Motorcycle lane splitting deemed safe

[jlw]

@TobinL

Being rear ended at a stoplight is right above some one not seeing me when turning left for my fears.

It was crazy. I was on a HARLEY SOFTAIL and the guy ran right into the back of me. That bike is not hard to see. Gentleman claimed I was off the brake, rolling forward and abruptly stopped – which would still have been his fault – but thankfully a woman one lane over pulled over and gave witness that he literally ran right into a stopped vehicle without ever touching his brakes. I was fine. The guys at Dudley Riggs in SF beat the insurance company up for a full frame replacement. Kudos to them for not taking shit from an insurance company.

I know, idiot bikers more concerned with our ride than our bodies. I kept the bike up and only got a whiplash style hit, it may have contributed to my terrible lumbar spine problems but I can’t worry about that now.

Regardless, being driven over is no fun.

@TobinL

What scares me about lane splitting as a car driver are the bikers like the ones that zipped past me between lanes at 100+mph when traffic was doing the speed limit or better where even with a shoulder check they can zip up on you too fast and as a cyclist they scare me as it gives already angry drivers rationalization to do things like intentionally cut off bikes.

The law in CA holds you to something like 15mph over the speed traffic is moving, NO FASTER THAN 35MPH.

Lane splitting is to use through slowed or stopped traffic. Traffic moving at 55mph doesn’t merit the lane split.

The folks who have to speed along at 100mph between two moving lanes are looking to die. A mirror to mirror strike would knock me over at that speed.

[TobinL]

[quote=“Archvillain, post:20, topic:58843, full:true”]
The guidelines that CA police once used is that lanesplitting becomes ok if the traffic is going slower than 35mph, and when doing so the bike should not be going more than 10mph faster than surrounding cars. [/quote]
And that is more or less about how much faster over the other traffic I feel safe going in the diamond lanes on my commute home just in case someone decides to use them all of a sudden mostly despite what some other drivers may think even though the cars ahead of me are pretty much going as fast as I am.

[D0MINATRIX]

Doesn’t endanger the car driver. Motorcycle though? Doubtful…

[Papasan]

I’ve been hit & run twice on the freeway in stop and go traffic, I’ll take my chances with lane splitting.

[pixleshifter]

Lane-splitting allows motorcyclists to filter to the front of the traffic lights and get into the clear.

@trackofalljades

the driving experience of other people. Does it cause them more stress?

Any stress in other drivers can be attributable to frustration in not being able to filter through when they’re late etc. In other words, it’s self-inflicted stress, not induced stress.

[Seginoviax]

There is no special speed limit for lane-splitting.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/about/lane_splitting

The old CHP guidelines were just that: guidelines, not the law. Part of the reason they were pulled down is b/c of people interpreting them as the law when they were not.

Going 100+MPH is illegal even on an empty road and seems like a red herring in regards to lane splitting. As if going 100+MPH in an empty carpool lane (with other lanes full of commute traffic) would be just fine…

[GilbertWham]

You mean ‘didn’t check his wing mirror before switching lanes’?

[SamSam]

There’s a lot more data about the benefits of lane splitting than in @jlw’s post, including the fact that it gets everybody home sooner, including car drivers.

Motorcycle lane splitting: Better for riders, better for drivers, and safer than sitting in traffic

Recent research has confirmed what many motorcycle riders have known for years. Lane splitting [is] considerably safer than sitting in traffic and acting like a car, as long as it’s done within certain guidelines, and contrary to what many drivers think, it actually speeds up traffic for everyone else on the road. Riders, please pass this information on to the drivers in your lives.

It’s time for certain drivers to get these thoughts out of their heads: “lane splitting is queue jumping” [sound familiar?], “motorcyclists should have to wait in line like the rest of us,” “riding in between cars is suicidal.” While it’s illegal in most of the United States, it’s accepted in many other parts of the world, and evidence is mounting that lane splitting is safer for riders than sitting in traffic, and actually benefits car drivers as well as the riders themselves.

Where many drivers get it wrong is that they see lane splitting as “queue jumping” 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.

(There is lots of data backing up those statements in the article.)

[anon20585606]

@jlw

California’s lane splitting law was created to allow air-cooled motorcycles to keep moving on hot roads. It both keeps the bikes from breaking down and making traffic worse,

So motorcycles get special treatment because they are poorly designed? That’s kinda fuct up.

[jlw]

@Mike_Hanrahan

So motorcycles get special treatment because they are poorly designed? That’s kinda fuct up.

