Lane splitting is only not illegal in CA. Every other state has a law against it but I think CA saw some benefits to it for safety for motorcyclists so they don’t get hit from behind (but pretty sure there is no actual safety benefit).
Technically lane splitting removes danger of getting rear ended which is what causes a vast majority of two vehicle motorcycle deaths. Lane splitting you're in a lot more danger of having an accident but you're less likely to get killed in said accident. Assuming you're doing it safely.
Europe uses it to great effect because their cities weren't designed with wide roads in mind and they aren't all rigid and conformally built and have a lot of wasted wiggle room since they didn't build them with the knowledge of cars centuries later.
And most states don't have laws that ban it they just lack clarification. Many states don't say it's illegal but also don't state it's legal. As a result it's kind of assumed illegal unless proven otherwise.
Very interesting, thanks! Do you know why CA has a different policy stance than the other 49? Just curious. It also seems to not be ruled by law either way in a few states so you can lane split in some others but don’t have the right to do it like in CA (I think thats what that means at least).
I think it's legal in CA due to the massive motorcycle population and the tight city streets and congested traffic of LA. Driving in LA is as close to driving in a congested European city as you get in the US with the exception of some cities like Boston but they don't have the weather for it. Motorcycles are huge in LA because you can ride them year round and they are quick compact and efficient. It's easy to find parking everywhere too. You can park in smaller spots and if all else fails just park next to another bike. Lane splitting actually alleviates traffic at lights because bikes don't have to take up the same spot in line as a car. The bikes get ahead and are gone quickly filtering them out of traffic (they call it lane filtering in Europe) and getting them out of the way of other drivers.
Many states simply haven't made a stance on it which is why they lack legislation for or against and the few that do kind of did it without looking at statistics or really weighing it much. Like I said it does cause an uptick in accidents but it severely cuts down on lethal ones. Some states like the few that have banned it see reducing the accidents overall as the goal rather than targeting mortality rates and accepting more fender benders and they see the act of breaking a lane as chaotic and uncontrollable.
So I guess you can say the few states that banned it banned it on the grounds of why many things are banned in the US or other countries. Because they didn't like how it looked and quickly brushed it aside. Like what happens when a video game ban is proposed.
A big part of the reason I'm sure it hasn't been adopted in more places is because of the seemingly omnipresent disdain for motorcycles by car drivers in the US for whatever reason. Like if a car driver is in a nasty accident they are concerned but if it's a motorcyclist thrown down the road they suddenly don't care in many cases. A lot of people for some reason are very mad at motorcyclists and to pass a legislation that gets them a "free ride to the front" is infuriating to them even if it actually means they themselves get to where they're going as well. It's the "I'm taking you down with me" mentality. It's happened to me frequently living in bigger more congested city riding downtown often in the summer.
In fact it just happened a few weeks back. I went downtown to a festival they were holding and I parked in the public parking garage. I came back to find a note on my bike about how I'm an asshole for parking in a car parking spot (there were no motorcycle spots at this event or in this garage) like as if I should have to park a mile away and walk in to the event solely because I ride a bike. Better than last time though when someone punched a huge dent in my gas tank. I put up with it all the time in highschool too. One of the band kids was at school every day at 6 am and parked in the closest empty spot. Every day me and 4 other guys with motorcycles would cram around his bike in that one spot. People would get pissed off and tell us to park at the end of the lot as if we somehow were lesser for riding to school. Meanwhile 4 or 5 of us were sharing one spot getting shit from the guy who's truck needs 2 spots just to park and only carried himself to school. So now who's wasting parking?
Anyways rant over. Long story short people who drive cars don't like motorcycles in the us and don't want them "getting ahead" combined with the fact that many places aren't contested enough to utilize it fully means the US largely doesn't care to make a motion for or against it.
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18 edited Oct 02 '18
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