Dutch Reach
A ‘Dutch’ way of getting out of the car is becoming the European standard. The European Parliament wants this to be taught in driving lessons to prevent accidents with cyclists.
Anyone who gets out of a car on a busy street can, with a bit of bad luck, swing open the door for an oncoming cyclist. The result: a hard blow to the cyclist and damage to the door. You want to avoid that at all costs. Besides paying more attention, there is something you can do to prevent such an incident; the ‘Dutch Reach’. This became the standard in the United Kingdom a few years ago, and now they want to make it the standard in the EU as well. It is part of the new driving license directive for which the European Parliament recently voted.
The Dutch Reach is a term that reportedly first appeared in the United States, but it takes its name from a phenomenon found on a larger scale in the Netherlands. Americans apparently noticed that ‘we’ sometimes get out of cars here differently than usual. It means that as a driver you do not unlock your door with your left but with your right hand. You then push it open with your left hand. You automatically turn your upper body slightly to the left and almost automatically look over your shoulder to see whether it is safe to get out. In the new driving license directive, which is not expected to come into effect until a few years from now when it has passed all political systems, this method of disembarking is mandatory when obtaining your driving licence.
Curious about what it looks like in practice to step out like this? Our colleagues at AD have a video of it.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl