The manual describes the 'Dutch Reach' method for opening a vehicle door. What does the method involve?
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A.
Opening the door with the hand farther from the door. Correct
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B.
Opening the door with two hands to control its swing.
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C.
Opening the door only after both mirrors show empty roadway.
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D.
Opening the door no more than halfway on the first push.
The answer is "Opening the door with the hand farther from the door."
Open the door with the hand farther from it (a driver uses the right hand, a passenger the left). Reaching across turns your body toward the door and gives a much wider view of approaching bicyclists. B fixes on hand count instead of hand choice, folding a generic two-hand door-control habit into a technique that is actually defined by which hand does the reaching.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Opening the door with two hands to control its swing.
One hand is used, and it is the far one, because that reach turns your body around. This answer confuses the Dutch Reach with a generic two-hand door-control habit and treats hand count, not hand choice, as the defining feature.
C. Opening the door only after both mirrors show empty roadway.
Mirror checks come first, but the technique itself is named for the far-hand reach. This answer fixates on the two mirror-check steps listed just above the technique and treats those checks as the Dutch Reach itself.
D. Opening the door no more than halfway on the first push.
The method is defined by which hand you use, not by how far the door opens. This answer assumes any cautious slow-open door habit must be what a carefully-named technique refers to.
This question tests your knowledge of Sharing the Road in Pennsylvania. Source: Pennsylvania Driver Manual, "The Danger of Open Doors to Bicyclists," p.93..
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