New cabs come equipped with passenger mirrors to check for cyclists prior to egress

20130109-092721.jpg

A promising development seems to be afoot in some of the city’s newer taxi cabs, which I noticed for the first time the other day as I was stepping into the shiniest, cleanest cab I’ve ever seen around here.

Oblivious taxi passengers exiting the vehicle have long been a constant menace to cyclists on Valencia and other streets with bike lanes for some time, so let’s hope this addition becomes more widespread and actually encourages clueless folks to check before carelessly flinging open their door!

36 Responses to “New cabs come equipped with passenger mirrors to check for cyclists prior to egress”

  1. Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

    Seems like a good idea. Hopefully people will actually make use of them.

  2. The thing is, people who exit cabs street-side instead of curb-side are thoughtless, clueless idiots by definition, so hoping that they will check an itty-bitty mirror is like getting fucked by a stranger without a condom and hoping that everybody who fucked him did use a condom.

  3. Hmm says:

    Because tilting your head these days is just getting harder and harder.

  4. timbo says:

    What cab company was it?

  5. LetMeIn says:

    Why can’t people be happy with an attempt to help situations? I feel as though they could release a pill to cure a disease tomorrow, and people would comment like, “Sure the pill cures [disease], but I can’t have alcohol for 8-hours after taking it. WTF!?”

    • tuffy says:

      I was thinking the same thing. Heavens forbid someone actually tries to proactively address a problem.

  6. LibertyHiller says:

    If you get doored, chances are that you weren’t riding defensively. That means paying attention to your surroundings, and giving cabs that are pulled over a wide berth. That’s just common sense.

    But I’ve found (as a pedestrian as well as occasional driver) that common sense is too much to ask of most cyclists in the Mission.

  7. TinyTim says:

    You simply don’t exit from street-side. You scoot over to the curbside door if there’s more than one of you. Why is this so difficult? Just eat less pork belly, chocolate and bacon and you’ll manage.
    And why don’t cabs pull over more towards the curb, and still allow room to open the curbside door? They often just stop in the middle of the lane. I don’t get it.

    • Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

      Naw. Plenty of times it makes sense to get out on the street side.

      • Nope. Not ever. Get out street side = get run over. Or get run over X2 (by Muni). Or door bikes.

        Any number of things might happen that would suck for you, or for someone else.

        Why would you risk the possible consequences, to yourself or to someone else, unless you are a psychopath?

  8. * San Francisco has lots of one-way streets so “curbside” – more precisely perhaps the non-traffic side – can mean either side of a vehicle, or even both sides on a narrow street.

    * It is not clear to me if there are mirrors getting installed on both sides.

    * I imagine that the learning curve for these – because they are very non-standard – is very steep. Passengers will use them rarely, probably for a long time.

    * I smell Lawyers try to deflect liability.

    * How come we have not heard much if anything about this until now?

    * Does this work in other cities?

    * Is there some legal or formal problem with making the taxi drivers responsible not just for stopping in as safe a location as possible BUT also controlling the doors, as they do in buses? I know that sometimes – very rarely – cabbies abduct fares but there can be some kind of emergency exit provision.

    * As some readers might know, doorings of cyclists are very rare in the Netherlands. This is because on most busy & fast streets there is full separation between bikes and motorized vehicles, AND also because drivers are taught to look over their left – traffic-side – shoulder while also – this is key! – opening the door with their anti-traffic side hand.

  9. Hi there it’s me, I am also visiting this site regularly, this web page is really nice and the users are truly sharing good thoughts.

  10. I am also visiting this site regularly, this web page is really nice and the users are truly sharing good thoughts.

  11. Thanks you blogss I am also visiting this site regularly, this web page is really nice and the users are truly sharing good thoughts.

  12. sohbet says:

    Reply
    We Out Here says:
    January 10, 2013 at 6:02 am
    All these google niggas asgett’n Raped.