CMSP Lane Splitting Guidelines issued

[ElectricPrunes]

Do I really have to explain to you that motorcycles are smaller and more difficult to see than cars? I. It is also more difficult to accurately judge the speed of smaller objects.

You are also making the assumption that the automobile driver has there mirrors adjusted in a manner that you think the are/should.

I look for faces in mirrors when i lane split, so from my experience most cars have their left mirror pointed straight down the side of their own car. I would never tell anyone to adjust their mirrors in this way because it leaves a huge fucking blind spot on their left side for cars in the left lane. That said, it works out well for lane splitting.

My experience is not a sample size big enough to be scientifically relevant; These are just my observations; This is what has worked well for me in the last eight years of riding motorcycles and bicycles.

Also, I don't bob and weave and try to create a buffer between each individual car. I see other motorcyclists do this all the time, including CHP. It drives me crazy. I ride down the line like im riding single track. I'll duck my head around mirrors but I wont move the bike. That's because I want cars to know I know what I'm doing, they can see exactly where I am and where I'm going, and they don't expect me to do anything else. If it's a turn I'll hug the car to my right and just change my line when they change theirs. For legal purposes, you want to make sure you're on the opp side of the line before they hit you. lol.

My point is that drivers have a modicum of intelligence to be operating a vehicle at all. No car makes a maneuver with ZERO situational awareness. Take the first three seconds of this "brilliant" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY0mJanqlqg&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Motorcyclist is all hacked off because he was cut off, but he wasnt. His camera captures the very first moment he can even see the fiat, which is also the very first moment the fiat can even see him. They're already initiated changing lanes. He wasn't riding too fast because he avoided a crash. He's revving his motor because he was startled, not because there's actually any fault or danger.

 

[Surj]

I look for faces in mirrors when i lane split...

Also, I don't bob and weave and try to create a buffer between each individual car. I see other motorcyclists do this all the time, including CHP. It drives me crazy.

Looking for faces is good, but I don't spend more than a split second checking for them. It's just part of scanning for signs of awareness (or not) and car's 'body language'.

You know, the CHP riders probably split more than any of us. Their technique may be based on that and worth learning from. :laughing Also, their bikes are not particularly narrow. Ever split behind a CHP on a Connie? Between the crash bars and the sidecases, they're massively wide.

 

[ElectricPrunes]

I have no doubt that chp are highly experienced riders. In my opinion, its much better to ride a perfectly constant line whenever possible, even if that means ducking your head around mirrors.

I ride behind CHP all the time. They're very experienced and the way they ride is definitely methodic. I just dont know if it's the right method. I'm not giving advice for anyone else but explaining how I ride and my own observations. I pick a spot in the lane and stay there for as long as possible.

 

[Surj]

I have no doubt that chp are highly experienced riders. In my opinion, its much better to ride a perfectly constant line whenever possible, even if that means ducking your head around mirrors.

I ride behind CHP all the time. They're very experienced and the way they ride is definitely methodic. I just dont know if it's the right method. I'm not giving advice for anyone else but explaining how I ride and my own observations. I pick a spot in the lane and stay there for as long as possible.

One thing to consider is that movement of your lights can help drivers see you. Riding in a straight line doesn't give you much of that.

 

[DataDan]

I look for faces in mirrors when i lane split, so from my experience most cars have their left mirror pointed straight down the side of their own car. I would never tell anyone to adjust their mirrors in this way because it leaves a huge fucking blind spot on their left side for cars in the left lane. That said, it works out well for lane splitting.

My experience is not a sample size big enough to be scientifically relevant; These are just my observations; This is what has worked well for me in the last eight years of riding motorcycles and bicycles.

Also, I don't bob and weave and try to create a buffer between each individual car. I see other motorcyclists do this all the time, including CHP. It drives me crazy. I ride down the line like im riding single track. I'll duck my head around mirrors but I wont move the bike. That's because I want cars to know I know what I'm doing, they can see exactly where I am and where I'm going, and they don't expect me to do anything else. If it's a turn I'll hug the car to my right and just change my line when they change theirs. For legal purposes, you want to make sure you're on the opp side of the line before they hit you. lol.

