True, but I think the average non-motorcycle user has a cognitive bias that motorcyclists are full of jerks who do dangerous things.
This conversation is really one about this interesting and illusory idea that many of us seem to have about having a right to a place in line with regards to traffic. There seems to be some idea that you have a right to get to your destination before the person ābehindā you does. Spatially they are behind us, where they are in their trip through the circulatory system of roads is not known to us, yet somehow we feel they must stay back there?
I donāt get it.
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Are you talking about lane splitting. I totally think you are right people feel cheated if they have to sit while some one can zip ahead. It isnāt āfairā. I think it appeals to our basic idea of āwaiting your turnā, and you see one guy seemingly above the rules. Though if you think about it, why should they sit there too if law and opportunity allows them to lane split?
Another scenario that is the guy who says in the left lane and merges at the last minute, vs getting in at first opportunity. I do hate that, but I am very Taoist when I drive. I take the path of least resistance when possible and go with the flow. Occasionally that means making three rights to turn left.
I honestly donāt see a lot of lane splitting. I am not sure on the legality of it where I live, but we also donāt typically have true, stand still traffic jams. Most motorcyclists I see are doing just fine. though inevitably there will be one guy on a crotch rocket zipping back and forth between lanes going 10+mph than traffic.
And I nearly shit a brick the other day when I saw a motorcycle late at night with no lights. I donāt know if he was drunk and didnāt turn them on? Turned them off on purpose to run in stealth mode? Or maybe he was having technical issues. Scary as shit though. No way in hell you could see this guy unless he was directly in front of you.
Well, I mean whatever they eat for dinner aināt none of my business, man. Though jerks who do dangerous things probably arenāt very good for your health, since they probably donāt take very good care of themselves.
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Not reallyā¦ even with passing in a car on any road, people feel offended by the action. A great piece that David Hough wrote in one of his books discusses resisting the anger/offense that people feel when passed on the road. There is no need to be macho or keep up, be ahead or faster than someone else, but many drivers feel it. He suggests we be aware that folks you pass may get road ragey and do silly things and cautions against the same behavior as its extra dangerous on a motorcycle.
People will be super grumpy and shake their fist at me on a steep incline, if iām driving the VW van. No one is willing to wait behind a 45-50 mph moving slug when they can do 65 up that hill. The same driver might be mortally offended if I pass them in the sports car. It is odd. It is a sense of entitlement about your perceived place in time and space relative to others.
I donāt get it.
Suicidal? Super stupid? I donāt want to be on my bike at night with the lights on when I can avoid it. I plan to be home in time to take a car out most nights.
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I have no qualms about people passing me when traffic is flowing. However, whenever people try to change lanes in stop-and-go traffic, that slows the traffic down even further.
If motorcycles can use lane-splitting to get past the rest of the traffic without merging in and out of traffic and slowing the whole mess down further, Iām all for that. However, when another car changes lanes from behind me into an acceleration lane, and then merges back in front of me, thatās just making the problem worse.
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Zipper merging. Also a better idea than everyone getting in early and wasting roadspace.
It would be better to have less places where lanes appear and disappear, mind.
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When one is driving a car, this is what is going on in your head whether one is aware of it or not -
The car behind you is always putting pressure on you to go faster and the car in front of you is never going fast enough.
Itās like a primal instinct is constantly activated and people do stupid and thoughtless things (change lanes multiple times, cut off, tailgating, run red lights, pass using oncoming/parking lanes) to relieve the pressure.
.
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It really is more primal and sort of survival instinct related than sense. The Zipper Merge is my favorite example. Why can people in the SF Bay area not zipper merge? I think the regional narcissism makes everyone want to step out of line and ātake a short cutā that is actually slower and breaks the system. If people would just WAIT and zipper merge on the bridges when lanes join, life would be easier.
I had to look up the zipper merge. Could the problem simply be a lack of exposure/education about it? Even then getting people to actually use itā¦
Talk about death for motorcyclistsā¦
No. How many times does this have to be cited?
From the study described here, which measured the effects of filtering (lane splitting)
With a tenth of car drivers now using motorcycles, the main queue is gone by 8.30am instead of 9.10am, while the number of ālost vehicle hoursā decreases by 63 per cent to 706.
