WA-support lane sharing

[OfficerImpersonator]

I'll be sending an email to my State Representative who is a co-sponsor of the legislation and ask him what he thinks allowing lane splitting will accomplish. I do note that he (Rep. Al O'Brien) is a retired Seattle Police Dept. sergeant. Rep. Lovick (another co-sponsor) recently retired as a Trooper with the Washington State Patrol.

I bet if Trooper Lovick pulled me over for lane splitting, he'd have given me a lecture about how dangerous it is.

 

[OfficerImpersonator]

Here is the text of the email I just sent to my state representative, one of the co-sponsors to Washington State's pending "lane splitting" legislation:

Rep. O'Brien,

I just read a posting on the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America forum discussing HB 2160. As a daily, year-round motorcycle rider, I'm curious as to why you - a former police officer - and Rep. Lovick - a former State Trooper - think motorcycle "lane splitting" is a good idea.

I'll never do it, as I can't trust cars to remain in their lanes. Just this past week, I had to fend off a merging car with the sole of my boot. I'm interested in hearing your rationale as to how allowing the practice of lane splitting will improve traffic safety for motorcyclists and car drivers alike.

If you really want to make our highways safer for motorcycles, I suggest you instruct DOT to stop installing manhole covers in the middle of the HOV lanes. Next time you drive the southbound I-5 HOV lane through the Northgate area, you'll see what I mean. Imagine riding a motorcycle in the pre-dawn rain through the dangerous entrance to the Express Lanes while simultaneously trying to avoid the myriad metal plates, grates and manhole covers that litter the HOV lane through the area.

Also, motorcycles are especially vulnerable to pavement seams, places where lane striping has been sandblasted or ground away leaving a channel, and ruts left by studded tires. That the State of Washington continues to allow the use of studded tires regardless of the overwhelming evidence out there that studded tires provide no improvement in traction or performance on snow and decreased traction and performance on bare or wet pavement.

How many millions of dollars in damage to pavement are caused each year by studded tires? When I worked for the Legislature many years ago, the figure provided by WSDOT was $84 million a year.

How many accidents are caused each year by the puddles that pool in these ruts, or by the handling difficulties faced by motorists and motorcyclists as they try to negotiate these ruts?

If you want to improve motorcycle safety in Washington State, forget permitting lane splitting and instead make the roads themselves safer for both motorcycles and four wheeled vehicles.

I do look forward to hearing why you support HB 2160.

Thank you

 

[darrylri]

Sheesh, what's the problem?

California's experience is that lane splitting isn't more dangerous. Not only that, but "filtering" is a widespread practice outside of the US. There is certainly a vaild case to be made that it's not particularly dangerous, and can improve traffic flow and reduce gridlock.

If you personally don't want to do it, that's fine, that's certainly your decision to make. But why keep everyone else down because you don't feel that it's safe for you?

 

[OfficerImpersonator]

Sheesh, what's the problem?

California's experience is that lane splitting isn't more dangerous. Not only that, but "filtering" is a widespread practice outside of the US. There is certainly a vaild case to be made that it's not particularly dangerous, and can improve traffic flow and reduce gridlock.

If you personally don't want to do it, that's fine, that's certainly your decision to make. But why keep everyone else down because you don't feel that it's safe for you?

How is riding in the four foot wide space between two moving cars EVER safe?

Don't cars change lanes? Don't drivers throw burning cigarettes, cold coffee, and other garbage out their windows all the time? If traffic is stopped, don't drivers open their doors - particularly in hot weather situations?

There are so many other issues that need to be addressed before we add lane splitting to the long list of things that confuse motorists and thus cause problems for motorcyclists. I've ridden in cars when passed by lane splitters (illegal lane splitters here in WA, legal lane splitters in CA) and the universal response of the drivers was that the motorcyclists were stupid/moronic/suicidal for riding between two lanes of cars.

Our main problem with cars is conspicuously and visibility. Allowing lane splitting won't improve our visibility. It will antagonize motorists and cause them to try to squeeze the space available to the lane splitting motorcyclist. Permitting lane splitting won't make my ride any safer.

Until you can predict with complete reliability the behavior of car drivers, lane splitting should remain prohibited.

 

[darrylri]

How is riding in the four foot wide space between two moving cars EVER safe?

You're not answering my question, you're going off again on why it's not safe for you. There aren't any stats that show it to be more dangerous that I've seen.

Managing lane splitting risk is like the rest of managing risk in motorcycling. You try to understand what's a dangerous situation and what's not so dangerous.

