Do you know what the Dutch grip technique is? Widespread in the Netherlands, it has just been authorized in Brussels and aims to prevent certain types of accidents for road users.
If you drive in the city or even elsewhere, you have certainly already encountered this problem. You are in your vehicle, you park, the ignition turns off and as you open your door to get out, you narrowly avoid a cyclist you did not see coming. The tragedy was narrowly avoided, and yet accidents of this type are frequent and fearsome. Specialists also use the term “portiérage” to designate them; understand the collision of a cyclist against an open door.
Although in France there are no precise statistics on this phenomenon, we do know that cyclists are among the most vulnerable users on the road. According to the 2023 Road Safety report, cyclists and EDPm users (electric scooters for example) represent 8% of users killed on the road, “20% of seriously injured people and 30% of injured people who will have after-effects 1 year after the accident.” In Belgium, the phenomenon is such that the Brussels parliament adopted last January the implementation of a specific measure to reduce the number of car accidents, and which will be integrated into the Belgian Highway Code. This is a technique, widespread in Canada and the Netherlands, called the “Dutch handle”. And no, it’s not a second handle that you attach to the one on your vehicle.
What does it consist of then? It’s nothing more and nothing less than a simple gesture. Instead of opening your driver’s side door with your left hand, you open it with your right hand. This requires you to turn your torso to check your blind spot and thus see if a possible cyclist or a user on a scooter is coming from behind. In short, you will have better visibility of what is happening on the road, by looking through your window or rear-view mirror. The gesture is the same for passengers getting out of the car on the road side: you should not open the door with the hand closest to the handle, but with the opposite hand.
In France, the Dutch handle is not currently included in the Highway Code, but the Road Safety Delegation (DSR) already took up the subject last year by carrying out an awareness campaign on exportiage and its consequences. A gesture that could become a good habit to adopt if you are a motorist or passenger.