Sometimes as a society changes, certain changes occur that seemingly nobody foresees. I’ve been considering some of the ramifications of an aging society.
Suicide doors make it much easier to get in and out of a car. And obviously, older people as a group are much more in need of such help than young people. So I submit this question to the Dope’s collective foresight.
As society continues to age, and as elderly people continue to be at least somewhat more active than in previous decades, will we see a return of suicide doors?
I 'm not so sure I agree with the bolded. I don’t think it is necessarily the fact the doors are suicide that make them easier to get through, but the design of the car as a whole. I would think sliding doors, like on a van or a helicopter, would make for the easiest entry/exit.
But having said that, I’m always up for cool and different designs. If some company makes suicide doors that look cool to enough people, the fad could take off again.
yes, I know this isn’t GQ, but you are making a declarative statement. and I’m kind of having trouble understanding the reasoning behind it. the seat back is often close to (within a few inches) of the rear of the door aperture. a conventional door doesn’t even have to open fully for you to be able to get in and sit down. a “suicide door” would have to open much farther before you could easily get in.
apart from that, how the doors are anchored has significant structural implications. with a conventional door (hinges up front) the door is anchored to the A-pillar. The A-pillar is an enormously important part of the passenger cage and plays a huge role in crash safety, especially in the common offset frontal collisions.
It seems that some pickups have doors with hinges at the rear for the back seat. But these are not really “suicide” as you can’t open them when the front door is closed.
I always thought they were called suicide because if you fell out of moving car, you would be dragged by the door instead of being able to tuck and roll to safety.
I’d like to think that we will move past swinging doors and onto something futuristic like invisible forcefield doors:D.
But until then, I’ve seen a few YouTube videos where they have sliding doors or doors that retract into the body, forward/backward and the coolest, down.
My take on it is that if you opened the door at speed the wind would catch it and if you ‘held on’ you would be going out also. Also that you could open the door at speed and the wind would allow it to be open and allow a jump out.
Unfortunately lots of valuable innovations have been removed from cars. For example running boards:
If you had running boards on a car when you were a teenager your buddies would be able to stand on the running boards while you were flying down the road!
I thought that the fact that suicide doors make getting in and out (especially out) easier was so self-evident that I wouldn’t need to elaborate.
When you open a regular door, the greatest width of opening is 90 degrees from the front of your body, or perhaps even slightly behind you, depending on the car. This means that when you try to put your feet out of the car, THE DOOR IS IN THE WAY! You have to turn or twist your body significantly in order to move your feet back far enough to where the opening is actually wide enough to get out.
This situation is severely aggravated whenever space is tight, and your car winds up being parked quite close to another vehicle.
With suicide doors, the greatest width of opening is at the front of your body, where your feet already are. One very short, easy swivel, and you’re up and out without a struggle.
On the other hand, you could still ride on the running boards on trams in my city as late as the 80’s - maybe even the 90’s for all I know, before they fitted auto-closing doors on them all. 20k’s an hour - still not exactly safe, but a lot more reasonable!
Have you considered that many things in life you consider to be “self-evident” are more complicated than they seem? What’s easy for you might not be as easy for someone else with a different dis/ability? That maybe more factors might be involved? Or that your specific experience with a door on a specific car might not be the same on a different car?
You came to the dope to discuss your question. Then you get upset when we point out the possibly flawed premise. Sorry for rocking your world view, but maybe you might learn something if you aren’t so tightly wound.
You’ve got to admit, there is nothing cooler than a WWII officer in long trench coat, stepping out of the suicide doors of a staff car. The image is even included in historical model collections.
Oh, I think they can look cool as hell! I’m not convinced they are intrinsically easier to get in/out of, let alone for all older people. Which leads me to say that if suicide doors make a comeback, it will be for aesthetic reasons moreso than any other reason.
Going to have to agree with **Flyer **here. My grandmother had terrible arthritis, such that she had no flexibility in her feet and very little in her knees. When she came to visit, it was extremely difficult to get her into the car. Even with the front passenger seat pushed all the way back, it took a lot of pressure (and therefore causing her pain) to get her feet swung into the car, since they would hang up on the door.
A suicide door would have eased that a lot. On the other hand - I can see where it might be easier for a wheelchair user to transfer themselves from the chair to the car on a standard door (and certainly easier to stow their chair). Of course, I’ve never seen a suicide door on the front of a car, so my example may be a bit moot (although we probably could have put grandma into the back seat in that case).
