Riding a bike may get a little safer in Virginia. Governor Terry McAuliffe is expected to sign what is known as the "dooring" bill.
If you've ridden a bike along a street with parked cars, you probably watched out for drivers who might open their doors. In Virginia, the law will fine motorists who open their car doors in the path of an oncoming cyclist.
"I watch for it. Brake likes. I avoid it," said cyclist Michael Kolbinsky-Krider.
It's a danger bicyclists know all too well.
"I was driving down the street on my bike and a man In a car opened his car door and I went flying into the car in front of him," said Andrea Gulian. She was seriously injured and needed surgery.
'The driver never even got out to help me," said Gulian.
Others have seen it happen.
"She got doored. Went up, over the door and landed flat on her back on the asphalt," said cyclist Kate Schlaback.
A WUSA9 dash camera caught a cyclist in D.C. last year who struck a door the driver of a van opened right in front of him. The cyclist was left disabled.
Many cyclists have had close calls.
"A woman just opened her front door I veered away, and barely missed her. Fortunately, no cars were coming in the center lane where I veered. She looked at me, and I looked at her and then rode away," said cyclist Hamilton Loving.
Soon, if the bill becomes law in Virginia as expected, a motorist who opens a car door into the path of an oncoming cyclist, or any other vehicle, which hits that door, will face a $50 fine.
The law would also assign liability to a driver who opens the door, causing an injury.
"I think it's a good law. It's needed," explained Loving. Localities are trying to encourage biking to work, there are more bikes on the roads, and more cars.
"It's getting more and more dangerous out here, " Loving said.
But opponents of the legislation say cyclists often don't follow the rules themselves.
In a five minute period, not one cyclist stopped for a stop sign at Union and Queen Streets in Old Town Alexandria.
There were about 250 car-door crashes in 2015, according to the sponsor of the bill, state Sen. Chap Peterson. He says the bill establishes fault in a dooring accident so that if a cyclist is injured, the motorist would have to pay the medical bills.
Similar laws are already in place in D.C. and Maryland.