 

[darrylri]

Until you can predict with complete reliability the behavior of car drivers, lane splitting should remain prohibited.

Using this definition, motorcycle riding in general should be prohibited. In fact, one should probably stay at home in bed, and certainly NEVER go into their bathroom.

 

[OfficerImpersonator]

You're not answering my question, you're going off again on why it's not safe for you. There aren't any stats that show it to be more dangerous that I've seen.

Managing lane splitting risk is like the rest of managing risk in motorcycling. You try to understand what's a dangerous situation and what's not so dangerous.

Of course it's all about managing risk and making smart decisions. In this case, I think it's the smart decision to not further aggravate already cranky drivers by engaging in a process I think is universally reviled by automobile drivers.

When you pass a car, do you spit on the windshield as you ride by? My observations of drivers passed by riders lane splitting is that you might as well have spit on their windshield. The practice is viewed by the general public as unsafe, dangerous to the rider, and potentially damaging to the car.

We can enact all the motorcycle-specific rules we're able to ram through our legislatures, but if the end result of those laws are antagonized drivers, what have we accomplished?

Our goal should be to educate drivers about motorcyclists, encourage them to share the roads, and ensure that us motorcyclists follow all traffic rules and regulations. Feel free to make your own evaluation regarding your own riding environment. My assessment of the traffic, driver attitudes and other variables here in Western Washington is that allowing lane splitting would be a step backwards in the push to encourage harmony between cars and motorcycles.

 

[MOTOR31]

You're not getting the point. It really isn't a safety issue at all. It's merely an issue designed to give motorcycles more "rights" than a cage and to enhance the enjoyment or convenience of the motorcyclist. Rather than behave according to the same rules designed for all traffic, motorcyclists will now be able to violate the lane space of a cage with no corresponding privelege to the cager.

The vehicles now occupy the lane with the understanding that the vehicle owns the lane from divider to divider. Now with this law change the motorcycle will own the lane from divider to divider and the cage will be allowed to have part of their lane. The cage will not be allowed to use the full lane as part must then be left for the passage of motorcyclists. Of course changing lanes for a cage will certainly be more interesting. A collision between a motorcycle and a cage will be interesting as well as if the impact occurs during the time of passing in the cagers lane, who failed to yield to whom? Normally it would be the biker's fault for passing a vehicle in the same lane. Since the biker will be allowed to pass in the same lane, fault will be up to significant dispute.

Did the bike pass at an inoportune time or did the cage simply fail to yield to a motorcyclist occupying the cagers lane?

At which point does the right of way shift from one vehicle to the other? What obligation, if any, will either vehicle have to notify the other that a passing situation is going to occur?

Will cagers be required to drive to the left or right side of the lane? That's important as the drivers of both styles of vehicles will need to know which side is yielded to the bike or cage in the case of passing in the same lane. How close will the cage be required to travel to either lane divider?

Yes indeed, the traffic situation will certinly be changed for the better by this kind of law change.

 

[OfficerImpersonator]

I guess I'm not doing a very good job of communicating my concerns with this legislation.

Here in Washington State we have stupid drivers. Last spring the wife and I were in our car and were rear-ended by a driver who: A. Did not speak English. B. Did not have insurance. C. Claimed she didn't know who owned the car. D. Was in the HOV lane illegally. We were stopped in stop and go traffic. I saw her coming. She was looking down (for a cigarette lighter, it turns out) and never saw us stopped. The last thing I saw was the top of her head instantly obscured by the deployment of her airbag. Luckily the airbag gave her a nice fat lip. It cost her her a $800 ticket (but only because I was lobbying the trooper to write her a ticket for all her transgressions). It cost me my $500 deductible.

I think many drivers here in Washington are equally stupid. I think motorcycles passing between the lanes will startle, surprise and anger these stupid drivers. I think this will manifest itself into incidents of road rage. Who looses the road rage war - the car or the motorcycle?

If this was a long-standing tradition here on the roads of Washington State, then perhaps our stupid drivers would understand that occassionally motorcycles will pass between you and the vehicle in the lane alongside. But this would be a completely new phenomenon to Washington drivers, and I think it would freak them out.

If we pass new motorcycle specific traffic legislation here in Washington, I can guarantee you the local media won't be leading the 5:00 news with a story on how drivers can now expect to see lane splitting. The drivers will remain ignorant of the change, and won't realize it until they make an unsignaled lane change and take out a rider.

When it comes to traffic laws and altering the dynamic between cars and bikes, it's the riders who always loose.

Sure, I can choose to not lane split if I so choose, but I'm also advocating to maintaining the status quo for the benefit of all riders who don't want to antagonize drivers.

