If Michael Charney has his way, more Americans would adopt a simple method to prevent “doorings,” a type of collision when a driver or passenger in a parked car opens a door into the path of a cyclist.

He calls the maneuver the “Dutch Reach,” and it works like this: When you are about to exit the car, you reach across your body for the door handle with your far or opposite hand. This action forces you to turn toward the side view mirror, out and then back over your shoulder to be sure a bicyclist is not coming from behind. Only then do you slowly open the door.

“Dodging open car doors is a daily risk” for urban cyclists, said Dr. Charney, a retired physician and dedicated cyclist.

Fatal bike crashes are on the rise in the United States; in 2016 the highest number of cyclist deaths since 1991 was recorded. The research doesn’t say how many of those deaths are from doorings specifically, or how effective the Dutch Reach method is in preventing crashes, but a study done in 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia, found that the car-to-cyclist crash type with the most injuries was doorings, said Kay Teschke, professor emeritus at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.