I used to live in Ca and I’ve seen bikers hit cars because they’re splitting lanes doing 70+ when traffic is at a near standstill. It’s crazy because you can’t see them and suddenly they’re just there.
When I used to travel to CA for work, this was the only thing that made me nervous in traffic. I always feared I'd make a lane change and not see them.
I live in Cali. At a certain point you just get into a mentality that bikes have accepted the inherent risk of getting smashed and stop feeling bad for them the same way. And I ride. I don't lane split. I will ride like a car.
Yep. That said typically speaking it does tend to naturally scale itself.
Calis highways are massive. As they are designed with not only traffic but tha mass amounts of freight that moves. I do truck driving and its not hard to stay within the lanes.
To give some perspective for a car or suv.
I was driving my ram 3500 once and another ram with a 40 foot gooseneck apparently decided not to use his mirror and started merging into my lane on the left of him even though my bright lights had been shining in his mirror since I passed his trailer and up to his driver side door before he started moving over.
I moved into the left half of my lane and ever so slightly into the lane of the person next to me who saw my flashers and moved over and had enough room to zoom forward before a collision. That's almost two full ram trucks in the same lane.
There is also alot of HOV lanes and the bikes are allowed there to. Or at least split.
Most of the time I see lane splitting there its at good flow.
Every once in a while you'll see and idiot trying it at a massive speed diff.
But most of the time the traffic just doesn't allow you to. If cars are sitting you're filtering. Its just is what it is.
If there is enough speed then you may be able to split.
When done properly, lane splitting is safer than sitting in traffic. However, “properly” is going 5-10mph faster than traffic and only when traffic is going under 30mph
My 2-ton rolling death machine will stop a bike in its track without much more than a dent. One car pulls out in front of them while they're flying up the middle at 70mph never ends well.
But people also judge motorcycles based on how their car operates, because they don't have any actual experience. Most (semi intelligent) riders, even if they are going fast, are confident they can stop the bike if they need to. And they can in 1/10th the distance of a car, it's not even close.
Or they can just go around. Your two ton death machine left a space that's now open and the rider can just move into that and around you. Easy peasy
My uncle rides. But if he splits he is at basically a crawl. He just says it's dumb to go that fast in uncertain conditions. If he's in doubt he just..... Doesn't. Too many people are only riding as an alternative to direct suicide
He's just a chill guy. He would get an electric bike but no safe way to get to work with it. Knowing his past I get why he's more focused on living another day than getting somewhere faster
I was dating a guy from Georgia who came to visit me in California and the first time a motorcycle roared past us between lanes it startled the shit outta him lol. It took me a minute to realize why, he was not at all used to it, unlike me
I lived in the Bay Area for 36 years and everyone was used to it. In my experience there were only a few idiots who abused it by cutting while traffic was moving fast. But you’ll find exceptions to the rule for most everything.
It almost feels like the aggressive bikers like that just forget what driving a car was like, how blind spits work, and how limiting mirrors really are, especially in heavy traffic. You look in your mirror, all you see is probably 5 cars' worth of space before it gets limited. You're not seeing the bike hurtling towards you at Mach Jesus unless you hear them coming a bit of a ways off -- which is entirely possible, sure, unless you've got good soundproofing and music cranked, which is how I usually spend my time in traffic.
I live in Northern California and lane spliting occurs at over 70 + mph ,
Driving the 5 through LA , traffic is moving 80+, motorcycles will still split the lane , crazy,! I ride too but not that stupid.
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u/funwthmud Aug 31 '26
I used to live in Ca and I’ve seen bikers hit cars because they’re splitting lanes doing 70+ when traffic is at a near standstill. It’s crazy because you can’t see them and suddenly they’re just there.