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BangShift Question Of The Day: What Are Your Feelings On “Lanesplitting”?


BangShift Question Of The Day: What Are Your Feelings On “Lanesplitting”?

Ever since I realized that dirt bike plus teenage enthusiasm equals hospital visit, I’ve more or less stayed off of motorcycles. It’s not that I’m scared of them or that I don’t trust my skills, far from it. It’s just that I haven’t made the call to own a street bike. It’s a luxury, and the way people drive, the last thing I want between a bumper and my body is a thick pair of jeans and some leathers. Which is why I’m personally baffled by motorcyclists who like the concept of “lanesplitting”. If you’re in California or have been overseas for a minute or two, you’ve probably seen this: a biker riding right in between two lanes of cars as if the white stripes were marking their own personal lane of travel. In the best of terms, it seems like a bad idea and in the worst of terms, it is…especially on highways and interstates where merging traffic and irritated people already have enough trouble spotting a motorcycle that isn’t straight-piped.

This subject came up because Ford has decided that more can be done to protect the lane-splitting motorcycle. It involves using sensors, radars and other devices to determine where the biker is and to utilize those systems to step on the brake for you so that you don’t knock Mr. Lanesplitter into the next lane…or next week. I’m not going to go off on my usual tangent of “you’re not advancing safety, you’re just making drivers even more lazy”. That’s a given. But does it seem that for what is the most obnoxious thing you can do on a bike (besides unnecessary revving), motorcyclists are being protected a little too much?

Bikers, feel free to chime in here. I’m curious to hear your opinions on the matter.


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29 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: What Are Your Feelings On “Lanesplitting”?

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    If you are a confident, observant and above all skilled motorcyclist there is nothing wrong about “lane splitting”. This has got me to important meetings in the past while all the car drivers were bogged down in traffic jams. I once rode over 5 miles between lanes in a matter of minutes instead of waiting for an hour to travel the same distance by keeping to one lane.

  2. Mostly Kindred Spirit to CHMG

    As a lifelong motorcyclist, I’m all for it. I’ve never been able to do it, however, not being a resident of Californication. Common in Europe, I didn’t ride the few years I lived there.
    That said, I’d also be for much more stringent training for all new American drivers, who are, quite possibly, amoung the worse in the world…

  3. Riverratcustoms

    Also a lifelong biker. With the increasing traffic congestion everywhere, we need it as far as I’m concerned.

  4. Brian Cooper

    If you lane split and get hurt, I have no sympathy for you. It’s stupid and it should be universally illegal to travel counter to the lane controls painted on the road. I personally feel absolutely no remorse for someone stupid enough to split lanes.

    1. Riverratcustoms

      If you don’t ride a motorcycle you wouldn’t understand. There is a certain amount of risk every time you ride. Experienced bikers understand this and are keenly aware of dangers that go along with riding, including lane splitting or riding on the shoulder or whatever. Motorcycles over-heat in traffic generally and that’s part of the reason why this is allowed in places like CA. Get your facts right and don’t jump to conclusions like a Lib-tard before you spout off your mouth and say someone is stupid for doing something that is legal in certain areas.

  5. Loren

    I think if you ride a bike and take up that much less space on the highways than a car, you should get some privileges including limited lane splitting particularly in very heavy traffic or at intersections. However, living in a area where we see some of the worst road manners imaginable from a small group of bikers and experience a countywide average on one biker death per week generally attributable to the rider, and are then treated with all the biker-lawyer ads, I have to say there is some resentment from car drivers over the unnecessary level of lane splitting we see. Some people just ride along that way normally, bobbing around in unexpected spots and inviting you to have a problem with them, and the CA law has helped increase that behavior.

  6. Bill Butte

    I don’t ride and have no problem with it. Just watch as I might not see you coming on your bike & might open my car door to spit, while in traffic. True story!!!

  7. Mercury Man

    As a rider for 50+ years I think it is the most ridiculous law ever put on the books. Motorcycles have always been allowed the same space as a four wheeled vehicle, why should this change just because the rider can not wait for traffic like a four wheel vehicle? Any rider that splits and gets into or causes an accident deserves the consequences.

  8. Gary Perkinson

    I totally get it, because personally, I have no problem with using the shoulder of the road in my truck when I’m faced with bumper-to-bumper traffic. But like everything else with motorcycles, your risk of injury is a lot greater when you lane-split on your motorcycle than when I shoulder-drive in my truck, so it’s your call. The bottom line is, I think motorcycles are awesome, but I would never ride one–it just seems like begging for hospital or funeral bills to me…

  9. ANGRYJOE

    I am in favor of it assuming traffic is at a stand still or, at a red light. Otherwise, lane splitting while moving is a bad idea IMO. I’ve had many riders come flying up past me splitting lanes and startling the hell out of me to the point where I could have caused an accident. I’ve also seen riders in California blow by at 90mph splitting lanes. If you want to kill yourself go home and use a gun.