 

[darrylri]

Of course it's all about managing risk and making smart decisions. In this case, I think it's the smart decision to not further aggravate already cranky drivers by engaging in a process I think is universally reviled by automobile drivers.

As Brian Curry says, where's your data? You have concistently stated your opinion as if it were fact. You simply don't know it as a fact, but hold it dear as an opinion. Show some data.

When you pass a car, do you spit on the windshield as you ride by? My observations of drivers passed by riders lane splitting is that you might as well have spit on their windshield. The practice is viewed by the general public as unsafe, dangerous to the rider, and potentially damaging to the car.

Data please? Because my experience here in California, where it has always been legal, is that most drivers are indifferent to judiciously conducted lane splitting. Many will pull over a bit to make room. A few try to squeeze you in. When I encounter someone like that, I wait for an opportunity to get around the roadblock.

So now, we have duelling anecdotes.

 

[darrylri]

You're not getting the point. It really isn't a safety issue at all. It's merely an issue designed to give motorcycles more "rights" than a cage and to enhance the enjoyment or convenience of the motorcyclist. Rather than behave according to the same rules designed for all traffic, motorcyclists will now be able to violate the lane space of a cage with no corresponding privelege to the cager.

I gather from your previous posts and your avatar that you are a former motor officer. Therefore, I would expect you to know the laws better. We make special rules for different vehicles all the time. There's nothing new about it. We allow vehicles with 2 or 3 people in them to use a special lane. We require certain vehicles (trucks) or those towing trailers to stay in certain lanes and possibly follow different speed limits.

And, you're ignoring the experience of decades of lane splitting in California, and many other parts of the world. It can work, the various issues surrounding it can be identified and clarified.

 

[darrylri]

I guess I'm not doing a very good job of communicating my concerns with this legislation.

Not to me, not so far.

Here in Washington State we have stupid drivers. Last spring the wife and I were in our car and were rear-ended by a driver who: A. Did not speak English. B. Did not have insurance. C. Claimed she didn't know who owned the car. D. Was in the HOV lane illegally. We were stopped in stop and go traffic. I saw her coming. She was looking down (for a cigarette lighter, it turns out) and never saw us stopped. The last thing I saw was the top of her head instantly obscured by the deployment of her airbag. Luckily the airbag gave her a nice fat lip. It cost her her a $800 ticket (but only because I was lobbying the trooper to write her a ticket for all her transgressions). It cost me my $500 deductible.

Are you saying that Washington state has a lock on stupid drivers and illegal aliens? Are you actually claiming that you've got more of each than California? Seriously? If so, you should be advocating for more Californians moving to Washington! Apparently, it will improve the driving in both states!

If this was a long-standing tradition here on the roads of Washington State, then perhaps our stupid drivers would understand that occassionally motorcycles will pass between you and the vehicle in the lane alongside. But this would be a completely new phenomenon to Washington drivers, and I think it would freak them out.

I would expect the Washington motorcycle groups, not to mention the news media, to publicize this. I think word would get around rather quickly.

Also, don't think for an instant that all Californians signal their lane changes (or even necessarily glance in their mirrors). Just as in any other traffic situation, you as a motorcyclist had better be riding for everyone around you, as well as yourself!

 

[darrylri]

If we pass new motorcycle specific traffic legislation here in Washington, I can guarantee you the local media won't be leading the 5:00 news with a story on how drivers can now expect to see lane splitting. The drivers will remain ignorant of the change, and won't realize it until they make an unsignaled lane change and take out a rider.

I'm sorry, I misread this paragraph in my last reply, and I want to address it as you stated it.

I think you're wrong about the news not talking about this new law, should it be enacted. It will be described as another god-forsaken import from California. There may well be a cry to get rid of it immediately, on that basis alone.

(I lived in Seattle for 8 years and understand the loathing the PNW has for all the southern emmigrants! ;-)

One thing that makes lane splitting better understood here in California is that the CHP and the local police do it. It only takes one news story about how a driver got a ticket for squeezing off an officer on the news for everyone to get the point that this is legal.

 

[MOTOR31]

I gather from your previous posts and your avatar that you are a former motor officer. Therefore, I would expect you to know the laws better. We make special rules for different vehicles all the time. There's nothing new about it. We allow vehicles with 2 or 3 people in them to use a special lane. We require certain vehicles (trucks) or those towing trailers to stay in certain lanes and possibly follow different speed limits.

And, you're ignoring the experience of decades of lane splitting in California, and many other parts of the world. It can work, the various issues surrounding it can be identified and clarified.

