Dude assaults someone for thinking they broke the law, but doesn’t actually know what the law is.
Cops aren’t going to be happy he’s stepping on their turf.
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Honestly, it was hard to tell, but I think the road rager tripped on the curb like a moron.
The crazy guy takes a forearm and wrist to the back of the ear and back of the head. Hopped up on adrenaline or no, that shit takes away your balance like a bank.
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Friend of mine had someone try to open the door on him.
Got off his bike, removed helmet and caved in the guy’s windshield with it. Car guy smartly stayed in his vehicle.
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I doubt helmet or bar cams can possibly prove the door-opener did it with malice. That would be a hefty vandalism and destruction of property charge to fight as the motorcyclist.
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Car guy smartly stayed in his vehicle.
Hopefully calling the cops about the assault.
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That study (and press release) makes some really questionable conclusions. Motorcycle that were lane splitting were less likely to be rear-ended. Of course! They were currently between two cars, how likely is it that a third car rear-ends them? That says nothing about how likely it is for them to have gotten in an accident in the first place, which common sense would tell you is much likelier if they are riding inches away from another moving vehicle.
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…I never said otherwise.
The guy looked right at him in the stopped lane of cars, waited and opened the door. There was no question about the malice.
Also, this was before cell phones and helmet cams.
The guy in the car took what he had coming, to his credit.
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The only time I ever got mad about lane splitting was on 880, when two motorcyclists split passed me on opposite sides at the same time – I always try to give a couple of extra inches when I see a motorcyclist coming up, but this time one rider had the effect of almost putting me into the second one. Otherwise, it’s just a non-thing.
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If it was really that cut and dried, then OK then… can’t say I really blame your friend. I just imagine, though, a lot of situations like that the dumb sap in the car had no idea a motorcycle was coming up in his lane, and while the motorcyclist surely has a right to be furious, that kind of violent reaction would be pretty reprehensible.
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When you see someone roll through an intersection without a complete stop, do you think it’s reasonable to carjack that person and assault them for having committed a crime?
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and? exactly beautiful attitude. non-thing.
if some riders act like jerks? like the world, cant judge all by actions of some
But i like it - non-thing - 1 less car between me and home
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I learned to ride a motorcycle in Houston where there was no lane splitting, then moved to Berkeley / Silly Valley. Rode about a decade there - I lucked into not being harassed, but I did scare the holy bejeebus out of some folk. Saw people jump half a lane onto the shoulder when I passed them.
One thing that occurred to me was that all forms of transit have a pace. Events mostly happen in a rhythm. There’s a cadence almost to the decisions you make. Sitting on mass transit, almost nothing. Walking, make small decisions as you walk, get in a car, the pace of important decisions accelerates. Get on a bicycle, it gets faster - you’re moving faster, and there are more dangers to watch out for, so you watch faster. Riding a motorcycle, even faster. Things can kill you, and you have to flow with it and watch even quicker to ride safely. I don’t know if I’m saying this right, but driving a car after riding always felt like I had so much time to watch traffic or think about other things. Bikes, things happen bam bam bam. And bikes are so much more nimble to maneuver that you can react and see the change faster. It was part of the joy of riding to me; there was so much demand for attention that I slipped into a state of flow pretty naturally. I think that’s part of what car drivers don’t really get - hopefully we are watching and reacting much more quickly than they are. Exceptions and caveats apply,but that was my experience.
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I don’t think it’s California — none of the cars have front plates.
An important point to that study is that it considers safe lane splitting to be motorcyclists that are going no more that 15 mph faster than traffic, and no more than 50 mph. At at 15 mph difference in speed, it’s not hard to react to changing traffic conditions. It’s really hard to understand fully if you’ve never lane split. I didn’t until I had some time riding in California.
If you read the full text of the study, it does say that motorcyclists that lane split are on average, less likely to be involved in a collision that motorcyclists that do not, and less likely to be injured than those who do not. It does acknowledge that lane splitting motorcyclists are more likely to be wearing safety gear.
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Not being a motorcyclist, and not having ever needed to drive myself in California, I’ve never experienced lane splitting other than the rare cycle shooting by in stopped or very slow traffic. If a motorcyclist ever came up INTO my lane when I’m cruising along at 50+ mph, though, I have to say it would freak me the fuck out.
Yeah, keeping your delta reasonable is very very important. I didn’t want to stick around long enough for a driver to get bad ideas, but I didn’t want to scare them into an accident. Gotta be able to brake effectively if they move, but shadowing any one driver always felt bad. Only time I got swiped a little by a car, I was moving too slowly - he was just a leetle too close for me to squeeze by, and popped off my mirror when I eventually tried to get around.
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It makes much less sense for a motorcyclist to lane split at higher speeds, as they are already going “fast,” than to want to get through a traffic jam. High speed lane splitting seems prone to creating spectacular youtube crash videos.
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The vast majority of my lane splitting was piddling along between lines of cars that were barely moving in stopped traffic. Second most common was getting around the one person in an HOV lane who wanted to go the precise speed limit.
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