PH wrote:I'm not sure everyone posting has actually looked at the link or understood the OP. It's got nothing to do with how much room to give a car or being doored. It's using a door as a visual example of how much room to give a cyclist you're overtaking, it's really got nothing to do with doors!
Whether it's enough depends on how big someone thinks a door is, it's probably better than saying 1.5m because IMO unless you're someone who measuring things frequently you're unlikely to be able to accurately gauge what 1.5m looks like.
Yes, the point that I was making (obviously not very well ) is that I don't think that many car doors are actually 1.5m. So using it as a gauge for how much room you should give when passing a cyclist isn't that helpful (for us cyclists). My example (Ford Mondeo) gives a passing room of less than 1 meter. I just think 'a car door width' is such a bad example to use.
I do think that it is good advice for anyone passing a line of parked cars, but not for passing cyclists (or walkers, or horses).
I also think that most people will struggle to picture what a 1.5m gap looks like. So I agree that some form of 'interpretation' is probably needed.
Maybe if it was brought to life a bit better by saying more realistic things - the width of a Fiat 500 (measured door to door 1414mm). There is a Welsh campaign showing two imaginary cyclists I much prefer that to the blue and white sign. 1.5m is 5ft can you think about someone you know who is 5ft tall lying on the road in that gap?
Perhaps a campaign featuring 'things that are 1.5m wide' might have some impact and stick in people's minds?