Legal Consequences of Lane Splitting/Filtering?

[EddieMac]

The LA Times has a good article (with video) on lane splitting/filtering today. The comments section is interesting, too. Lots of comments from both riders and cagers.

I would argue that I am serving all commuters — and consequently all society — by using the pavement that automobiles can't. I'm subtracting one 4,000-pound box from the endless line of boxes keeping each other from getting where they are going.

The small price in psychic discomfort less fortunate four-wheeled commuters pay for my service could easily be palliated by a road trip to say, Paris, where the culture of the super freeway has evolved to afford the motorcycle an exalted place.

On Boulevard Périphérique, the perpetually gridlocked 22-mile loop that circumnavigates the city, motorcycles own the space between the number one and number two lanes. If my sudden appearance in your mirror rattles you, you have no idea how panicked you'd feel on seeing a phalanx of 20 or 30 Ducatis, BMWs, Yamahas and Hondas charging from the rear at twice your speed. So many commuters ride rather than drive that they create their own traffic pattern, bunching up in formations that whoosh by slower moving cars every 30 seconds or so.

[Jim Moore]

I wouldn't call it a good article unfortunately. I would call it an OK article that left out many, many societal benefits to lane-splitting. Instead of "one less car" it's 50,000 fewer cars. No mention at all of gas savings, or pollution benefits. You could go on and on about keeping petro-dollars out of the hands of terrorists, etc.

[EddieMac]

Originally Posted by Jim Moore

I wouldn't call it a good article unfortunately. I would call it an OK article that left out many, many societal benefits to lane-splitting. Instead of "one less car" it's 50,000 fewer cars. No mention at all of gas savings, or pollution benefits. You could go on and on about keeping petro-dollars out of the hands of terrorists, etc.

Mythbusters did an episode on how green bikes are vs. cars. Bikes win the MPG contest easily, but bikes also spew out much more of other types of garbage than cars do.

[DOGSROOT]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Mythbusters did an episode on how green bikes are vs. cars. Bikes win the MPG contest easily, but bikes also spew out much more of other types of garbage than cars do.

I'm not a big fan of riding w/ others in general, but I especially avoid riding behind stinky bikes.

I can really smell the difference between Kat/Non-Kat.

(Could of course also just have been older, poorly tuned bikes...)

I cannot believe folks "lightening up" their bikes by removing the Kat.

Expensive way to pollute.

Easier/cheaper way to lose 4 kg would be to lose the beer-belly.

Of course, it often does SOUND better...

However, I wear sound-eliminating earplugs anyway, so I don't really care about sounding "cool".
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[DAKEZ]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Mythbusters did an episode on how green bikes are vs. cars. Bikes win the MPG contest easily, but bikes also spew out much more of other types of garbage than cars do.

But traffic is reduced so it is a net win. A car sitting in traffic idling at 5 mph can in no way compete with a bike that is splitting and moving.

If 10% of drivers switched to motorcycles there would be a 40% recuction in traffic.

[slartidbartfast]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Mythbusters did an episode on how green bikes are vs. cars. Bikes win the MPG contest easily, but bikes also spew out much more of other types of garbage than cars do.

I think it all depends on which you rank as worse - SOx, NOx and unburned hydrocarbons, or CO2 and resource consumption. SoCal has smog problems so rates the first three higher than the last two. The EPA takes its lead from CARB and so makes the same assumptions about what's "worst". In other parts of the world, the CO2 and resource consumption are the biggest environmental impacts.

Furthermore, there are plenty of clean, fuel-injected, catalyzed bikes around these days, plus still more than a few (mostly older) cars with ineffective or missing emissions controls.

Despite all the above, if people with cars were better at car pooling, cars would win hands down - Just sayin!

[RxZ]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Mythbusters did an episode on how green bikes are vs. cars. Bikes win the MPG contest easily, but bikes also spew out much more of other types of garbage than cars do.

