Don’t Expect Us To Set The Record Straight
This CSP video actually shows a rider in the left lane passing with oncoming traffic on his left. But gosh, I haven’t seen many traffic lanes that were more than three times wider than the cars in the lane.
OK, right as I was finished writing this and about to schedule it to post in the morning my wife came to me and showed me a text she had just received from a friend saying she had just seen me on the news. As it says below, I had been told the piece with the interview I did would run on the 5 o’clock news but now it had run on the 9 o’clock news. I did not see it and have no idea what part of the interview they used. So much of what is below is out of date, but I have no idea what parts. If anyone saw the piece and can help me out I’d greatly appreciate it. Meanwhile, here’s what I had intended to post. Hey Channel 9, if you can enable me to see what you ran I’ll gladly take this post down and totally rewrite it.
I thought I really had a chance to set things right when a reporter from Denver’s Channel 9, contacted me to say he would like to talk to me about lane-filtering as it was about to go into effect. I welcomed the opportunity to speak to a larger audience to clear up the misconceptions being put out by the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) as to what lane-filtering is about. Oh silly me.
First the guy who contacted me failed to get back in touch when he said he would to set up an interview, and then about the time I figured he had just blown me off I got a text from another guy who he had apparently handed the thing to. I replied, we spoke, and we set a time for him to come to my house so we could speak.
Ethan turned out to be a super nice guy, a young kid doing an internship and just looking to get his career started. I told him I had been in the news business myself for many years and we had a nice chat about how things have changed.
I rolled one of my bikes out and he set up his gear and we basically chatted. I talked about how it’s mostly going to be the smaller bikes and scooters that do the majority of the filtering, not the big cruisers, and I also talked about how the information the Colorado State Patrol is putting out is just flat wrong. Other things, too.
In addition to the conversation, Ethan did a number of long still shots of my bike and gear, which I figured he would use with my voice playing over the image. When we were done he packed up and he promised to text me to tell me when the piece would run. Now he was heading back to the studio to do the editing and put the piece together. In the following text he said it would be on the 5 p.m. news.
Five o’clock came and I had the TV on set to Channel 9. The third or fourth item came on and it was about lane-filtering and I was nowhere to be seen. Or heard. All it was was another recital of what the CSP had put out, accompanied with a graphic video depicting the same thing as depicted on the CSP website. Which is to say, a motorcycle passing entirely within the same lane as the car it is passing.
If you ride you know this is absurd. As I told Ethan, and as any rider knows, lane-filtering or lane-sharing is done by going up the middle between two lines of cars. And you intentionally ride the lane divider line, you don’t stay entirely within the lane of the car you’re passing.
Now, if all drivers always kept their cars all the way to the right of their lane, then passing within the lane might be possible. Does that happen. Of course not. Drivers naturally try to stay pretty much in the center of their lane. But that opens up space to the right-hand car’s left side and the left-hand car’s right side. That’s where bikes go.
But apparently not according to CSP.
And I have read and re-read the legislation and nowhere in that bill does it say anything about the rider passing on the left. That would be stupid. If you were in the left lane, passing on the left would mean potentially encroaching on the oncoming traffic lane, and while you are allowed to filter only if the cars going your direction are completely stopped, those oncoming cars may not be stopped at all. Dangerous much?! No, you go up the middle between the two lanes of traffic going your direction, no matter whether that means you are passing on the left or right. People, let’s get some sanity going here!
So I texted Ethan and he said he had thought he would be doing the editing but then found that “some people at the desk had already done so.” They just wanted him to get the interview. Which they then totally ignored.
Now, Judy raised the valid point about, who are they going to believe, the official governmental source or some blogger? My reply was that if there is differing information it is their job to dig in and find out what the truth is. That’s what I would do when I was a reporter.
Anyway, not being the type of person to just let this die, my next move will be to contact the public information officer at CSP and talk directly to that person and see what comes of it. I also sent emails to the two main sponsors of the bill in the legislature pointing out to them the erroneous nature of the info the CSP is putting out. I had hoped to hear back from them by now but Judy pointed out that they’re not in session so who knows when they’ll see my emails. But I’ll try again to reach both of them.
Next update when there’s something new to tell you.
Biker Quote for Today
Riding my motorcycle is like painting memories on the road’s canvas.
