That moving over a few inches is very appreciated. I knew drivers like you saw me, weren’t going to surprise me, and were even helping. Excellent all around.
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Why stop at that - make sweeping generalizations - lane splitters are criminals, and therefore they are also drug runners, rapists and murders! Enjoy!
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I think there are three awesome things in here:
- The rider shows remarkable restraint in merely restraining the attacker without actually assaulting him back
- The rider is perfectly within the law and being attacked for doing something “wrong and illegal” which even if was the case is NOT for the individual to attack the person for, but instead to call the cops and report them.
- The attacker/Driver is clearly…DRUNK.
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Donald Trump, is that you?
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That’s a completely random strawman. Motorcycles don’t lanesplit when the cars on either side of them are driving 50+ mph. And no one has said they do. So why bring it up?
Let’s have that semi-annual bicycle helmet debate, and say “well, if the bicyclist were falling from the top of a skyscraper, wouldn’t a helmet help?”
It doesn’t do a discussion any good to bring up hypotheticals that falsely paint the topic in question. (Which, anyway, should be the assault.)
OH yes they do.
I’ve also seen a guy with NO LIGHTS on at 2am in the morning. He was like a ghost. No way you could see this guy unless he was right in your head lights.
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The research was done by scientists at UC Berkeley, headed by the Safe Transportation and Research Center. Hardly a “pro-motorcycle group”.
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Tell that to the idiots that zoomed by me between lanes doing god knows how much as I was doing 60+ on the 101? (I think it was the 101 it has been 8 years now since that trip so memory is fuzzy about the route now) in West Hollywood. That kind of behavior does not endear riders like me who are happy to just be out on 2 wheels to the rest of the people on the road.
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In California on the 101 in the bay area they do. It is terrifying.
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The post directly above mine referenced 50 mph as listed as the threshold for safe splitting, so the reference wasn’t completely random. And the referenced studies aren’t limited to “low speed” lane splitting.
And anyway, “straw men” are something people trying to win arguments bring up. This discussion (among other things) has been about lane splitting, and I just made an observation as someone who’s never experienced it other than in stopped traffic. ( Indeed, wasn’t even sure what was meant by the term when I first read it.)
I’m pretty sure it would freak me the fuck out at high speeds. I’d probably get used to it though.
But categorically saying people don’t lane split at high speeds is simply hyperbole. I have no dog in this fight—in fact I really couldn’t care less about it other than my observation that it would take some getting used to. It sounds like you’re hyper sensitive about the issue.
I definitely had bad days where I was the bad motorcyclist. Got on the bike angry, rode angry, split way too fsking fast. Wasn’t good for me, wasn’t good for anyone else, and I’m not proud.
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Right! Gollum while attacking. Sméagol when subdued.
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Agreed, it makes a lot less sense, in fact it makes no sense, but it sure seems like 7/10 motorcyclists I see when I’m going 60+ on the 5 are going 85+ on the 5 and flying all around cars with some kind of mad sense of immortality. It’s unreal.
Perhaps a bit of confirmation bias here, as well. Sane motorcyclists don’t really catch your attention, most of the time. See also: “All [group X] are bad drivers because every time I see a bad driver, it’s [group X]” - never mind all the perfectly normal [group X] drivers that you encounter every single day without any issue at all.
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And even my worst day (north San Jose at 5pm, Van Ness in SF by 6pm on a weekday), I still saw bikers going faster than me. Dafuq? I hope it’s nowhere near the majority of us doing stupid crap like that, but … I was young and a damn fool. I do still want another bike, tho. Even if I’m back in Texas and old and boring now. 
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Well, probably, but I’m not making any generalizations about motorcyclists. I just see a lot of higher speed lane splitting. Which seems like a crazy thing to do. But legal. That’s all I’m saying.
You can usually chalk that up to the phenomenon that people only NOTICE that which stands out (ex. the ones lane splitting at high speeds). The piles of bikers who don’t do that are never on the radar cause they don’t stand out amongst the rest of traffic.
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Those crazy eyes!
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As far as I know, it’s not actually legal. The way it was explained to me is that lane splitting isn’t explicitly legal in California. There are 2 laws that work together to make it legal. 1: all vehicles must be operated in a safe manner. 2: however many vehicles can safely fit into a lane are permitted into it. So, if the lane widens enough for 2 cars to operate side by side safely, they are permitted to do so.
IANAL, but that’s what I was told when I got there by more experienced bikers. The flybys on 101 aren’t following #1.
My own rule was that the governing law was, as always, anything that doesn’t anger a cop is legal.
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