The benefit of lateral distance to vehicles in an adjacent lane is a better chance of avoiding a crash in the event of an incursion. That distance represents the time it will take for a trespasser to reach you, time you can use to accelerate, swerve, or brake to avoid a crash. With sufficient distance, vigilance, and good judgment, you put yourself out of reach no matter what the dope does.

Positioning yourself close to the adjacent lane may improve your chance of being seen, but if a driver still doesn't see you and swerves into you, you have no escape route. You're relying 100% on the strategy of being seen by drivers you're approaching from behind.

When a gap opens up in one lane while splitting, moving laterally to create space cushion as you occupy the gap is a good tactic for avoiding the most common lane-splitting crash, the cut-off. When traffic is bumper-to-bumper, the presence of other vehicles keeps drivers in their lanes. But a gap in one lane invites lane changes, and positioning yourself between a vehicle crawling through thick traffic and open space in the next lane is just asking for trouble.

Take the first three seconds of this "brilliant" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY0mJanqlqg&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Motorcyclist is all hacked off because he was cut off, but he wasnt. His camera captures the very first moment he can even see the fiat, which is also the very first moment the fiat can even see him. They're already initiated changing lanes. He wasn't riding too fast because he avoided a crash. He's revving his motor because he was startled, not because there's actually any fault or danger.

Thanks for the link. Every smug Brit I run into on the net who crows about the superiority of UK riders is going to have to answer for that. :laughing

 

[ElectricPrunes]

I think I know what you're saying, but here's my dilemma. Say you have a car sized gap in traffic all to yourself. Do you stay in it and maximize your side-to-side buffer between vehicles? Or do you stay on the white line, maximize your visibility of the road ahead, every car's visibility of you, and your front/rear buffer? My point is that it's a tradeoff, and since bikes desparately need more visibility and more front and rear space, I'll refuse to ride directly behind any car ever.

Also i doubt it matters how well a car can determine your speed. If they see you, at all, they're not going to pull out and risk a collision. Even if they hate bikes the instinct to avoid a collision is too strong. Cars that have already initiated a turn will freeze up completely if they see you coming. For this reason I wont do anything that may help a car identify my speed like wobbling. What I have done is tint my headlight green so that it stands out from the sea of halogens so cars can identify me as a bike. Also my forks are pretty stiff, so my headlights bounce plenty. :lol

 

[Enchanter]

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425940

Couple of points:

Green headlights don't indicate "motorcycle" to other road users.

Speed of an approaching vehicle is very important. It is one of the factors used to decide if you have enough space to change lanes.

Most lane sharing crashes take place in the 'gap' between vehicles. That is the area with the highest risk. Eliminating the space cushion at that time is a questionable choice at best.

A large component of your riding strategy seems to be that other drivers will do the right thing. You place a large portion of your safety into a strangers hands. I suggest that that is exactly the opposite of good personal risk management.

 

[CaptCrash]

I guess I'm a knucklehead but once you're between cars a simple "yank" on the bars means hitting the vehicle beside you...which generally doesn't work out so well.

One of the underlying issues here is trying to create some way that splitting is the "safest" thing to do. Filtering, maybe. Splitting? Never. It speeds up your journey but doesn't improve safety. Sure there's the old "but what if?" thing and you can fabricate a situation where splitting is safer but usually that involves some real fantasy.

For goodness sake, own it. Splitting speeds up the journey with only real benefit to other users in that it removes a user from the congestion in a faster time. Other than that? Dude. Come on. I want lane splitting in my state because I grew up doing it in the Bay and it saved me time then and it would save me time now.

 

[DataDan]

One of the underlying issues here is trying to create some way that splitting is the "safest" thing to do. Filtering, maybe. Splitting? Never.

You're gonna have to define terms here, Crash. I don't know the difference between splitting and filtering. And don't even get me started on lane-sharing. :rant

 

[CaptCrash]

Had to turn up my hearing aid...

Splitting is riding alongside and between moving vehicles.

Filtering is moving between vehicles not in motion, as in at a stoplight.

 

[ElectricPrunes]

@ CaptCrash, speak for yourself. If I actually thought lanesplitting was more dangerous I wouldn't do it. I ride slow and keep it down on the straights always.

@Enchanter, Whenever you look into your mirrors, whether it be on a bike or in a car, try to distinguish every light you see from every other. In traffic it's hard to determine what two sets of headlights go to which vehicle. When there's a motorcycle with a distinctly different color of headlamp, even just one of those cool-white colors, its much easier to point out the bikes in a sea of warm-white halogens.

Enchanter, like I said, nobody is going to change lanes if they CANT determine how fast a bike is moving. They arent just going to say screw it and change in front of you. Either they see you and they stopped or they didn't see you at all.

 

[Enchanter]

@Enchanter, Whenever you look into your mirrors, whether it be on a bike or in a car, try to distinguish every light you see from every other. In traffic it's hard to determine what two sets of headlights go to which vehicle. When there's a motorcycle with a distinctly different color of headlamp, even just one of those cool-white colors, its much easier to point out the bikes in a sea of warm-white halogens.

The viewer/car driver only thinks it's a motorcycle if they already associate green headlights with a motorcycle. If they don't, and I'm going to bet 100% of car drivers don't think green=motorcycle, your green headlights don't mean anything.

Enchanter, like I said, nobody is going to change lanes if they CANT determine how fast a bike is moving.

Bull-fucking-shit. That is pure fantasy. Why do crashes happen if everyone does the right thing all the time? Easy, they don't.

They arent just going to say screw it and change in front of you. Either they see you and they stopped or they didn't see you at all.

You fail to consider the possibility of misinterpreting / underestimating the speed of the motorcycle.

PS: if a car doesn't see you, as you pass it less than a foot away, do you have a higher chance of avoiding it when you are a foot away, or when you are 9ft away?

Like I already said, you are placing way too much faith in other drivers doing the right thing. BARF is populated with many RIP threads where the other vehicle didn't do the right thing.

You have more (everything) to loose by assuming people will do the right thing. You have nothing to loose by riding in a more defensive manner by creating more time and space between you and the hazard.

I'm out.

 

[CaptCrash]

@ CaptCrash, speak for yourself. If I actually thought lanesplitting was more dangerous I wouldn't do it. I ride slow and keep it down on the straights always.

That's OK. When in the Bay on a bike I do it because, it saves scads of time and it's fun.

The safety calculation is simple, which is safer:

Traveling with traffic at 20 mph or splitting through traffic at 30?

Mind you, I am not anti-splitting, it should be allowed in all states. The guidelines as far as I can see never speak to increased safety BY splitting only WHILE splitting.

 

[Surj]

In traffic it's hard to determine what two sets of headlights go to which vehicle. When there's a motorcycle with a distinctly different color of headlamp, even just one of those cool-white colors, its much easier to point out the bikes in a sea of warm-white halogens.

The viewer/car driver only thinks it's a motorcycle if they already associate green headlights with a motorcycle. If they don't, and I'm going to bet 100% of car drivers don't think green=motorcycle, your green headlights don't mean anything.

I know of a guy who claims that putting a yellow cover on his headlight resulted in significantly more awareness of him in traffic - I guess measured by fewer cars pulling in front of him? But yeah, folks (at least in the US) don't think of (any) colored headlight as "hey, that's a bike."

I think you're working in the right direction on this, though - trying to stand out in the crowd. I'd recommend something like a 'light triangle' using Skene Photon Blasters (there's something to the "conspicuity flicker" - I have their P3 taillights) or something really bright like Clearwaters. This kind of setup may help really you get noticed more.

Enchanter, like I said, nobody is going to change lanes if they CANT determine how fast a bike is moving. They arent just going to say screw it and change in front of you. Either they see you and they stopped or they didn't see you at all.

Bull-fucking-shit. That is pure fantasy. Why do crashes happen if everyone does the right thing all the time? Easy, they don't.

You fail to consider the possibility of misinterpreting / underestimating the speed of the motorcycle.

