Bicycle facilities terminology - the infamous "door zone"

(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia - Image is in the public domain.)
The door zone refers to the area at the side of parallel parked cars and trucks which would be intruded upon by the car door, were it to be opened. The door zone is hazardous for cyclists to ride in, since a car door often opens without warning, leaving the cyclist no opportunity to stop in time to avoid it. Bike lanes sometimes have portions that overlap the door zone. If such were the case, it would be extra hazardous for the cyclist to swerve into the car lane in order to avoid a collision, since any passing traffic would not be expecting such a maneuver. If there were no bike lane, there still may not be the expectation of such a maneuver. Worst of all is the case where the opening car door directly knocks the cyclist into passing traffic; fatalities due to such have occurred.

Classes of bicycle facilities

Yesterday's blog post described the changes in Congress as well as how Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA-52) mentioned in an interview about how he felt cycling is more of a recreational rather than a transportation thing. (As a side note, this Rep. Hunter is the successor of long-term and probably better known Rep. Duncan Hunter.)

Yes, it is true that a good deal of cycling is done for recreational purposes. But a good deal of cycling is also done for transportation, due to its convenience and low price, in addition to the built-in exercise. One who rides for transportation gets a workout just by going where one was going anyway. A variety of facilities exist, and facilities can be classified into three classes.

Seattle Buffered Bike Lanes

Just read and submitted a comment on Seattle's latest buffered bike lane.

It's an interesting experiment; however, I wanted to bat around the idea of whether the buffer space is better placed next to the parked cars, rather than between the bike lane and motorized traffic. A buffer space next to the parked cars would basically eliminate the door zone issues otherwise present whenever there is a bike lane and parallel parking. Even if the bike lane were narrowed from 5 to 4 ft for more buffer, the avoidance of door zone issues would be a huge plus. I venture that hit from behind incidents when a bike lane is present are rare, and that the added comfort from the buffer is illusory. What do you all think?