07-06-2016, 12:54 AM
It's all well and good to educate the public on lane-sharing. IF it's going to be allowed, then an educated motorist is vitally important. I just can't get past the liability questions. Who's at fault if a car moves to the leftmost portion of his lane and hits a rider whose handlebars and grips are in the motorist's lane? Is that portion of the motorist's lane now the biker's? When is that determined--only when the bike chooses to occupy that lane or is it all the time, thereby narrowing the motorist's lane by a foot or two on each side? My guess, and it is only a guess, is that in Cali, if a motorist moves over, within his own lane, and strikes a biker, the motorist is at-fault. This strikes me a problematic. I'm all for moving along, avoiding collisions, staying cool, and the biker's overall safety. I just think that if they want to have a narrow lane exclusive to bikers, it should be along the shoulders of the road and not in between the car lanes.