by Flack » Mon Oct 17, 2016 5:33 am
[youtube][/youtube]
As you mentioned, lane splitting (formerly "white lining") is only legal in California (in the US). According to their law, lane splitters can go no more than 15 mph faster than surrounding traffic, and it is prohibited at speeds above 50 mph.
When riding a motorcycle, I assume all car drivers either can't see me, or will intentionally try to kill me. I look at every car and think, "What's the worst possible thing that car could do to me," like changing lanes into me, pulling out in front of me, or slamming on their brakes. When I used to ride to work, whatever I had imagined as a "worst case scenario" usually happened at least once a day. Sometimes people would pull out in front of me while talking on their cell phone and never see me coming. Other times they would pull out in front of me while making eye contact with that "I'm bigger than you" look on their face.
Motorcyclists say that lane splitting helps air cooled bikes from overheating by not stopping in traffic, but that's just dumb. First of all, nobody in any of those videos is riding an air cooled bike (like a Harley). They're all riding typical water cooled sport bikes. Lane splitters also say that by lane splitting they are making the roads less congested by freeing up space for cars. The last time I was in California I got stuck on the 405 for over an hour with traffic at a complete stand still. I don't think being 8 feet closer to my destination would have made things much better for me.
The downside, as you can see from the video I posted, is that it's dangerous. Motorcycles are hard enough to see, and people aren't expecting them to come zooming up in between lanes. Like you said, all it takes is one person to change lanes in front of you and it's catapult city.
In the video I posted, at least four people wreck because pissed off car drivers intentionally open their doors and cause them to crash. I think a lot of those videos came from Russia and maybe that's not as big of a problem in California, but all it would take is for it to happen once to make a believer out of me. Even if they don't open their door, I can see people spitting or throwing things out of their window as lane splitters cruise through congested traffic.
The first thread I found about lane splitting on Fark contained a long conversation about ways lane splitters hit, damage, or rip off car side mirrors when people cut them off or don't let them through. In a lot of the lane splitting videos you can see broken side mirrors on the bikes, too. At a minimum, it seems like at least a light contact sport. No thanks.
I get so sick of people on bicycles who claim they have a right to be on the road the same as any vehicle, and then run through stop signs and red lights and say, "Hey man, we're on bicycles!" You can't have it both ways. Motorcyclists have fought for a long time to be treated like other vehicles. I don't feel like cutting between cars and zooming around them on the shoulder promotes that.
The other day I was at Qdoba with my family. There were a couple of people ahead of us in line waiting to pay and a couple of people behind us. While we were waiting, this guy (who was already eating) walked up to the front of the line and said, "Can I just buy one taco?" There were five groups waiting in line to pay in front of him. "Yeah, but I just want to buy one taco." Look, Generation Me, this isn't some weird bubble sorted list where those who are buying the least amount of things get to pay first! This is goddamn America, where you go to the end of the line and pay when you get to the front, and if you need a penny you take a penny, but if you need two pennies, you go get a job. When the guy behind the counter tells me to swipe my card, I hand it to him and say no motherfucker, YOU swipe the card, because *I* don't WORK HERE!
Where was I? Oh yeah, Lane splitting, bad idea.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH0Ywdq8iMQ[/youtube]
As you mentioned, lane splitting (formerly "white lining") is only legal in California (in the US). According to their law, lane splitters can go no more than 15 mph faster than surrounding traffic, and it is prohibited at speeds above 50 mph.
When riding a motorcycle, I assume all car drivers either can't see me, or will intentionally try to kill me. I look at every car and think, "What's the worst possible thing that car could do to me," like changing lanes into me, pulling out in front of me, or slamming on their brakes. When I used to ride to work, whatever I had imagined as a "worst case scenario" usually happened at least once a day. Sometimes people would pull out in front of me while talking on their cell phone and never see me coming. Other times they would pull out in front of me while making eye contact with that "I'm bigger than you" look on their face.
Motorcyclists say that lane splitting helps air cooled bikes from overheating by not stopping in traffic, but that's just dumb. First of all, nobody in any of those videos is riding an air cooled bike (like a Harley). They're all riding typical water cooled sport bikes. Lane splitters also say that by lane splitting they are making the roads less congested by freeing up space for cars. The last time I was in California I got stuck on the 405 for over an hour with traffic at a complete stand still. I don't think being 8 feet closer to my destination would have made things much better for me.
The downside, as you can see from the video I posted, is that it's dangerous. Motorcycles are hard enough to see, and people aren't expecting them to come zooming up in between lanes. Like you said, all it takes is one person to change lanes in front of you and it's catapult city.
In the video I posted, at least four people wreck because pissed off car drivers intentionally open their doors and cause them to crash. I think a lot of those videos came from Russia and maybe that's not as big of a problem in California, but all it would take is for it to happen once to make a believer out of me. Even if they don't open their door, I can see people spitting or throwing things out of their window as lane splitters cruise through congested traffic.
The first thread I found about lane splitting on Fark contained a long conversation about ways lane splitters hit, damage, or rip off car side mirrors when people cut them off or don't let them through. In a lot of the lane splitting videos you can see broken side mirrors on the bikes, too. At a minimum, it seems like at least a light contact sport. No thanks.
I get so sick of people on bicycles who claim they have a right to be on the road the same as any vehicle, and then run through stop signs and red lights and say, "Hey man, we're on bicycles!" You can't have it both ways. Motorcyclists have fought for a long time to be treated like other vehicles. I don't feel like cutting between cars and zooming around them on the shoulder promotes that.
The other day I was at Qdoba with my family. There were a couple of people ahead of us in line waiting to pay and a couple of people behind us. While we were waiting, this guy (who was already eating) walked up to the front of the line and said, "Can I just buy one taco?" There were five groups waiting in line to pay in front of him. "Yeah, but I just want to buy one taco." Look, Generation Me, this isn't some weird bubble sorted list where those who are buying the least amount of things get to pay first! This is goddamn America, where you go to the end of the line and pay when you get to the front, and if you need a penny you take a penny, but if you need two pennies, you go get a job. When the guy behind the counter tells me to swipe my card, I hand it to him and say no motherfucker, YOU swipe the card, because *I* don't WORK HERE!
Where was I? Oh yeah, Lane splitting, bad idea.