Study Confirms Lane Spltting Makes Sense

[John Hopkins]

Lane splitting is what we call filtering it is not only legal but expected in Great Britain, I have filtered past a police car that was doing 40mph on the motorway where the speed limit is 70 mph..slow traffic can cause the stop go riding that causes rear enders and stalls and most of the car drivers over here will move over a bit to allow a motorcyclist to pass..in many cases our roads are not as wide as yours so filtering or lane sharing is often not very easy..maybe we have different ideas about what lane splitting is..we ride over or on the lane dividing line to overtake, unless the dividing line is a continuous unbroken line which means no overtaking.

John.

[movenon]

No lane splitting in Idaho.....  I would like to see a law on the books allowing this under certain circumstances. I would assume the lane splitting law in Calif was put into effect to relieve grid lock or to get beyond an accident. I think there should be a low defined speed limit when lane splitting. It annoyed me in Calif when a bike would scream by lane splitting. All I could think about is what if he or she lost control or clipped a mirror or a door opened.
Once outside Portland Oregon in the Columbia Gorge my wife and I were caught late at night in pouring rain storm colder than heck stuck in a freeway pile up for a long time. I finally took it in hand and got all the way over to the right edge of the road and idled by very slowly for a few miles up the road until we came upon the accident blocking the freeway. The the LEO there saw us idling up and greatfully waved us on by. Glad common since over ruled written law. I like to think the LEO was a fellow biker or that the slow and respectful way we approached the problem is what got us on by. The truth is he probably had his hands full and didn't want to deal with us .

Odd laws. Here in Idaho if you are on a Bicycle and come up to a stop sign or red light and there is no traffic you can bust on through.... Go figure.... Every place has those odd laws.
I read not long ago in England I think they took a section of road and made it a free for all , you can cross walk anywhere and cars can go anywhere with in the boundaries of the road (hopefully one way), and guess what, accidents went down. Everyone was on guard (minimum rules to baby sit people). Personal responsibility....

[FJmonkey]

Here is info if you ride in California: http://www.chp.ca.gov/programs/lanesplitting.html

On #2 my rule is to not lane split as soon as traffic opens up enough for vehicles to change lanes. That is normally below 30mph in most cases. Simple logic, you are invisible when lane splitting and the cagers are thinking the other lane is faster.

[John Hopkins]

I think there should be a low defined speed limit when lane splitting. It annoyed me in Calif when a bike would scream by lane splitting. All I could think about is what if he or she lost control or clipped a mirror or a door opened.
Once outside Portland Oregon in the Columbia Gorge my wife and I were caught late at night in pouring rain storm colder than heck stuck in a freeway pile up for a long time. I finally took it in hand and got all the way over to the right edge of the road and idled by very slowly for a few miles up the road until we came upon the accident blocking the freeway. The the LEO there saw us idling up and greatfully waved us on by. Glad common since over ruled written law. I like to think the LEO was a fellow biker or that the slow and respectful way we approached the problem is what got us on by. The truth is he probably had his hands full and didn't want to deal with us .

Odd laws. Here in Idaho if you are on a Bicycle and come up to a stop sign or red light and there is no traffic you can bust on through.... Go figure.... Every place has those odd laws.
I read not long ago in England I think they took a section of road and made it a free for all , you can cross walk anywhere and cars can go anywhere with in the boundaries of the road (hopefully one way), and guess what, accidents went down. Everyone was on guard (minimum rules to baby sit people). Personal responsibility....

Here it is legal when it is safe to do so and at a safe speed..a guideline to a safe speed is 15 mph over the speed of the traffic as long as you remain under the speed limit and safe to do so means not at the front of a school or fire station, and not on a blind curve or the brow of a hill it's mostly down to common sense because these places have a continuous white line separating one side of the road from the oncoming traffic.

I think the road thing is fairly standard practice in Britan, lane changing unless marked is legal everyone can cross anywhere, we don't have Jaywalking laws, we don't call it a free for all we just do it..we are supposed to get in the correct lane at roundabouts but if we get in the wrong one we simply go round again and of course if we are in the wrong lane on a motorway we could miss our turnoff..we use the Mirror, signal manouver system..mirror to see if we can get in, signal to ask the driver behind to let us in, and then move..

John.

[movenon]

Roundabouts are rather new here to Idaho and you would be surprised at all the stupidity that go's on resisting them to being built. I got use to them overseas and love them. Turn signals that's another story... In Idaho the turn signal switch's will never wear out because that's one option that they haven't mastered and the few that do use them, well it get interesting. 
A VERY few will give you 5 second notice or appear to request.
A lot of them will tell what they are going to do no matter what. Its great when they miss there off ramp and dive across 2 lanes of on coming traffic.
A few like to tell you what they have just done, just in case you didn't see it.
Some just jink in front of you and figure you are on your own and to get the hell out of there way. That's usually when the none verbal gesture's start flying..
Oh, and then there are the ones that IF you do give a signal correctly and "check six" they close up quickly because you must stopped at all cost's from getting into there personal lane.
I pick on California a lot (its another Idaho thing) but I will say that they do drive better as a group and have figured out about how traffic flows. When you give a turn signal there they almost invite over into there lane. Or so it seems. In Idaho if you give a turn signal its like picking a fight. You might as well give them the finger as a turn signal. I vote for motorcycle only lanes .

[movenon]

http://jalopnik.com/5974948/heres-why-lane-splitting-should-be-legal-for-motorcycles?post=56059490
Nice video. Wish I could ride.... 6 degrees tonight.