm going to say it's a type of bike, maybe."

CoreyLord, Tecumseh "No. I have no idea. That's a tough one."

John Lindenmayer says the Dutch Reach is not that complicated.

"It's common practice over in the Netherlands and it's becoming more and more popular here in the United States. And, the idea is that you open your vehicle with your opposite hand," he said.

So, if you've parallel parked on the street and you're in the driver's seat, you would reach for the handle with your right hand so that your body twists and you can more easily look back to make sure there's not a bicyclist or scooter that's going to smack⁵ into your door when you open it.

Illinois just passed a law requiring its Rules of the Road book to include the Dutch Reach.

John Lindenmayer says that's not happened in Michigan yet.

"Well, we don't specifically have a Dutch Reach law on the books, however we did pass a piece of legislation earlier this year that requires that our drivers education curriculum dedicate one hour to educating young drivers about how to safely with bicyclists and other vulnerable roadway users. So, League of Michigan Bicyclists is working to update that curriculum right now. And we'll certainly be including something about the Dutch Reach in there along with a variety of other things to avoid common crash scenarios⁶."

There are going to be more people commuting⁷ on bicycles as cities and towns become more bike friendly. Automobile drivers and passengers have to remember to share the roadwhether their car is moving or parked.

1 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

2 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

3 buffers   

起缓冲作用的人（或物）( buffer的名词复数 )； 缓冲器； 减震器； 愚蠢老头

参考例句：

• To allocate and schedule the use of buffers. 分配和计划缓冲器的使用。
• Number of times the stream has paused due to insufficient stream buffers. 由于流缓冲区不足导致流程暂停的次数。

4 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

5 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

6 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

7 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。