Is The Time For Lane-Splitting Coming?
Lane-splitting in Paris.
Maybe it’s like gay marriage. Maybe it’s like legal marijuana. Maybe lane-splitting is riding a new wave of public acceptability and is something we’ll soon see all over.
What? Why would I say something like that? Right now the only state in the U.S. that allows motorcyclists to filter between cars that are stopped are plodding in traffic jams is California. Where’s the wave?
How about Washington. Oregon. Tennessee.
I get emails from the American Motorcyclist Association whenever they have news they want to pass along and I was recently interested to receive one that was titled, “American Motorcyclist Association supports lane-splitting legislation in Tennessee.”
That was on a Friday.
The following Tuesday there was another email in my inbox with the title, “American Motorcyclist Association supports lane-splitting legislation in Oregon.” Not only that, that same day there was a second email in my inbox with the title, “American Motorcyclist Association supports lane-splitting legislation in Washington.”
Holy smoke! It’s looking like a movement!
Of course, if history is any predictor, all of these bills will fail. In fact, I’d bet on it. But I’m also willing to bet that within 10 years California will not be alone, and once that dam starts to give way there won’t be anything that can hold it back.
Sort of like gay marriage and legal marijuana. Those waves took years to build up but gay marriage is sweeping across the country and legal marijuana is just getting started, but with a vengeance. I don’t care what you think about either of those movements, they’re happening. Their time has come. And just maybe lane-splitting is not far behind.
I personally support lane-splitting. I’ve ridden in California and I’ve traveled to a number of countries around the world. The U.S. is one of the few where lane-splitting is not simply the norm. That photo above is something I shot in Paris. You could stand at a street corner and watch it happen again and again: The light would turn red and cars would stop. Then a motorcycle or scooter would come between the cars and take a place in front of the cars. Then more bikes and scooters would join the group. Finally the light would turn green and the two-wheelers would blast forward, leaving the four-wheelers in the dust. And then the light would turn red and the whole scene would play itself out once more.
Nobody got hurt, nobody was in any danger, everybody considered it to be perfectly normal. In the meantime, each of those scooters or motorcycles represented at least part of one car that was not on the road adding to what was already a significant traffic jam. Those drivers were benefiting from the lane-splitting.
Of course the bikers were benefiting more. They got where they were going in probably half the time it would have taken them in a car. At a significantly lower cost. And they were on bikes, for pete’s sake. What’s not to like about that?
Some day these benighted states of America may join the rest of the world. The encouraging thought is that it may come sooner than we expected.
Biker Quote for Today
Born to ride; forced to work.
Tags: lane-splitting
