Lane splitting, I am for the practice, and I do it.

78jotadave

78jotadave

Hero member
Location
Palm Desert, California. (near Palm Springs)
Lane splitting effective today Sept 1st is now a thing of the past in Texas with a new law that makes it illegal for motorcyclists to split lanes.
You can ride without a helmet in Texas if you are 20 years old or older, but you can no longer split lanes in stopped or slow traffic.
So at this time, it is only California, Arizona, Utah, Montana, and Hawaii that permit lane splitting. I cannot speak for riders in other states but in California, if you cannot split lanes (legally), particularly on the freeways then there is no advantage to riding a motorcycle for commuting that involves heavy traffic, your commute time will triple probably more, definitely more. (n)(n)
 
It is now legal in South Australia, previously the police would turn a blind eye if: the traffic was stationary and you were in full control of the bike (feet on footpegs).
 
I commuted 90 miles a day on a motorcycle for 37 years of which about 25 miles a day was lane splitting. Perfectly safe if you pay attention and don't ride at a speed you can't stop when a car does something stupid. During that time I saw around 15 riders killed from doing it too fast. One time 20 feet in front of me when I let a Kawasaki going to fast pass me and he was run over by a large truck (big bloody mess) about 30 seconds later. Have not done it now for probably five years as I am retired.

Why does Texas think it is too dangerous to do anymore? Again it is safe for those who use their brain.
 
I’m completely for lanesplitting. I’ve lanesplitted countless times in the state of California, seem less understanding by most, it works great. Many times in England I’ve done the same. No issues.
Unfortunately, I reside in a region known as the worst vehicle operator skill in the western world ( Greater Metropolitan Vancouver). An absolute gong show and extrtdangerous even driving a 4x4 truck. I expect that it will never become legal in the socialist dictatorship that is Canada, who place vehicle operation as a right rather than a privilege.
 
In NZ splitting isn’t illegal, but it’s not specifically allowed either. Police have explained that splitting is effectively “overtaking” and therefore allowed - if it’s completed safely. However they reserve the right to hand out tickets if you’re doing something dumb.
Which seems fair enough 👍
 
Leg's comment about Cops turning a blind eye back in the day in Sydney was spot on. As long as you were riding not like a complete knob they mostly left you alone. We had a trial period for Lane Filtering, not Splitting, a good few years back and when that showed great results it's now legal. It took years of work from The Motorcycle Council to get it past the experts, everybody over 30 these days is an expert in everything including Motorcycling. Doest matter if they have never done it, they know best. With patience, it was explained that sitting in traffic stationery was by far way more dangerous than filtering. Filtering here has rules, only full Bike Lisanced riders. It takes a few years to get your full licence, only in stopped traffic, only up to 30kph for the moving bike and only in multi-lane roads where you can have vehicles, eg not between cars parked and traffic. It's a bit restricting but at least it's now law. BTW this isn't mandatory, it's up to the rider to do it safely and not try if it's too tight or dangerous. I see those videos out of California with insane splitting at crazy speeds with dickheads abusing people for cutting them off. Nobody has a crystal ball so how do they know your barreling down at twice the speed limit? And riders were its illegal wonder why they cannot get it passed into law. So having said all that, the last time I did a big filter was in crazy Sunday afternoon traffic heading home over The Blue Mountains heading back to Sydney and yep there might have been some slight bending of the Filtering rules, You do what it takes sometimes. BTW I bloody hate riding in traffic and avoid it as much as possible. It's exactly the opposite of what I love about riding.
 
I’ve lanesplit nearly every time I gone on a ride longer than an hour or two. In California if you ride on the freeways it is inevitable that you will encounter backed up traffic at some point in the day. And if you want to string together shorter riders roads into a day long ride you have to ride the freeways.

The law is IIRC, that you can share the lane if you do not exceed the posted speed limit and if you do not travel faster than 25mph faster than the surrounding traffic. This is pretty good safety advice too. As a rule I won’t lane share if the traffic is going over 50mph anyway.
 
I am happy to do it but only when traffic is stationary. Too many knob heads in 4 wheels boxes for my liking to do it while traffic is moving.
 
It's very much like legislation concerning women, it's men who decide what's good for them and how they dress, etc.
Here, it's the civilizational norm in the form of the car society.
It's more legislation and taxes against cars that's needed, not motorcycles.

I've always lane split though it's illegal in France. There are at the moment test areas where it's legal. Car drivers have evolved since I've been riding. They used to move over to try and block you, now they move to let you by.
I concur with the above comments, some motorcyclists are complete idiots and will ride through lanes of moving cars with an important speed differential. I only split lanes when cars, and lorries, are at a standstill being very wary of lorries.