  10. bob

    I can’t believe Cali Libs haven’t outlawed motorcycles.

    If they don’t approve of an activity their philosophy is to ban it for everyone.

    Most are pansy Prius drivers.

    1. Brendan M

      Check out the film trailer for “The Last Motorcycle On Earth” on YouTube. It’s coming….

  11. CA Rider

    A distracted driver that rear ends a motorcycle is almost always fatal to the rider. Lane splitting, when done within reason, will reduce the probability of a fatal accident. However, if you ride like a maniac in traffic, it doesn’t win the hearts and minds of auto drivers. Just like a person driving like a maniac in a car pisses people off.

    I personally think you all should focus your anger/frustration towards people who drive and text because they are a greater danger to all motorists, more so than a lane splitting motorcycle.

    Lastly, in CA, where lane splitting is legal within guidelines, if you intentionally harm or kill a lane splitter, you’ll most likely spend A LOT of money and maybe have to do jail time trying to defend yourself against (attempted if they live) manslaughter or murder charges. All funny until your locked up and an outlaw biker in jail finds out what you did to land yourself in there, and you dont have a keyboard to defend yourself. They’re not sympathetic nor are they forgiving (I am not one, but I ride too, and respect their freedom to live that life). Consequences can be more serious than you ever thought they’d be.

    Try to be courteous to each other out there on the road, everyone wants to get home alive.

    1. Jeff

      WOW not a 1%er but you claim to know our ways. Have you ever done time in prison to see what actually happens in there?

      1. CA Rider

        No I have not, and I meant no disrespect. However, I have had the privilege of getting to ride as a guest of a club. I’ll leave it at that, because you are right that I shouldn’t assume your business.

        Since you’re here, would you mind sharing your thoughts on the subject of the article? I think it would be great to hear your point of view rather than assume it.

      2. Longrod Von Hugendong

        I know what happens, …pillow biting.., lots and lots of pillow biting.

  12. AndyB

    Can we stop it with the California-only articles yet?

    Did you guys realize that there’s a whole bunch of other states that also do this hot-rodding thing, and they’re frequently more interesting?

  13. JD

    I agree, it seems like a bad idea to me. I can certainly understand why bikers would be tempted to do it but I just don’t think the time you save is worth the risk to the biker or to others involved. There’s no question that the majority of the risk is to the biker but as a former EMT I’ve seen more than one accident where a bike traveling at high speed struck a motor vehicle causing injury to occupants of the vehicle. Not to mention property damage and traffic back ups caused by the accident etc…

    One other aspect of motor vehicle accidents that most people don’t ever seem to think about is the risk to emergency personnel. Every time a Police officer, Fire Fighter, EMT or Medic respond to a call their safety is at risk as well, not to mention cost to tax payers. Safety should always come first. Having said that, I also agree that many of these new driver aids are making drivers more complacent and thereby counter acting their intended purpose. Driver education and enforcement of current traffic laws already on the books needs to take a higher priority in my opinion.

  14. Scott Liggett

    Lane splitting is in fact illegal in California. Lane sharing is what is legal. That means you are not legally allowed ride down the road on top of the lane markers. You are legal to ride beside a car in the same lane. It is splitting hairs, but the CHP does enforce this minor difference.

    Since lane markers on Cali freeways include several braille dots on every lane hash mark, splitting the lane on the motorcycle will most certainly give you a very rough ride home.

  15. Piston Pete

    You pays yer money and you takes yer chances. I split the lanes of U.S.36 west of Indy every weekday evening most of Summer ’79 on my ’78 XLCH, not so much cause traffic was stalled, but because it was the easiest way to go 80mph. Never had a problem. Totally illegal then and impossible to duplicate today due to urban sprawl. Back then Avon was a post office, an IGA, a Rexall drugstore and a junkyard. Was I lucky or good? Who’s to say?, but the question sure makes an old man smile thinking about the antics of his 26 y.o. hard dick self.

  16. Brendan M

    If done properly, it harms no one.
    What gives it a bad name is these bike-life thugs on stolen machines terrorizing cars in NYC and other places.

  17. BennyB

    always tempted to door the mothe…speaking as someone who rode motorcycles before I could a bicycle.
    Especially near-and-north-of the Mexican border. Seems it was the worst there, for no immediately apparent reason.

  18. Singapore Hot Rod

    We lane split here in Singapore. It is AWESOME! Just go slow and use common sense. Make sure you ride a small (in stature) bike with flexible mirrors. I never worry about traffic.

    May be difficult when I move home to not lane split.

  19. Dan Barlow

    It’s my 8 to 9 foot lane . Biker want to share it with me , then he should get a legal written consent form from me . That we everyone knows that I knew he is there . Here in Indiana , that guy on a bicycle riding just to the left of the line on the edge of the road owns the whole lane . So if he bobbles , swerves a chuck hole or what ever , and I hit him , it’s my fault if I didn’t go all the way over into the other lane instead of “sharing “it with him .

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