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Lane Splitting SB506 [mega merge]

To be clear, the only time I do it is when I'm in a parking lot on the freeway, or theres inclement weather coming. I just beat a gnarly hailstorm in east dallas last week, due to splitting.
 
Scoflaws abound in this thread and forum, and no one has been viscously attacked by a motorist.. Yet many here continue down the path that if the law is changed to make lane sharing legal, they would not, and be afraid for their lives that motorist will attack them.

:lol: thank you for the giggle tonight, it was truly needed. I don't know what it is like to be afraid of life to the point that you willing to live a self restricted or sheltered existence, and i hope I never do..
Enjoy life as you see fit, no one gets out alive in any case.

Cheers, all... I truly hope all tonight enjoy an evening in there own way with people that love and respect them..

Enjoy.
 
As a runner who often gets passed by cars going 50, 60, 70 mph on rural roads I can really sympathize with that. On the other hand I'd like to see a law with draconian punishment for bicyclists that are lane splitting and blocking traffic. It seems that every time I'm near Rice I work to pass someone on a bicycle only to have them lane split when I stop at the next red light. Inevitably they run the light and get in the way again.

Not only to run the light again but hold you up between that light and the next yet again!
 
I will definitely be splitting lanes when I am confident that most people in the state are familiar with the law. Until then i have been getting around just fine without such a law for the last 23 years. :-) If I were visiting LA I would not be worried. Cagers there is very familiar with lane splitting.

I recently read about a study which says California motorists don't know it is legal in CA, didn't like it when they found out, and many had intentionally tried to block off an approaching motorcycle. Perception is a big part of "safety."
 
California motorists don't know it is legal in CA,

This was discussed in the past, but it is NOT legal in California, it is just NOT illegal, so basically it is tolerated. It has been in wide use and therefore accepted.
 
I recently read about a study which says California motorists don't know it is legal in CA, didn't like it when they found out, and many had intentionally tried to block off an approaching motorcycle. Perception is a big part of "safety."

You might want to post that article. The percentages were pretty low on folks who actually tried to block motorcyclists. Something like 7 percent.
 
You might want to post that article. The percentages were pretty low on folks who actually tried to block motorcyclists. Something like 7 percent.

Cool - so as long as I only lane split past 93 people at a time, I shouldn't have a problem, right?
 
:giveup:
The same folks that would try and block a motorcycle from lane sharing are the same ones that cut you off now, turn in front of you NOW, move in to and SHARE a lane YOU are in NOW, because they want to move left, right, turn, or create a lane that does not exist.

The faux angst some dream up about the dangers of lane sharing is no different then the false "dangers" anti gunners dream up, or any other "anti" anything group that recites BS they have been told, but never learned.. was never true, and does not exist in reality.
 
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I do wish that it were legal, and there were not cops posted at every intersection in Addison last night after Kaboom town. Stuck in traffic for an hour and a half for a 30 minute fireworks show.

I did get fed up and team up with a squid, and we started splitting. We would get past an intersection, and split till close to the next one and then blend back in :)
 
:giveup:
The same folks that would try and block a motorcycle from lane sharing are the same ones that cut you off now, turn in front of you NOW, move in to and SHARE a lane YOU are in NOW, because they want to move left, right, turn, or create a lane that does not exist.

I always thought that about the people dying to lane split.
 
You might want to post that article. The percentages were pretty low on folks who actually tried to block motorcyclists. Something like 7 percent.

The 7% are the ones that worry me. If it's legal I doubt that I would do it anyway. I value my lower limbs too much.
 
You might want to post that article. The percentages were pretty low on folks who actually tried to block motorcyclists. Something like 7 percent.

7% is a LOT. That means every 14 cars or so, you can expect someone to try to block you. Or alternately, every 7 car-lengths in stopped traffic (since you have a car on each side).
 
I just wish it was legal so the folks that wanted to do it, could. And the folks that don't want to, don't have to.

Sort of like owning a gun. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that anyone is forcing anyone else to own firearms.
 
I just wish it was legal so the folks that wanted to do it, could. And the folks that don't want to, don't have to.

Sort of like owning a gun. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that anyone is forcing anyone else to own firearms.

I agree completely. If it was legal my beat up old KLR would quickly become a lane splitting machine! :lol2:
 
I just wish it was legal so the folks that wanted to do it, could. And the folks that don't want to, don't have to.

Sort of like owning a gun. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that anyone is forcing anyone else to own firearms.

Great post Bill! :clap:

I took this thread as one to get the bill passed, not about your preference or whether you would lane split or not. Let's get it passed THAN the ones who feel a need to voice their preference can load up that thread.
 
7% is a LOT. That means every 14 cars or so, you can expect someone to try to block you. Or alternately, every 7 car-lengths in stopped traffic (since you have a car on each side).


I seriously doubt it is 7% at least not in my experience. I used to split the I35W parking lot everyday on the way to work in FW from Keller. I would pass hundreds of cars and somebody would attempt to block me once or twice a month. It was almost always rednecks in big pickups, and sometimes semi's, never cars, and you could always see it coming in plenty of time, I would just go around the other side or take the shoulder. Most people are too preoccupied to even notice until you are well past them. I have since moved to Granbury, and have no need for splitting anymore.:rider: Law or no law I will split if I get caught in a traffic jam, especially in the summer heat! But it sure would be nicer if the law was on my side, one less thing to worry about. In my car, I can just sit in the A/C and turn up the tunes.
 
I got caught in traffic leaving work the other day and traffic was dead stopped on the east loop 820 just south of I-30 all the way to I-20 due to a wreck. I went up the shoulder a bit until i got to an exit, then went the back roads home. I wont be doing that anymore as i had just put a new tire on the back of my bike and that was the first time i had ridden it and got a big nail right in the center.... Still got the nubs on the tire so i think ill patch it. Really wish they would run those street sweepers up the shoulder of the hwy to get rid of debri, nails, and such.
 
I got caught in traffic leaving work the other day and traffic was dead stopped on the east loop 820 just south of I-30 all the way to I-20 due to a wreck. I went up the shoulder a bit until i got to an exit, then went the back roads home. I wont be doing that anymore as i had just put a new tire on the back of my bike and that was the first time i had ridden it and got a big nail right in the center.... Still got the nubs on the tire so i think ill patch it. Really wish they would run those street sweepers up the shoulder of the hwy to get rid of debri, nails, and such.

Yeah shoulders can be dangerous, the only exception being, left shoulder I35W northbound between I820 and basswood blvd, it gets a lot of car traffic, (shoulder being 2 lanes wide) which keeps it pretty clean.
 
Yeah shoulders can be dangerous, the only exception being, left shoulder I35W northbound between I820 and basswood blvd, it gets a lot of car traffic, (shoulder being 2 lanes wide) which keeps it pretty clean.

Yeah, i know that shoulder well. Its such a long one, and the lane ends which is why the traffice is as bad as it is in the first place...:shrug:
 
Now that I live in Malaysia, lane splitting is the norm. I did it in Texas too whenever traffic was stopped. Safer here or there? If you have ever seen traffic in southeast Asia, there's a lot more things that make it unsafe than the lane splitting. All traffic laws here are more of suggestions than laws. This includes red lights, stop signs, etc. Yet, somehow it seems to work. Everyone drives very aware out of necessity. You never see anyone on the phone in a moving vehicle, for instance. A lot of give and take also. No territorial space protecting. People give way and everything just kind of flows together. A very different driving/riding experience. Not better, not worse just different. Appears like chaos, but it works.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2
 
That's awesome, and I'm with you, however, not everyone agrees.

I do it now, when traffic is stopped, or almost stopped, in San Antonio. I'll just plead ignorance if pulled over, but in all reality, getting pulled over in that traffic is unlikely. Not even cops in their cars with lights all-a-flashing will get through traffic as fast as I will.

Mostly, I just don't want to sit in the heat, and as soon as people start moving, I get "back in line" as it were.

We need it. Period.

I've also read several differing viewpoints on it. Basically, it's not specifically illegal - it's just not specifically legal. Of course, what is and isn't legal varies from cop to cop.
 
Is all reminds me of Sesame Street; "One of these things is not like the other". If you don't stick out or otherwise go relatively unnoticed, the LEO generally leave you alone. If myself or the machine is in danger of over-heating I'll use lane splitting to take evasive action. It's not that I've not been stopped for lane splitting, I've just been able to provide a rational explanation.
 
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