Thrillist speaks with Steve Vaccaro in their in-depth look at the persisting perils of cycling in NYC.

In 2014, Bicycling Magazine named New York the country’s best city for biking. It makes a lot of sense. That year, 3,982 bikers were injured on the streets, and 20 were killed — almost double 2013, when a mere dozen died. Without a protected bike lane network, riders are still in the streets, elbow-to-bumper with cars that can crush them at the slightest slip of the steering wheel. Socially, cyclists remain the scourge of New York, hated by pedestrians and drivers alike, even as NYPD crackdowns have racked up bike tickets in record numbers.

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“If a cyclist is moving at a speed in excess of 10mph, then I don’t think it’s safe to travel in an [unprotected] bike lane because of the risk of a door opening,” said Steve Vaccaro, a New York attorney whose practice works predominantly with cyclists injured in traffic. This sort of collision happens so frequently, cyclists refer to it in verb form: “I got doored.” Ouch.

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Read the full story here.