07-10-2016, 04:20 AM
I was lane splitting for a few miles yesterday on Saturday morning while stuck in traffic on one of our local freeways in route to the rural highways of the Santa Cruz Mountains. What was intended to be a leisurely ride up to Alice's Restaurant to meet with a fellow CB1100 owner and member here, started out to be intensely stressful. The traffic was nearly at a standstill and bumper to bumper on the freeway. I was making forward progress at a safe and sane speed of around 20 mph, but it was still STRESSFUL as He**!
I took the next available exist and altered my route to be on side streets to get to my intended freeway turn off a few miles away. I had one or two precarious situations while "splitting", but was able to get off the freeway relatively unscathed by taking advantage of a merging traffic lane for about 1/4 of a mile before the next exist. If not for that early exist opportunity, I would of had to stay on the freeway for several more miles literally in a sea of cars, thus raising my stress level even more!
I'd rather ride on city streets, riding from intersection to intersection - in THAT form of stop and go - than frantically lane splitting on the freeway so as save a time en route to my destination! I believe lane splitting is inherently more dangerous even during the best of circumstances. There are just too many motorist around you not paying attention, meandering side to side in a lane of traffic, or changing lanes without checking first or not able to clearly see a motorcycle just to the rear who is splitting the adjacent lane. The biker MUST constantly be prepared to make a panic stop at any moment and the faster he is lane splitting, the less s/he can avoid a collision.
I kind of like the idea of a dedicated (but narrower) lane for motorcycles similar to commuter diamond lanes we have now. Or, better still, I wish I was out in the country where there was no everyday traffic congestion to begin with!
I took the next available exist and altered my route to be on side streets to get to my intended freeway turn off a few miles away. I had one or two precarious situations while "splitting", but was able to get off the freeway relatively unscathed by taking advantage of a merging traffic lane for about 1/4 of a mile before the next exist. If not for that early exist opportunity, I would of had to stay on the freeway for several more miles literally in a sea of cars, thus raising my stress level even more!
I'd rather ride on city streets, riding from intersection to intersection - in THAT form of stop and go - than frantically lane splitting on the freeway so as save a time en route to my destination! I believe lane splitting is inherently more dangerous even during the best of circumstances. There are just too many motorist around you not paying attention, meandering side to side in a lane of traffic, or changing lanes without checking first or not able to clearly see a motorcycle just to the rear who is splitting the adjacent lane. The biker MUST constantly be prepared to make a panic stop at any moment and the faster he is lane splitting, the less s/he can avoid a collision.
I kind of like the idea of a dedicated (but narrower) lane for motorcycles similar to commuter diamond lanes we have now. Or, better still, I wish I was out in the country where there was no everyday traffic congestion to begin with!