I don’t think we saw water-cooled bikes until the late 70s, early 80s. It is also, as so many folks above have pointed out, not special treatment. You do not have a right to get where you are going before the guy behind you. There is no competition for space on the road. That attitude creates more danger than lane splitting.

[anon20585606]

I don’t think we saw water-cooled bikes until the late 70s, early 80s.

So it was for poorly designed equipment, but isn’t now?

It is also, as so many folks above have pointed out, not special treatment.

Unless I can legally split lanes in my Chevy spark as well it sure as hell is.

You do not have a right to get where you are going before the guy behind you.

Right the fuck back at ya.

There is no competition for space on the road.

Never said there was…

[WearySky]

I think people are confusing safe, sane lane splitting (where traffic is going slow and/or stopped, and bikers are lane splitting at a sane speed between cars) and fucking maniacs flying up between slow moving cars at significant speed. I experienced the latter sitting in rush hour traffic in Dublin, Ireland (where I believe lane splitting is legal) on my way home from work one day. Scared the everloving shit out of me when I went to change lanes, checked my mirror and blind spot, then a fucking moped, of all things, flew up beside me going easily 50km/h faster than me, just as I was about to change lanes. Luckily for him I actually shoulder checked again before lane changing (from my experience cycling in Toronto, I always do this in slow moving traffic), otherwise there would have been serious hipster brain soup on the pavement.

[cstatman]

wow, you opened a can of worms here didn’t ya!

First, - NO, it was NOT started for air cooled bikes. It was started to ease congestion. period.

As some legislative type folks learned while traveling overseas, “OH, the rest of the world does this, and it works.”

There was a brief guideline in CA, that was overturned when some twit (i mean govt worker) sued the state because he did not like the definition. Before that, it was only 1 line in the CA Drivers Handbook stating “Lane sharing is not illegal, it is unsafe” opening up the decision to officer’s discretion.

When asked in 2001, a Santa Clara Sheriff’s Deputy and motor officer told me “When you go by? I see no brake lights? no problem. I see brake lights? and you are doing it wrong” Best guideline EVER.

Many car-only drivers do not get it. TLDR version:
ONE LESS CAR BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR HOUSE.

No special asks, no special treatment. Just one less car in front of you. Drivers need to NOTHING extra, only pay attention, and signal lane changes. it is the duty of the rider to make safe passes.

YET? anger, frustration, rage. Why? “he/she is getting there faster”

As if anyone would read it? there is a nice explanation of the benefits here:
http://americanmotorcyclist.com/rights/positionstatements/lanesplitting.aspx

and a long survey of data on it here:

2014MCLaneSplittingSurvey.pdf

but again, TLDR?
ONE LESS CAR BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR HOME.

[MarjaE]

@trackofalljades

It’s absurd to say “my vehicle doesn’t function properly in the environment I’ve chosen to purchase and operate it in, so I should have special permission to drive differently in order to keep my vehicle healthy.” Should aircooled classic Volkswagens get to ride up the shoulder then?

Roads were built for people and horse traffic, then taken over by motorized traffic. Of course newer roads are built for motorized traffic, cutting apart any routes for people.

[cstatman]

open your door and? open yourself to attempted manslaughter charges?

Only needs one witness, and you not only have a felony on your record, but depending on damages? could have a nice stay in a state run facility.

so really? why?

[LDoBe]

I’m just annoyed at the people who stay in the diamond lanes right until they end at the Seattle express lanes when they’re closed to the current direction. I mean, the lightboards have been saying the express lane onramp is closed for the last 2 miles, and traffic is heavy, so why are there six busses piled up at the onramp trying to merge into the left lane?

Madness.

[anon26940528]

@jlw

I have been rear-ended sitting at a red light. I have never been hit lane splitting.

This is so my greatest fear about riding a motorcycle.

[WearySky]

@LDoBe

I mean, the lightboards have been saying the express lane onramp is closed for the last 2 miles, and traffic is heavy,so why are there six busses piled up at the onramp trying to merge into the left lane?

This is pretty much human nature, right? See also: people merging during rush hour traffic from the right lane, who go RIGHT to the very end of the merging lane (and often end up having to stop) despite having multiple chances to merge prior to that.

[TobinL]

I only get the I-90 ones, it makes a difference on the way home as I can get halfway across the island before the crowding then north on I-5 to exit just before there are diamond lanes again so there I could get home a bit quicker by lane splitting.

[daneel]

Because merging works best when it’s done like a zipper at the end? Or it would, if people didn’t think that those who use the lane while it exists are somehow jumping the queue - forcing people to stop or get in early, screwing up the traffic flow and wasting road space.