Research into the Safe Distance for Opening a Car Door in Order to Avoid Approaching Motorcycles from the Rear

Abstract

Car drivers may misjudge the speed and distance of oncoming vehicles when getting out of their vehicles, leading to door crash accidents. The author invented a patented side-view mirror with distance markers to prevent such door crash accidents. Through the means of behavioural observation experiments, the main objective of this research was to observe the minimum safe distance from the rear of an approaching vehicle when opening the door of the car. The experimental results determined that the use of the Dutch Reach method yielded the shortest safe distance. Compared to the other three judgment solutions, the use of the patented side-view mirror with a distance marker to judge the minimum average safety distance had the longest distance and was the safest, meaning that it is able to help female drivers to judge the distance of approaching motorcycles from the rear and to maintain a sufficient safe distance when opening the door.