While this was true 5-10 years ago, didn't the government enact more strict rules for motorcycles starting with the 2010 or so model year? They are much cleaner now than they were just a handful of years ago, that much is fact. They may still be dirtier than cars though, I am not sure on that point. Seems like the ancillary effects of using less gas has to factor in somewhere. You know, like less drilling and processing stress on the environment.

Either way, commuting on bike is more fun, and in my case cheaper than taking the car!

[Jim Moore]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Mythbusters did an episode on how green bikes are vs. cars. Bikes win the MPG contest easily, but bikes also spew out much more of other types of garbage than cars do.

You gotta think of the whole equation. First, you spend less time sitting in traffic on a bike = Less pollution. Millions of people commuting on bkes (in my dream world) = shitloads less pollution from the entire chain, from drilling to shipping (what mpg does an oil tanker get?), to the diesel truck putting gas in the underground tanks at the corner gas station. Fewer cars mean smaller parking lots, leaving tons of room for green space, which cools the atmosphere and eats CO2. Etc., etc. Bikes are a win-win in a lot of different ways.

[IheartmyNx]

Steam wouldnt have an emission unless you think water is a bad thing?

And why couldnt a man run his bike off of cracked water? Hydrogen? Burn hydrogen = Water.

Sure, it could take a lot, but what is "a lot" and if you've got nothing better to do all day than make up a batch (like my friend that makes his own Bio-D), then where's the slavery to a dollar, economics and war there?


WTF people. Stop bitching a find a fucking way already.


Oh, I know... lets talk about the bad weed, or that Obama's the AntiChrist instead...


Who gives a shit about lane splitting... I'll spit (anytime, anywhere) to save MY LIFE!

I also did 65 right past a Trooper today too. I waived as if I admitted defeat and never turned around... I was in a 50. But I knew the war was over before it started because of my faith.

...the last 100 miles of church was the best.

[p0diabl0]

Originally Posted by RxZ

While this was true 5-10 years ago, didn't the government enact more strict rules for motorcycles starting with the 2010 or so model year? They are much cleaner now than they were just a handful of years ago, that much is fact. They may still be dirtier than cars though, I am not sure on that point. Seems like the ancillary effects of using less gas has to factor in somewhere. You know, like less drilling and processing stress on the environment.

Either way, commuting on bike is more fun, and in my case cheaper than taking the car!

IIRC while they didn't specify the model on Mythbusters, it was pretty obviously a WR250R with a catalytic converter.

[Forty Years Ago]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

The LA Times has a good article (with video) on lane splitting/filtering today. The comments section is interesting, too. Lots of comments from both riders and cagers.

I would argue that I am serving all commuters — and consequently all society — by using the pavement that automobiles can't. I'm subtracting one 4,000-pound box from the endless line of boxes keeping each other from getting where they are going.

The small price in psychic discomfort less fortunate four-wheeled commuters pay for my service could easily be palliated by a road trip to say, Paris, where the culture of the super freeway has evolved to afford the motorcycle an exalted place.

On Boulevard Périphérique, the perpetually gridlocked 22-mile loop that circumnavigates the city, motorcycles own the space between the number one and number two lanes. If my sudden appearance in your mirror rattles you, you have no idea how panicked you'd feel on seeing a phalanx of 20 or 30 Ducatis, BMWs, Yamahas and Hondas charging from the rear at twice your speed. So many commuters ride rather than drive that they create their own traffic pattern, bunching up in formations that whoosh by slower moving cars every 30 seconds or so.

Are you aware of the concept of quotation marks?

[EddieMac]

Originally Posted by Forty Years Ago

Are you aware of the concept of quotation marks?

Pfft. That's crap they used 40 years ago.

[DOGSROOT]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Pfft. That's crap they used 40 years ago.

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[slartidbartfast]

Originally Posted by Forty Years Ago

Are you aware of the concept of quotation marks?

On the internet? ...Are you kidding?

[Forty Years Ago]

Originally Posted by EddieMac

Pfft. That's crap they used 40 years ago.

I'm guessing that your English class at Tallahassee Community College was a little short on fundamentals.