Paul
 
It is an accepted practice to filter through slow or stopped traffic in the British Isles on your PTW. As commented above, most drivers will make space to allow you to pass, but there are always a few knob heads who try to block you if they see you coming. As long as you keep your wits about you and ride safely then it is rarely a problem.
 
I was lane splitting or "Filtering" as law enforcement sometimes tags it since the mid-60's. On the
freeways in SoCal there are MULTIPLE lanes so that makes things a little hairy depending on how
far you're travelling and what exit you need up ahead.Obviously everywhere in the world that has
a large volume of traffic compared to twenty,thirty years ago the risk is greater. The main thing with
the volume is much higher flow of traffic speed regardless of the posted limit which means nothing.
The secret at any time is NOT to try and maintain a faster than traffic constant speed and pass all the
traffic ahead but to adjust your speed to to pass an individual car then maybe tuck in and choose the
next car allowing a reasonable gap rather than blast between two cars driving parallel to each other
in adjacent lanes, From experience and knowing how this works I still get a quick fright when some
doofus on a sportbike with a loud pipe or a Harley with a LOUD exhaust blast by my drivers window
two feet from my rear view mirror. The old aviation adage is very apt....there are old pilots and bold
pilots but not both. Watching a CHP motor officer who generally are VERY good at patrolling the
freeways and studying how they do it is the greatest tutorial in learning this skill and those guys rarely
get themselves into hazardous situations. In Canada the politicians just don't get the gist of this traffic
flow idea. The other big component is that car drivers have to know that motorcycles are entitled to
lane split and that takes time and knowledge and don't take it personally that the motorcycle guy is
somehow cheating. Lane splitting is very controversial and the number of barely trained licensed
drivers from foreign jurisdictions makes the practice sometimes very optional.
 
Wrote a letter to the West Australian back in the 70s after some idiot had written canning the practice of lane splitting, obviously pissed off because motos were getting where they wanted to go while he was sitting there stopped - and fuming. I pointed out among other things that it's a common practice by mounted police.

I've always lanesplat (as against lanesplattered!) and always will - it's legal in Victoria if (I think) the traffic is stationary. I'll also do it if the traffic speed is low (which means sudden manoeuvres by them to change lanes aren't possible).

There are certain liberties that I think come with shouldering the risks of motorcycling and getting through traffic to clean air is one of them. I happily dawdle between stopped traffic and parked cars too.
 
Paul Marx said:
I've always lane split though it's illegal in France. There are at the moment test areas where it's legal. Car drivers have evolved since I've been riding. They used to move over to try and block you, now they move to let you by.

Paul
Click to expand...

I fear that if we tried it here in British Columbia that the car drivers would not evolve. We have had roundabouts for 20 years now and they are still not understood by many, many drivers.

Jim
 
helicopterjim said:
I fear that if we tried it here in British Columbia that the car drivers would not evolve. We have had roundabouts for 20 years now and they are still not understood by many, many drivers.

Jim
Click to expand...
Don't worry, very much the same here concerning roundabouts.
We need to sell cars and have built a way of life around them. We can't afford to be too choosy about who drives them and society can probably put up with a certain number not having a driving license or insurance, as long as they stay discrete. I believe something like 20% of cars over here are driven by people with no license or insurance. As long as they can drive to work and to the shops, the cogs keep turning.
Pedestrians, and all two wheel users don't count. The only way to protect them is to separate them from cars. Can be done for pedestrians and cyclists, not for motorcyclists, so they have to be legislated against.

Intelligence would have us legislate against cars as a means of individual transport and spend public money on public transport rather than always more roads and cars.
I'm far from sure that intelligence is an important factor in human affairs.

Paul
 
I think everyone should stick to calling it ' Filtering' which sounds benign and safe as opposed to ' Lane splitting ' which sounds violent and reckless. Law makers seem to take note of such nuances.
 
Okay....now onto one of my favorites,but I think only understood by our U.K.
brethern. That being "white van syndrome". Perhaps a member from the afflicted
island could explain it much better than any tourist. Also,lets not forget the earlier
version.....the Volvo driver !
 
Perry said:
I think everyone should stick to calling it ' Filtering' which sounds benign and safe as opposed to ' Lane splitting ' which sounds violent and reckless. Law makers seem to take note of such nuances.
Click to expand...
The California vehicle code calls it “lane sharing”. It also applies to two motorcycles riding side by side in the same lane.
 
EncinoBoy said:
Okay....now onto one of my favorites,but I think only understood by our U.K.
brethern. That being "white van syndrome". Perhaps a member from the afflicted
island could explain it much better than any tourist. Also,lets not forget the earlier
version.....the Volvo driver !
Click to expand...
I always wondered about that too. Who or what is a White Van Man and what is the social or political implication of the descriptor? Is he like who Americans call a flat biller? Or who the Aussies call a Bogan?
 
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