Yes I am retired LEO, no surprise there I certainly have made no secret of it.

Please tell me, what law we have allows multiple vehicles in the same lane simultaneously. In AZ. there is only one and it applies only to Police Motorcycle Officers for side by side riding and for required enforcement purposes. It also curiously does not excuse the Officer from the repercussions if there is a collision. If there is any indication of negligent action on the part of the Officer there will be sanctions.

Frankly the California experiance has bled over the state line. I have dealt with lane splitting in my job both as enforcement duties required and in dealing with Californians who assumed it was the same in AZ..

My experiance has been it's a bad idea. That's based on what I observed while performing that particular maneuver and investigating the collisions that happened when the cage driver was startled in the process of being passed in his lane.

I noticed that you ignored all the other situations I brought up. They are very real world concerns. There will be rather interesting bits of litigation over it.

 

[darrylri]

Please tell me, what law we have allows multiple vehicles in the same lane simultaneously. In AZ. there is only one and it applies only to Police Motorcycle Officers for side by side riding.

If you already had this kind of law in AZ, then we wouldn't be discussing it now. But this kind of law does exist in other places, and people seem to be able to deal with it.

My experiance has been it's a bad idea. That's based on what I observed while performing that particular maneuver and investigating the collisions that happened when the cage driver was startled in the process of being passed in his lane.

But it's illegal right now, and the drivers in AZ (those that aren't California expats) aren't aware of it. That's not the same situation that would obtain if it were legal in AZ. Especially not if the AZ LEOs were practicing it.

I noticed that you ignored all the other situations I brought up. They are very real world concerns. There will be rather interesting bits of litigation over it.

Yes, they are real world concerns, but do you believe that they've never been addressed in California? They are all handled by the law as a matter of routine.

In California, if you run into someone while lane splitting, it's pretty much the same thing as running into someone from behind. Unless you have some pretty good witnesses, you're at fault.

 

[OfficerImpersonator]

Yes I am retired LEO, no surprise there I certainly have made no secret of it.

Please tell me, what law we have allows multiple vehicles in the same lane simultaneously. In AZ. there is only one and it applies only to Police Motorcycle Officers for side by side riding and for required enforcement purposes. It also curiously does not excuse the Officer from the repercussions if there is a collision. If there is any indication of negligent action on the part of the Officer there will be sanctions.

Frankly the California experiance has bled over the state line. I have dealt with lane splitting in my job both as enforcement duties required and in dealing with Californians who assumed it was the same in AZ..

My experiance has been it's a bad idea. That's based on what I observed while performing that particular maneuver and investigating the collisions that happened when the cage driver was startled in the process of being passed in his lane.

I noticed that you ignored all the other situations I brought up. They are very real world concerns. There will be rather interesting bits of litigation over it.

I am really looking forward to reading the response I'll get from my local State Representative. As mentioned earlier, he's a retired Seattle Police Department sergeant. One of the other co-sponsors is a retired State Trooper. I'm really curious to see how he'll describe his support for this measure to me. As Motorman31 says above, it causes more problems than it fixes.

Here in Washington State, motorcyclists already have access to the HOV lane. If the HOV lane isn't fast enough for the motorcyclist, then the motorcyclist either needs to leave earlier or move closer to their destination.

EVERY accident I've ever witnessed was due either to driver inattention or driver in too much of a hurry. Neither one of these situations is improved with allowing lane splitting.

I've had arguments with uneducated drivers about the effectiveness of stoplights on freeway on ramps (ramp metering) that only allow one car every so many seconds to enter the freeway from a given on ramp. Invariably, the only argument they make is that the ramp meter delays them 30 seconds every morning, and those 30 seconds add up over years of commuting.

I think the same arguments are being used to support lane splitting. As far as I can tell, the only argument for allowing lane splitting is that it permits motorcycles to go faster than cars in heavy traffic. Big deal. Like I said earlier, leave earlier or move closer. Speed is not the only criteria that matters. Like we say in mountaineering, the summit is optional. Returning to the parking lot is mandatory.

Isn't arriving at the destination more important than getting there five minutes faster with lane splitting?

The best lame argument I've read so far is "my airhead will overheat unless I lane split". Whaaaa! So go get a water-cooled bike

 

[MOTOR31]

If you already had this kind of law in AZ, then we wouldn't be discussing it now. But this kind of law does exist in other places, and people seem to be able to deal with it.

Because stupidity is present elsewhere does not mean it should be allowed other places either. What you posted is not an argument or justification nor is it any indication that it's safe to pass vehicles in the same lane within inches of the other vehicle.

