Lane splitting, a two-wheeled vehicle moving between lanes of vehicles that are proceeding in the same direction. Some people will tell you that Lane splitting is guaranteed by the 1st and 14th Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.
Some may say that you save on gas and reduce green house gasses; others will say that lane splitting reduces traffic. Find the one reason that works for you and keep it close to your heart, nurture it, care for it, take real good care of it. Better yet make a sign, walk up and down the street with this sign to let the world know how YOU feel about lane splitting.
Let a postulate a sequence of possible events that could happen. The sun is out, bright sunny day and you merge onto the freeway. You get about 300 yards and you hit the wall of cars, all you see for the next few miles is bumper to bumper traffic.
You pull out and hit the white line, you are lane splitting. Now look above and find the reason that works for you, if your reason is not there get some white out and cover up one of the above reasons and write your own on the computer screen.
Anyway back to our scenario, you are lane splitting and getting to where you need to go. You are making good time passing by all these happy drivers who are stuck in traffic and cannot lane split, they have to wait in line with everyone else.
Now one of these happy drivers decides that this is not fair and creeps over far enough to block your way. You are on your toes and slow down switch lanes to get around this obstacle in your way. Unfortunately for you the car that you cut in front of did not see you coming and clips your rear tire.
Hopefully you were not going to fast as you do a face plant, hopefully you have real good insurance, and hopefully you wore a helmet unless you felt the need to express your 1st and 14th amendment rights. No matter how careful you are there is one thing you cannot control, the driver in the other car.
Think long and hard before you choose to lane split, was it (look above for your reason) really worth what could happen to you.
Comments
There exists not a single result that could not be... postulated. That lane-splitting is dangerous is a given. It is also a given that it can done be with a high degree of safety.
This was not a well thought out --or written-- piece. I don't see any benefit from it to the motorcycle community
It's one of the biggest benefits of riding a bike, maybe if we all make enough noise Washington will change the rest of the country to allow us to split. Until then i will keep doing it anyway.
Do you sit in traffic John?
Small point... Lane-sharing (as California calls it) is not legal, per se. However, it is also not illegal. It is allowed by the authorities,if done in a safe, prudent manner. Ours is the only state that recognizes the legitimacy of the action.
One of the many things that I enjoy about motorcycles is that they demand a higher level of competence and awareness to operate properly than does driving a car. Without the presence of those two ...competence and awareness... riding a motorcycle is a very dangerous activity, be it alone on a highway, or lane splitting a freeway. The biggest issue I have with Campbell's opinion is that it could be applied to every aspect of riding. Our critics see riding as a very hazardous form of transportation and, in extreme cases, have sought to have it seriously curtailed. Unfortunately, Campbell's piece only adds to that nonsensical position.
The most dangerous activity with this action comes from us riders... not the cars. I continually see riders splitting at high speed; this totally eliminates any option in the event of a problem
Line spitting is against the law in NY and I have been pulled over a few times but never recieved a ticket, the cops tell me how unsafe it is...ha. I ride with a lot of "law enforcement Officers" and they split the lanes even more then I do. I split the lanes when there is traffic, I personally can't stand sitting on a hot bike without moving to me it is safer to split the lanes.
Lane sharing has saved me from being REAR ENDED when the traffic stops abruptly and the JERK behind me is Talking on his CEll Phone , which is ILLEGAL in CA.
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