Motorcycle lane splitting

[DenverGP]

This being said, I continue to live by the idea that the safest way to ride a motorcycle is to behave like a car. Don’t accelerate quickly. Don’t change lanes quickly. Don’t take turns at twice the speed of the cagers. Deviating from what 99% of the other vehicles on the road are doing adds significant risk of an accident.

I see that as a solution to many car vs motorcycle accidents. Drivers (wtf is with the "cager" term?) are familiar with how long a car takes to accelerate, to cover a certain distance, to change lanes, etc. Drivers look back, check the lane, then possibly check ahead of them again, then start moving over. A rapidly manuvering motorcycle will suddenly be in that previously clear spot to change lanes into. I've seen several bad accidents where a car turned left in front of a motorcycle coming the other way. It may have been because the driver didn't see the motorcycle (being smaller and all), or possibly the driver saw it, but assumed it was going the speed limit and that they had time. Or simply the motorcycle being smaller made the driver fail in their estimation of the distance/time they had to complete the turn.

Lane splitting should be legal so long as the motorcyclist accepts all risk associated with the practice. The only way a car driver should be held responsible for a lane splitting accident is if the car driver intentionally caused the accident.

Except that in the real world, it's always one person's word against another, and regardless of who's right/wrong, lawyers can make it everyones problem.

[CS1983]

A lot of riders are using go-pros now, some on both helmet and the bike.

One of the great things about a bike is its maneuverability to extricate oneself from situations where the rider thinks an accident is a high potential. For example, when I lived in CA for that year and had a bike which I rode a lot, I would be very aware of drivers' lack of attention. If I saw someone on their phone, I'd split to get ahead of them and put cars between me and them. I'd also use it to filter ahead at stop lights (ease congestion in queuing). I'd also use it when it was stop-n-go, as that also eases queuing -- at least until I could make it over to an HOV lane. I'd use it to then get back over to the exit lane in stop-n-go traffic, easing congestion more.

It's really not the boogeyman practice that some make it out to be. It's a very sensible solution to traffic navigation when the rider is using it to do so properly, and not just be a bellend.

[Grant H.]

In Europe, and a few other places, I buy that filtering, splitting, etc make a significant difference in traffic.

However, those places all have significantly higher numbers of mopeds, motorcycles, etc than the US. Especially than CO.

Making filtering/splitting out to be some be-all/end-all solution in the US is an extremely myopic view of the situation.

I have also spent time in CA, and the number of folks splitting rationally/safely is the minority. Certainly not the majority. I have watched a motorcycle split past my car, and slam into the fender of a car that was working on changing lanes. Had the moron been paying attention, he would have seen that that car had blocked the gap between the lanes for the past 60 seconds or better. He had every opportunity to not crash, and yet he still did, pretty badly.

You guys wanna guess how much fun it was getting emergency vehicles to that clown? (hint, it sucked)

Grand scheme of things? I don't care if people want to split/filter, that's their choice.

But I expect on the whole, it will end badly for a lot of MC's early on, maybe forever. I already see people talking about a high number of MC deaths... Is more worth a perceived convenience?

[Great-Kazoo]

I see that as a solution to many car vs motorcycle accidents. Drivers (wtf is with the "cager" term?) are familiar with how long a car takes to accelerate, to cover a certain distance, to change lanes, etc. Drivers look back, check the lane, then possibly check ahead of them again, then start moving over. A rapidly manuvering motorcycle will suddenly be in that previously clear spot to change lanes into. I've seen several bad accidents where a car turned left in front of a motorcycle coming the other way. It may have been because the driver didn't see the motorcycle (being smaller and all), or possibly the driver saw it, but assumed it was going the speed limit and that they had time. Or simply the motorcycle being smaller made the driver fail in their estimation of the distance/time they had to complete the turn.



Except that in the real world, it's always one person's word against another, and regardless of who's right/wrong, lawyers can make it everyones problem.

The red highlighted words are what it comes down to anymore.


As for the other highlighted areas


Not sure where you think this is happening in todays driving reality. The "truth" is unless one is an old school driver who actually follows the guidelines taught in a drivers ed class. Is a MC rider or knows lots of scooter riders, the "average" vehicle operator is too engrossed in their electronic bubble to pay attention, let alone care about anyone else on the road but them self.

One can see it after honking their horn at driver A, who's braking on the road when there's no one in front of them, blows thru the red light or stop sign, then flips you off after their fuck up.

Turning left in front of a mc, has the driver saying "I never or didn't see the motorcycle". When the majority of the time it's they who failed to look before executing a turn, in to oncoming traffic.

Which then goes one step further of being reported after the fact. The motorcyclist wasn't wearing a helmet. Implying that was the cause of death, when it was a 2T vehicle impacting the mc at 20-60+ mph. Always deflecting to some fault other than it being the vehicle operators.
While not wearing protective gear (Riders choice) can factor in to more serious injury, there's some times getting center punched by a 1/2T or even mini van @ 40 mph can punch your ticket. No matter how much gear one wears.

As for the term cager it was coined back when those of us riding mc's were the minority and labelled lots of things, other than another person out enjoying a nice ride

Loose translation
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cager

[.40isthenew.45]

technology "solves" all our problems eventually, or is that all bleeding eventually stops?
Ford patents tech to detect lane-splitting motorcyclists


https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/ford-patents-tech-to-detect-lane-splitting-motorcyclists/ar-AAxZn70

[GilpinGuy]

The only lane splitting I see up here is d-bags on bicycles splitting a lane 3 or 4 abreast on a winding mountain road and refusing to make room for motor vehicles to safely pass. But I think that might have been discussed before.

[Irving]

I have zero opinion on this thread, just wanted to post this video about good thing this guy didn't filter to the front. Assuming that means what I think it means.

[CS1983]

In Europe, and a few other places, I buy that filtering, splitting, etc make a significant difference in traffic.

However, those places all have significantly higher numbers of mopeds, motorcycles, etc than the US. Especially than CO.

Making filtering/splitting out to be some be-all/end-all solution in the US is an extremely myopic view of the situation.

I have also spent time in CA, and the number of folks splitting rationally/safely is the minority. Certainly not the majority. I have watched a motorcycle split past my car, and slam into the fender of a car that was working on changing lanes. Had the moron been paying attention, he would have seen that that car had blocked the gap between the lanes for the past 60 seconds or better. He had every opportunity to not crash, and yet he still did, pretty badly.

You guys wanna guess how much fun it was getting emergency vehicles to that clown? (hint, it sucked)

Grand scheme of things? I don't care if people want to split/filter, that's their choice.

But I expect on the whole, it will end badly for a lot of MC's early on, maybe forever. I already see people talking about a high number of MC deaths... Is more worth a perceived convenience?

Has anyone said it's an end-all/be-all? It's just another tool in a bag of tricks.

[Irving]

Has anyone said it's an end-all/be-all? It's just another tool in a bag of tricks.

Otherwise known as a "Value Added Option" in marketing.