But it's illegal right now, and the drivers in AZ (those that aren't California expats) aren't aware of it. That's not the same situation that would obtain if it were legal in AZ. Especially not if the AZ LEOs were practicing it.

Yes it IS illegal, but that is not what makes it unsafe. It's illegal because it is unsafe to be passing another vehicle in tight quarters, particularly when there is no means of warning the vehicle being passed.

Yes, they are real world concerns, but do you believe that they've never been addressed in California? They are all handled by the law as a matter of routine.

So you say it's handled. How is it handled? What law states the bike has the right of way at a specific point of time that eliminates the cagers right to the entire lane? What law specifies the liability for the act and when the bike is allowed to pass and the cage is required to avoid the bike? Remember you are not adding additional space, you are requring other drivers to allow you their lane.

In California, if you run into someone while lane splitting, it's pretty much the same thing as running into someone from behind. Unless you have some pretty good witnesses, you're at fault.

Really, then if that is the case there is no right to the lane is there. Why should a cage allow you to pass? It is their lane from divider to divider, or is it? Why shouldn't a cager be allowed the same privelidge of passing bikes to get to the front of the line particularly if they think the bike is going to turn anyhow?

This whole thing is just an attempt to gain time and be exempt rom following normal traffic flow. If it takes a long time to get to your destination start earlier. You aren't going to win friends among the cages and it certainly doesn't do anything to make traffic safer.

 

[kbasa]

With 30 years of riding experience living elsewhere in the country and 7 years here in the Bay Area, I can assure you that lane splitting, as practiced in California, is a minor miracle. When traffic is blocked solid, it's nice to be able to slide up between the cars and get where you're going. This is common practice in virtually every other country in the world and, in Europe, is known as "filtering".

The biggest problem states will have with implementation is going to be cultural. There are still folks in CA that don't know it's legal.

As far as lane ownership, motorcycles are specifically allowed to share lanes in California specifically because there is no law prohibiting it. This situation has stayed this way because the CHP has lobbied for it to remain so.

If you don't want to do it, that's fine. But why hold back those of us that view lane splitting as yet another increase in efficiency for motorcycles? I truly believe that because of lane splitting motorcycles enjoy huge popularity in California. Because of that, we have free passage during commute hours on bridges, have dedicated metered parking in our cities and enjoy a greater level of respect and awareness than any other place in the United States.

If you ask me, lane splitting is the one item that can put motorcycles on equal footing with cars.

 

[OfficerImpersonator]

...The biggest problem states will have with implementation is going to be cultural. There are still folks in CA that don't know it's legal.


If you don't want to do it, that's fine. But why hold back those of us that view lane splitting as yet another increase in efficiency for motorcycles? I truly believe that because of lane splitting motorcycles enjoy huge popularity in California. Because of that, we have free passage during commute hours on bridges, have dedicated metered parking in our cities and enjoy a greater level of respect and awareness than any other place in the United States.

If you ask me, lane splitting is the one item that can put motorcycles on equal footing with cars.

I've always said the two problems are lack of space between vehicles to safely "split lanes" and ignorance of motorcyclists in general and lane splitting specifically by cage drivers.

As I was riding home this afternoon, through downtown Seattle, north on I-5, rush hour traffic, I kept looking for situations where lane splitting would be advantageous. Not once did I experience a situation where it would have been safe, in my opinion, to ride between stopped or very slow lanes of traffic.

Ignorance by cage drivers results in how many dead or injured motorcyclists each year? We should increase that number by how many because it's so important for us to get there "X" minutes faster? I'd leave "X" minutes earlier to compensate rather than share the 10 feet with another car.

Another theory - perhaps your lanes are wider than our 1950s - 1960s era designed and built freeways?

Do you have free HOV lanes open to motorcycles, allowing you to travel at the same speed as mass transit (Express buses)?

Just wondering....

 

[testinglogin]

I actually hope this thing gets passed in WA, and then spreads. I AM of mixed feelings, however. My issues mostly revolve around jerk motorcyclists who would ride 90mph through traffic moving at 65mph weaving the whole way while doing a wheelie (giving a bad appearance to bikers). Then again, some do that stuff, now. I'd be happy with filtering at red lights and when traffic is going less than XXX mph (say 10mph). Then again, that's just what I consider within my comfort level. I've never done it.

As for public awareness, you could do things in stages. Start with making filtering at red lights legal, and make sure there are some public service announcements or something. After a while, move to allowing it on the highway. Give people a chance to become aware.