How do you feel about lane splitting motorcyclists?

[Ryland]

Right, but this thread is about getting that traffic that would otherwise be hanging out in front of you moving along, in the same way a HOV lane helps to spread the load on the roadway.
It's the same with the express lane grocery store, if I have a cart full of stuff and you have a little hand held basket and the express lane opens up, or even a 2nd check out opens up, it's much easier for the person with the basket to get out of line and move to spread the load on the system then the person with the cart full and the bottom line is that everyone gets where they are going faster, the highway is not like a single line where someone can "cut in line" and screw everyone else over, lane splitting allows that section of traffic to remove them selves as an obstruction for everyone.

[JacobAziza]

The only reason I bought my 250 was so I could lane split, which cut my commute across the Oakland / San Francisco Bay Bridge in half (30min to 15).

The express lane may not be the best analogy, but cutting in line isn't either (unless everyone is going up to a stop sign) because there is no point where each car needs to "check out". The slow down is just due to lane saturation. Traffic goes faster when there are fewer cars. And, like it says on the bicycle T-Shirt, a motorcycle not taking up a lane is "one less car".

The grocery store analogy would work only if the person with the hand cart slipped into a magical checkout lane which didn't actually exist previously, and which the shopping cart couldn't practically use anyway. Like if all the carts were full to the brim, and the person with a handbasket used the self-check lane, which would be impractical for a full cart. Then they are not only not holding back anyone else, they are getting out of everyone else's way.

If every single person in a mostly one-person-per-car commute was on a motorbike, it would be equivalent to doubling the amount of lanes, and the traffic jam wouldn't even exist. Each one person who lane splits brings that slightly closer. So not only do the motorcyclists not slow down other drivers by lane splitting, they actually speed them up just a tiny bit each.

As to it being unsafe, in all the statistics I've looked up on accidents, I haven't seen any evidence of it.

[Fat Charlie]

All the delays over here are due to choke points- a traffic circle, bridges, tollbooths and badly placed lane reductions. We get random bottlenecks from accidents (usually in the congestion caused by the regular ones) and police activity. All of those are a big line.

I'm a big fan of motorcycles, but I'm not a fan of lane splitting. That said, I'd probably do it a lot if I were on one. Regardless of one's risk tolerance, I think "if you think you can fit" is a bad traffic policy.

[cfg83]

Fat Charlie -

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

...

I'm a big fan of motorcycles, but I'm not a fan of lane splitting. That said, I'd probably do it a lot if I were on one. Regardless of one's risk tolerance, I think "if you think you can fit" is a bad traffic policy.

As I said I'm in favor of it but I am surprised no one has mentioned when motorcycles hit car's side view mirrors. Your post is the closest it's come. The corollary to opening the car door to hurt the motorcyclist is the motorcyclist smashing your side view mirror as it goes by ... and then it keeps going.

I had pretty wide handle bars (and I liked it that way) but it made the splitting harder for me and stopped me from splitting in places that were too tight.

CarloSW2

[theycallmeebryan]

The maximum width of my ninja 250 is 28 inches, and that's at the handlebars. I've never hit an automobiles side mirror while lane splitting.

I think this is what gives lane splitters a bad rep. This is absolutely suicidal! Flying in between cars 30+mph faster than they are going is absolutely ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHAI3ca2X8k

This is more along the lines of the type of lane splitting that i do. Slow moving/stopped cars and me traveling 10-15mph faster then them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2WgLYenN2A

Listen right at 7:30, he passes a guy stopped on a large touring motorcycle and the guy goes "Stupid!"

[NachtRitter]

Not sure which demonstrated the greater stupidity... speeding, splitting lanes at speed, not wearing proper gear ... or recording those actions and then posting them publicly.

Yes, that is why motorcyclists get a bad name and also why the statistics show motorcycling is less safe than most other forms of transportation



The 2nd video is more what I would consider reasonable as well... Cars aren't going anywhere anyway, so not much chance of anyone 'suddenly' changing lanes.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Express lanes are great, except in this analogy.

That's no analogy; that's a different situation.

[NachtRitter]

I recall that when riding in Europe (Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway), the 'cage' drivers were particularly aware of motorcycles and made an effort to give me extra room for splitting or passing... which I thought was pretty cool... seemed like drivers were a lot more aware in general over there which was nice.

[Frank Lee]

HA! And I thought Cali drivers were much more aware than the MidWesterners! Can you imagine being on a bicycle or motorcycle here?

[NachtRitter]

I don't want to go there... literally and figuratively...