This is why lane splitting / filtering will never be legal in the United States

A friend of mine posts this on the facebook yesterday:

It really pisses me off when I see assholes on motorcycles make their own lanes and pass people by driving down the double yellow line just to get to the front of the line at a red light. If you want respect from other drivers, understand that being a motorcyclist affords you no greater privilege than the rest of us on the road. Respect the law and we will respect you.

I tried to make him realize that he is just being butt-hurt over something that not only doesn't effect him, but actually helps the flow of traffic (see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...uting-by-motorcycle-is-good-for-everyone.html)

But I should know better than trying to argue with the interwebs.

Responses to the thread include:

They should yield to us and watch out for us. It's THEM that'll be dead if we hit them. That type of "vehicle" requires additional caution in use.

Don't move to CA. Splitting lanes is totally legal. I have had my heart skip a beat more than once when they roar by me inches away from my car.

I had a state cop do it once on his motorcycle in stopped traffic. His foot rest scratched the passenger side door of my car as he bounced against my car several times and he left a nice two foot long scratch down to bare metal.

Assholes are assholes. What I hate is the neighbor leaving the 'hood on his bike at 5 o'clock in the morning and revving the engine a few dozen times just to make sure everyone is aware he owns a bike.

I had a motorcycle do that, where I was at the front at a red light and it came blowing past me to be in front. Not only was it illegal, it was dangerous, he was then 15+ feet into the intersection and the light was still red when he took off going 20+ over the speed limit. It was beyond obnoxious.

And as for this idea that it doesn't 'affect me' by him moving to the front, that's bull. It's illegal to lane split in my state, and by not respecting the law he's also not respecting every other driver on the road. When you don't respect others on the road, accidents happen and people can die.

Sadly all it takes is one asshole move by someone on a bike to make people paint all of us with a negative brush. Cages do asshole stuff too, but the public doesn't assume all cage drives to be complete assholes. But all it takes is for someone to have one run in with someone on a bike and they think we are all assholes.

The rest of the world filters without all that BS, so how come you yanks get your panties in twist?

That's one of the points I made in the FB thread. I have no idea. But we really do for some reason.

The ever growing "Me first!" attitude and general disregard for others.

...ugh

As much as I wish lane splitting was legal in the USA. If we can get road users to pass quickly and move over without impeding traffic, merge into moving traffic correctly, give adequate space and use signals that will be a HUGE improvement.

Ahh, heh, to be fair, all three of those are issues on this side of the pond as well. The same cagers who'll so politely let me filter past them will also pull into my safety gap or assume their indicators have some magic power to create space in a "I'm indicating, no need to look" type of thing. It's ignorance, not stupidity so it's hard to get angry about it but...yeah, given a choice of higher driving standards or filtering - I'll take the improved driving standards.

All cagers should be forced to spend a year on the road on a bike before being allowed near a car - and when I'm president of something I'll make sure that happens!

Also, I'll make the playing of Austro-pop punishable by death and outlaw the use of umlauts.

because Americans love their cars and sitting on their asses, even if it's in traffic. as long as there's air conditioning. and because they love their cars so much, it becomes part of their identity. add in a healthy dose of entitlement and the prevalent "fuck those weirdos that dont look or live like me" mindset, and voila: kill all the motorcyclists and get out of my way. if i have to sit in traffic, so does everyone else.

Bike lanes are the only answer, as obviously the thread leans toward the idea that Bikes and Cages cannot use the same roads or rules.
It's easy enough to put a double dotted 3' wide lane at the shoulder and ticket cages for infringing on it.
But what does reving a bike have to do with lane splitting? My neighbor has a hot Porche that he warms up via a car starter every AM whether he drives it that day or not.

Good idea. We have lots of bicycle lanes here in Minneapolis and drivers seem to respect the lanes for the most part. Something like that for motorcycles, scooters would be great. Maybe the bicycle lanes could be turned into motorcycle, scooter lanes as well. I suppose the bicyclists would be ticked then...

dunno. where i live, there are bicycle lanes everywhere. legally, cars are supposed to get tickets for parking or driving in them. in actuality, cars use them as extra parking lanes or passing lanes. it's dangerous enough at bicycle speeds, would not want to deal with that at moto speeds.