PS: if a car doesn't see you, as you pass it less than a foot away, do you have a higher chance of avoiding it when you are a foot away, or when you are 9ft away?

Like I already said, you are placing way too much faith in other drivers doing the right thing. BARF is populated with many RIP threads where the other vehicle didn't do the right thing.

Like Enchanter says, you're putting way too much faith in other drivers. There's a guy on another forum that says "Mirrors can tell you 'no,' not 'yes' - but most drivers (if they check at all) use mirrors as a 'yes' device. Quick scan, go. No head turn, and not much consideration of what they saw in the mirror.

You'll hear a lot of folks 'round here talking about how they ride under the assumption that everyone is trying to kill them. I don't subscribe to that, exactly - but I do think that damn near everyone on the streets are not paying enough attention and focusing on the wrong things, and the end result is almost the same. I think you'd do well - as in, live longer - if you move your thinking a little more in this direction.

 

[CaptCrash]

Enchanter, like I said, nobody is going to change lanes if they CANT determine how fast a bike is moving. They arent just going to say screw it and change in front of you. Either they see you and they stopped or they didn't see you at all.

Actually the problem is they aren't looking for you, they are looking for a gap to exploit. That's why part of the guidelines are directed at drivers.

 

[ElectricPrunes]

@Captain, the safest you'll ever be, in a car or a bike, is when you travel slightly faster than traffic. Splitting lanes only saves you a few minutes unless it's gridlocked from an accident. If you actually thought it was dangerous, but you're willing to sit through a commercial break, i doubt you'd still do it. My concern from sitting in traffic is that I cant see the traffic ahead because its blocked by the car ahead. It also means traffic also can't see me. My profile from the rear is also pencil-thin with a dinky red light and a couple dinky reflector strips strewn across my gear. The safest place for me is to be BESIDE the flow of traffic rather than in it, and, moving at a slightly faster clip. That way I cant get brake checked, cars have more space to brake without worrying about hitting me. By doing this Im alleviating the lion's share of car and bike collisions.

@Monkey, you get it. It's all about identifying you as NOT a car. Has nothing to do with green headlamps, except they fit my zombie bike and cars GTFO of the way without me asking them to. I'm actually in the market for a night-time-touring-canyon floodlight and was thinking about mounting them down low. Thanks for the links.

@Enchanter, i have no idea where you find nine feet of space between cars while lane splitting. What I'm talking about his how you divide up the 3-5 feet you get between cars. Do you keep the same distance on both sides? Do you read the movement of the cars and ride closer to the one you trust more? If there's a quick gap, is it best to fly into that gap and then fly out of it, or do you maintain visibility down the the corridor, because its not just about being seen, it's about maintaining your own field of vision too. Thats the scenario im speaking of. I dont rely on cars to do anything except what all cars do. People say things like "there's a rhythm to traffic." Traffic is predictable. The only time I've ever been hit my last thought before going unconscious was, "saw that coming."

Ok i'm bored with this. I'm just repeating what Ive already said. If I meet any of you on group rides we should talk about this. I can probably show you what I mean a lot better than in writing.

 

[CaptCrash]

EP, no worries. Bottom line is that every safety organization in the US tells instructors to say the exact same thing about splitting. "It's legal in California if done in a safe and prudent manner" after that you shut up and walk away.

I imagine that's a reasonable thing to do in this situation.

 

[ElectricPrunes]

Actually my CHP officer/MSF instructor told me everything I'm telling you.

 

[CaptCrash]

In class or after?

 

[ElectricPrunes]

During class. The few lessons I really had hardwired into me were:
1. Turn by pushing with your inside hand
2. Use the throttle for balance around tight turns
3. Drivers are taught to drive on the defensive. Riders are taught to ride on the offensive. Maximize your space between cars. Take up as many lanes as possible. Ride faster than traffic to keep your problems ahead of you. Maximize your field of view at all times; If you can't see them they cant see you. Split lanes when needed to ride ahead of traffic. Dont go faster than 10 above the flow of traffic. Stay in between lanes in first gear to avoid rear enders at intersections.