Please, no...

[DDT951]

One difference, CA requires helmets.... maybe we need to look at helmets before lane splitting...

[DDT951]

On a side note, I guess I?ll need a skinnier bike. Not sure my bagger would even fit between cars around here.

Ducati make some narrow bikes. Maybe a V4S Panigale? It is pretty narrow.

[DDT951]

It?s not my responsibility to get you where you are going by letting you do what you want on the road.
My observation of MC riders is that they are the most careless and reckless ones on the road because they think we should be looking out for them. You are not my responsibility once again. It?s a courtesy and I don?t t make it my sole purpose to clear the roads for MC?s out there.
Live and let live? Sure, you have greater chance of not making it home that night.
This is bullshit and they need to follow the same laws and rule we have to.
Don?t start me on bicycles and the same behavior.

Most of the times bicycles are blocking traffic with their slow speeds. I rarely see motorcycles holding up traffic; they normally want to go fast so the car are holding them up.

[DDT951]

41 year motorcycle rider here with 2 bikes in the garage and I have to say I'm not a fan of lane splitting.

On motorcycle forums and pages it's an article of faith that lane splitting is "safer" and beneficial to traffic but I don't buy it.

In Europe where cars and trucks are tiny and skinny it might work. In the US where cars and trucks can be 6' wide or more it seems like more trouble than it's worth.

Also I don't go along with the "biker/victim" mentality either. Yes there are careless/inattentive drivers out there but everybody has to deal with them, that's just a fact of life. Most motorcycle accidents are avoidable by the rider even if they are technically the driver's "fault." And of course single-bike accidents (which seem to peak in early August in South Dakota) are 100% the rider's fault.

Don't even get me started on "loud pipes save lives."

Most motor vehicle "accidents" are not accidents. They are due to carelessness and they are collisions. Yes, there was not intent, but there was negligence. Most "accidents" are avoidable and not just motorcycles.

[DDT951]

I like to "shit & get" and prefer not to have to sit behind a row of traffic waiting at a light any more than the next person. I don't want my vehicle smashed into from behind any more than anyone else either. Why can't I just force my way between lanes of traffic to get up to the front of the traffic to be the first to go when the light changes? I guarantee that once the light changes I'll move as quickly as I can to pull away from the traffic to reduce my chances of being in an accident by some unwitting driver.

That is funny. "Shit and Get"

Officer: Why did you use launch control pulling away from that light?

Motorists: "I wanted to be safer"


That said, I actually was in line at Qdoba a year or so ago and a CSP trooper was in front. I asked him if using launch control on the street was legal.

He told me there are now laws against it. But do not exceed speed limit, you must be under control, and you cannot be racing another vehicle. But simply full on acceleration itself is not illegal as long as it is not dangerous.

[DDT951]

Specific to the quote
While your example of COSPGS streets sounds good, logically it falls apart if you have ever been to Asia or many other foreign countries... Their lanes are narrower than USA, their drivers don't give a single solitary F about lane lines, and lane splitting/filtering is widely practiced/accepted. Why can't you do it in your truck if a MC can do it? Because physics is real and an F250 can't physically fit where a MC can...

Not specific to anyone in the thread...
While I ride MC's, I don't really have a dog in this fight beyond wishing filtering at red lights was allowed. It's (both splitting and filtering) nowhere near as risky as many on here believe, when done as legally allowed.

If it becomes legal, I expect a bunch of whining and moaning from car drivers (apparently many on here) about the "unfairness" of it all, as they still have to sit in traffic while MC's can filter/split etc... Boo hoo... Life ain't fair...
If it stays illegal, sweet. Doesn't matter to me. I don't lane split, and I don't waste my time slabbing on interstates on a MC. I'll still just pass whatever is in the way and go about my own business.

I have lived in Europe where filtering at stop lights is legal. Lane splitting is semi-legal (how about not legal but tolerate most of the time). In europe the encourage filtering as they believe it is safer and moves traffic faster. In addition with the advent of catalysts on bikes, they believe m/c is a more environmentally friendly form of transport for one person as moving a 500-600 lb bike (or less) uses less fuel than a 3000+ pound car... And in densely pipulted cities parking for m/c goes much further.

When I go show up for work in Europe, I can also go 150mph on the way to work if I choose (and traffic light enough). People here would scream about how unsafe that is.

Lets just say other parts of the world and USA are different.

[UncleDave]

One difference, CA requires helmets.... maybe we need to look at helmets before lane splitting...

Lane splitting in CA predates helmet laws by about 50 or 60 years

[DDT951]

Lane splitting in CA predates helmet laws by about 50 or 60 years

I am not that old.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Most motor vehicle "accidents" are not accidents. They are due to carelessness and they are collisions. Yes, there was not intent, but there was negligence. Most "accidents" are avoidable and not just motorcycles.

In some cases, the person being careless who causes the collision isn't caught up in it. The jackasses running up between vehicles when not expected or with pipes that are deafening from 6 car lengths away through closed windows startle other drivers. Their actions splitting or filtering cause other vehicles to slow down to react safely to their antics.

As far as the overheating issue goes ... if you're dumb enough to select a vehicle that is unreliable in the conditions you chose to drive in -- whether it has 2 wheels, 4 wheels, or more -- that's on you.

[hollohas]

I've spent plenty of time in Asia (Korea & Japan) and agree that they don't pay any attention to lane lines. I recall being mystified in Korea on multiple occasions how they'd take a 3 lane road and turn it into a 5 or even 6 lane road (with cars/trucks) - and they made it work with success. But your argument falls apart by not considering that the overall mentality of Asians (in Asian countries at least) is very different than the mentality here in the U.S. Most Asia drivers I experienced, while a bit scary behind the wheel, at least paid attention to their driving while in motion and certainly weren't auditioning for a role in the next Mad Max movie as most American drivers tend to do. Comparing driving in most of the U.S. to Asia is like comparing driving in most of the U.S. to driving in Manhatten (I've done that multiple times too) - they are very different animals.

The thing about motorcycles in Asia or Europe, is driver's don't have the liability that we do here. There's rarely even a report written for most accidents in those regions.

I was traveling in Italy one night when a motorcycle ran a red light and t-boned our van. Dude went down pretty hard (his gas tank was dented on the rider side...ouch).

In any case, an ambulance appeared out of nowhere, loaded him up and drove away without a word being said by the EMTs. Absolutely zero information was shared. No names. No insurance. Nothing. They left the bike as it lay. Then a police car drove by, did a slow loop to check things out and also drove away without a word mentioned. Then another, same thing. After 45mins we moved the bike into the median and waited a bit longer. Zero additional LE arrived, so we left. When we returned the rental van we explained the damage on the rear quarter panel and rear light expecting to have to pay for it but they simply said, no problem, hope you enjoyed Italy.

They treat shit as it is. An accident is just that. Shit happens and people move on.

If we did that here, I'd reconsider my opinion.

Call it whatever you want, it's all handled under, "lane splitting".

I'm not calling it what I want, I'm calling it what it is. Several states allow filtering and they define the difference between filtering and splitting. Generally filtering is limited to stopped traffic on roads with a posted speed <45mph (Not highways) or single-digit speed traffic primarily at stop lights. Splitting is not permitted.

Splitting is for moving traffic. It's defined in the CA vehicle code. Guidelines say it's limited to traffic traveling <30mph and if the bike is not doing more than 10mph over the speed of traffic. In practice it's used in traffic traveling at much higher speeds than that. Splitting in traffic traveling at double-digit speeds is not legal in any state except CA.

I'd support filtering in stopped traffic on surface streets. I do not support splitting in moving traffic.