Recently visited Southeast Asia (Laos, Vietnam, Thailand) and saw how well "lane splitting" worked there! Given the number of motorbikes on the road, wthout it, no one would be able to get anywhere! We covered many miles of road in those countries and it seemed that drivers in general were just much more patient and "forgiving"; I never saw a driver get "road rage" despite the very difficult traffic in cities. Hard to imagine US drivers staying cool and calm under those conditions; we are too much always in a rush and quite narcissistic!

I can easily come up with ten things asshole cagers do....from the perspective of another cager.

One of the main reasons I ride in Mexico. Once your free to filter, its hard to sit behind a line of cars.

It's the Amusement Park Line Principle:
"I am waiting in line, therefore so should you".

Also, most riders here are seen as hobbyists, just out playing with their toy. It is not considered valid transportation. A motorcycle rider is regarded with "why the hell didn't he just take the car?", so no 2-wheel benefits are recognized or granted.

The problem is that compared with other countries, too many people do behave like inexperienced and/or inconsiderate asses that are just out to play with their 2-wheeled toy. So yes, there will be dumb shits that try to lane-split at 80 mph or filter in unskilled or inconsiderate ways, killing any goodwill that might have been built by good riders.

:eek1 And moto riders are supposed to be the assholes in this conversation?

I wonder how many beats this poster's heart would skip when it's a pickup truck swinging into his/her (occupied) lane at 70MPH!

How Cali is looked at as a liberal freak here in the states but still have some big boy rules.

Lane splitting is part of the culture there. Good on the old dudes for lobbying to protect the air cooled engines.

Just do not tell the cagers air cooled is dieing off.

I wonder how car drivers would react to a corresponding "they're all assholes" rant by a motorcyclist, pointing out that:

• Cagers rarely use turn signals, even when they see another driver or rider waiting;
• Cagers rarely check their blind spot when changing lanes (often because they're holding a phone that blocks their peripheral vision);
• When a left arrow turns green, and there's a long line of cars waiting, and the green arrow doesn't last long, cagers just lackadaisically amble into the intersection at 10 mph, and the next cager waits until he or she has 10 seconds of clearance before following the lead driver into the intersection, so other drivers and riders have to unnecessarily wait another light cycle;
• Cagers don't understand that when you turn right onto a two-lane road, you're supposed to take the right lane, and when you turn left onto a two-lane road, you're usually supposed to occupy the left lane;
• Cagers race up to stop signs and screech to a halt, forcing other drivers and riders to guess whether the cager is going to actually stop at the sign;
• At stop signs, cagers stop way, way beyond the white line, impeding other drivers and motorcyclists who are trying to make left turns from the perpendicular road;
• Too many cagers tarry along in the left lane while traffic passes on the right, oblivious and uncaring that they are breaking the law and endangering others;
• Most cagers text while driving;
• Many cagers buy bigger-than-needed vehicles so "when I have an accident, I'll hurt the other guy more than he hurts me," which I believe is immoral (if you disagree, ask WWJD);
• Where I live, most cagers drive below the speed limit, and when they see a green light up ahead, won't speed up to the speed limit or slightly above -- so they (and the people behind them) are forced to unnecessarily wait at red lights;
• Cagers complain about motorcycle noise, even though car tire noise is louder 99 percent of the time on a given stretch of road;
• Cagers believe SMIDSY means they should never suffer sanctions for injuring or killing a motorcycle rider.

I'm sure that the vast majority of cagers would say, "You're talking about other people, not about me," and they'd call me a whiner. But when a cager complains that a motorcycle filters to the front, then speeds away when the light turns green, never getting into cagers' way -- who is the whiner?

Wow.....and now for my take on your rant..in order.

• Right
• Right
• Wrong in every possible way
• No opinion
• Wrong
• Right
• Wrong
• Right
• Wrong
• Wrong and contradicts enormously with your 5th point
• Wrong
• Right

There's no need to explain - it's all self evident.

Wow, quoting this because of so much truth.
I usually just enjoy reading these threads for amusement, but you've hit on almost all of my pet peeves.
The underlying issue is that most drivers seem to act as if they are the only ones on the road; as if their actions have no effect on the other people on the road.

Catweasel,
When I was in college, a German exchange student lived with my family. He described the German system of driver education, as well as the German legal philosophy that:

1. You're supposed to know the laws of the road and follow them;
2. You're legally required to assume that others will follow the driving laws.

I assume, perhaps wrongly, that Austria has a similar system. If so, driving must be much less frustrating there. Come to South Florida and ride a motorcycle for a while.