The individuals making the switch, of course, would enjoy even faster journey times once the queues start to form, but they would also be helping their fellow commuters.
ā¦
So those bike riders wriggling past you in the traffic are not only saving themselves time and money, theyāre also saving it for car drivers, as well as cutting emissions.
As described here:
Where many drivers get it wrong is that they see lane splitting as āqueue jumpingā that will cause each car to go one further spot back in the queue. In truth, a filtering bike disappears from the queue altogether, the only time a motorcycle holds a car up is when it sits in traffic and acts like another car.
Thinking itās a ādick moveā because itās not fair that he got to go ahead, regardless of the fact that it actually cuts down on traffic time for you as well is toddler-logic. (āAs a present, you both get to have a candy.ā āBut his is bigger!!! I donāt want anyone to get a candy!ā)
(NB: this is just about filtering in traffic, which is what you were calling a ādick move.ā Lane splitting at fast speeds is not excusable.)
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Yeah. I donāt get that either, but I know what you are talking about. I deal with aggressive drivers every day. I like to drive fast as well, but when I am behind a line a cars, you running up to me at full speed and then tail gate a mile isnāt doing anything but raising your blood pressure. The traffic is going this fast. Just accept it. Eventually the merge came up and she split off and zipped by as fast as she could.
Some people do take every action as a personal affront on the road and then act out on it. Iām with you and I donāt get the attitude. Put on some fun music and relax.
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My one recent experience with lane-splitting was probably the single most stressful ten minutes of driving in all my 53 years. I was staying in Berkeley, working downtown SF, and there was a BART strike. So I started taking the ferry. That first morning driving to the Oakland ferry station was foggy at about 6AM. I got on 80 at University, and then had to cross all lanes to exit left on to 580. Traffic was really slow. Visibility was like 2.5 car lengths. Every so often, while Iāve got my blinker on waiting for a gap to move left, a motorcycle would zip by on my left. I couldnāt see them approach until they were a couple cars or so back, and I donāt imagine they could see me. Nowhere near enough time to stop. After it happened the one time, I was terrified that I was going to kill someone just changing lanes. Probably a half-dozen bikes passed on either side of me in those couple miles. Every one of the four or five lane changes was āThereās a gap; Iām going left and I hope thereās no biker approaching.ā The rest of the week I got up early and took surface streets down to Oakland.
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I think the driving behavior is partly automatic. Thereās so many distractions - mental and physical - that allow disconnection from the situation, that drivers simply have trouble focusing on driving.
2 rules: 1) go fast 2) avoid stopping
The subconscious - The quicker one gets there, the sooner one can be free (of the car, especially)
Iāve had tailgaters stay on me when the passing lane was free and clear for several minutes, but once they realize theyāre not going to make me go any faster they switch lanes and speed ahead.
I disagree. Everyone in line behind the merger has to make a speed adjustment that gains in magnitude as it ripples back through the stacked cars. This is fine if there are any significant gaps in the lane (the gaps just fill up), but if traffic is bumper to bumper already (as it usually is in the US), you end up with one of those bizarre situations where traffic goes from 70 mph to 20 mph with no obvious explanation.
When everyone gets in early enough, everyone can maintain a constant speed and constant distance to the car in front and there are no huge slowdowns.
Zipper merging done correctly is fine, but itās not the same as someone rushing to the end of the lane and quickly merging in.
I think Carlin had a routine about that. Everyone going slower than you is an idiot. Everyone going faster than you is a maniac.
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Which is why I love LA. Bumper to bumper at 80mph. Stop to look at at an accident? Get shot.
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You probably have a point. That some of it is automatic. But she clearly was in an aggressive stance, riding me the whole time, vs backing off once you see you are stuck and then going across merge line the first chance to get ahead.
I was actually behind a motorcycle on one of these weird, little used roads in the KC metro area that are like little rural oasis that connect some of the suburbs, and he ended up waving at me like to back up when we were at a light. I was like - oh - maybe I am a bit close. Sorry, buddy.
This is the thing that will trigger my stroke one day. Had to do that daily for years.
