Hmmm a potentially dangerous activity where one group says it’s fine and nearly everyone doing it does it safely, and the other group saying it’s nuts, who would do that besides crazy people…
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Are you saying it isn’t?
/ remember to show your work, eh.
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Start with the £5 session, and we’ll see from there.
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You’re being rational. That is all right at home or possibly at work, but this is the Internet.
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I’ve nearly creamed a motorcyclist that lane-split AFTER I’d put my signal on and begun to change lanes. I give motorcyclists plenty of room, but I can’t be expected to refrain from ever changing lanes just because there’s one on the road near me.
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I don’t ride, never have but I think the basic idea is this:
motorcycles are a lot smaller than cars, and a lot harder to see. Because of this, a motorcycle is more likely to be hit by someone not paying attention whether they’re lane splitting or not. However, if a motorcycle lane splits, this allows them to move through traffic to a point where they have enough space to be comfortable that they won’t get slammed out of nowhere.
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But isn’t that what cops do? Y’know, shooting someone because they’re more comfortable with brown people when they’re dead?
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If you understand that the video isn’t a good representation of average riders, then the rest of us probably do as well. We’re all more or less average people here.
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You take that back!
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I think this explains it:
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If the baseline rules of the road say that drivers have to stay in their lanes, an exception must be made if people want it to be legal for bikers not to do so.
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I split when traffic is moving so slow as to almost be stopped, but then what? I go pretty slow because it’s very dangerous, esp. with the giant mirrors on SUV’s limiting clearance. You get to the red light or the source of the slowdown, and everyone who is stuck in a car is pissed that you are suddenly at the front of the line.
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I’m not even sure lane splitting is exactly legal in France, more like a tolerated common practice. What I do know for sure is that I’ve been taught, when I was learning to drive a car, that I should leave room for bikes to do so.
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Thanks!
/ sigh, another scientific report to read.
So they force them to wear helmets, yet allow them to pass between drivers that are known to hit the brakes when they think the car behind them is too close and speed up when someone is trying to merge?
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Lemme just check that I’m reading you correctly: since car operators are known to exhibit reckless, antisocial and oft times bordering on homicidal behavior while driving, therefor, instead of addressing their bad behaviors -> motorcyclists == bad ?
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I don’t live in a place with constant bumper-to-bumper traffic so I definitely see the bunches. They form up in medium-heavy traffic organically and light-heavy traffic when someone who’s driving too slow decides to get in the passing lane.
From a car-driver’s perspective, the dangerous effects are easy to avoid but not thrilling (allow four seconds space between the next driver’s rear bumper and your front bumper). I just have to realize … the bunch in front of me is an immutable fact of life as long as I drive.
The bunches (and sudden traffic halts) are easy for a car driver to see if they’re maintaining distance and pay attention to near-cars and far-ahead cars.
(I know you’re not arguing against lane splitting. This is more adding to your thought.) It’s the kind “anti-line-skipping” mentality people get annoyed about with zipper merge (warning: video link only useful for people who don’t know knows about zipper merges).
Fighting people from merging in or out makes things worse for everyone. I don’t know what the car drivers try to do to bikers who’ve split past them but even getting irritated about being passed is too much.
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Where “whacked” equates to maimed, killed, disfigured, paralyzed, having X amputated without anesthetic or sterile conditions - VS - looking before you change lanes. Sounds reasonable to me.
Holy %$#@! someone read actual scientific data on this?! Pffffft, this is the internet where only the opinions of people who won’t ever participate in said activity actually matter. Whats-a-matta-you?!
Three blinks, then merge, but always check your mirrors and blind spots - just like they teach you on the one and only training session you get before being given lifetime access to this deadly piece of machinery.
That’s really the heart of it isn’t it: jealousy. Like somehow motorcycles are “cutting in line” and “getting one over” on cars by driving between them when traffic is dense. For every one motorcycle that splits, that’s one more space open for a car. Pretend that’s the car of someone you care about who is on their way to something very important. Feeling better yet?
OMFG, a frog making sense?! You’re not from Paris are you, because if you are my entire world view would just collapse.
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I desperately want a concise, easy to understand graphic that explains zipper merging so I can use it as a bumper sticker.
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