Was in very dense 5-20mph traffic after work today & had a couple bikes cruise by.<BR>One in the left shoulder, the other between lanes.<BR>Last, I'd heard, splitting still isn't legal in TX.<BR><BR><BR>Both were sportbikes, the lane splitter gave a few throttle blips as he moved through.<BR><BR>With how the lanes are, I don't think I'd be too confident on a wide cruiser.Lane splitting opinions?Hate itTolerate itEncourage itHave a bike and don't do itHave a bike and do split

I love it in CA, where it's very customary and everyone respects the custom and is cool about, cops included. It became legal in AZ about three yrs ago, but it's still pretty rare here. It's a little more dangerous to do it here, where the cagers aren't used to it. Still, when it's 115 deg. out, I'm in full riding gear and traffic is at a standstill, I need some airflow.

When I had a bike I did it and would do it again with a caveat - I'm not doing 45+ mph when traffic is nudging along at 5-10 mph. Seen it and think it is stooopid.

When I compare the front bumper of the car which some dipshit is driving while texting and then look at the read bumper of a motorcycle, lane splitting become A LOT more appealing.

I would never do it. At crash scenes or other traffic tie-ups, I would often see people open their doors and get out of their cars in an effort to see what's going on. Ditto steering onto the shoulder trying to cut a median or gain distance.
Great opportunity for me to hit an opening door or sudden maneuver onto the shoulder. Hard pass for me!

It would take a massive, expensive and years-long education program for it to be accepted in NC. I ride and even if it was deemed legal here I wouldn't do it, at least not until the general public accepted it.

Even then there's going to be that entitled person who doesn't understand the safety concept of lane splitting and shut down the lane by riding the center line or just throwing a door open.

Not legal in Nevada as far as I know, but I see it done pretty often here; even with traffic moving well on the expressway, some fool on a sport bike will want to pass a bunch of cars and zip between the lanes...

I voted “tolerate it”.
If somebody wants to roll the dice, you’re on your own. Live, die…I don’t care.

Lane splitting is illegal in Texas. It is in the Texas Transportation Code.

Sec. 545.0605. OPERATION OF MOTORCYCLES ON ROADWAY LANED FOR TRAFFIC. (a) The operator of a motorcycle:
(1) is entitled to full use of a lane and, except as otherwise provided by Subdivision (2), a motor vehicle may not be driven in a manner that deprives a motorcycle of the full use of a lane;
(2) may operate the motorcycle two abreast in a single lane with another motorcycle; and
(3) may not;
(A) operate the motorcycle more than two abreast in a single lane with other motorcycles;
(B) operate the motorcycle between lanes of traffic moving in the same direction; or
(C) pass a motor vehicle while in the same lane as the vehicle being passed.
(b) Subsection (a)(3) does not apply to a police officer in the performance of the officer's official duties.

Added by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 756 (H.B. 4122), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2023.

I wouldn’t do it if I could and couldn’t do it if I wanted. I currently ride a Honda Goldwing. I couldn’t fit between anything.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
...I'm not doing 45+ mph when traffic is nudging along at 5-10 mph. Seen it and think it is stooopid.

+1

I'm a motorcycle rider now, but I wasn't when I lived in SoCal. I remember a lane splitter passing me at high speed in bumper to bumper on the 91, and a mile later passed the aftermath. I grew up around autobody, and that looked more like a bomb explosion than a collision.

I'm a Californian and I've ridden a motorcycle since I got my permit at 15.5 years old.

Lane splitting is completely normal to me. I cannot imagine not doing it.

Sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an air-cooled twin in the summer heat without lane splitting and I think you'd have a problem.

quote:

Originally posted by KevH:
Sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an air-cooled twin in the summer heat without lane splitting and I think you'd have a problem.

There are plenty of liquid cooled twins out there and it's currently what I ride. I don't have to choose between lane splitting and overheating.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by KevH:
Sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an air-cooled twin in the summer heat without lane splitting and I think you'd have a problem.

There are plenty of liquid cooled twins out there and it's currently what I ride. I don't have to choose between lane splitting and overheating.

I too have ridden road bikes since 15 years old. When I was in the situation of an air cooled bike, I turned it off at long stops. I have lived in Texas all my life so not in California traffic, but bad enough. The law is the law. If the law allows for it and you can SAFELY do it, then go for it, but if not, then don’t. For a long time in Texas lane splitting was not spelled out in law until 2023. Before that it could be stretched to “Failure to Maintain Lane”, but now it is expressly prohibited.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by KevH:
Sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic on an air-cooled twin in the summer heat without lane splitting and I think you'd have a problem.

There are plenty of liquid cooled twins out there and it's currently what I ride. I don't have to choose between lane splitting and overheating.

Exactly. I hate more that I am sweating like crazy wearing full gear sitting at a stoplight in the Texas heat. That is why I don’t usually ride when it is over 90 degrees unless I am doing a very rural road ride.

I do it in Texas if need be. And I will explain.

For the past 20 years I don’t use my bikes for commuting purposes. They are for sport only. And only on the weekends. You couldn’t pay me to commute on a bike and I’ve got a lot of training and track days under my belt. Say it’s a weekend, and I’m riding out to the rural areas where I go cornering at, and traffic stops on a highway. I’ll lane split or use a service road to get out of it and hit the next exit. The bike heats up quick, and gets real hot. And with Texas weather you either ride in the heat or don’t ride at all. Just how it is. I’ve been in that shit when it’s 100, 102 degrees, and the highway stops. I’m in a full armored track suit. It’s perfed and it works to about 104 degrees but you need to be moving. So the above is the only time time I’d do it. You’d never catch me in rush hour type traffic on a weekday, ever. And when I do it, it’s rare. Once a year maybe? Maybe twice? I’m in first gear using the clutch lever a lot too. I’m not doing even 20 mph splitting lanes. I’m going maybe 10 mph. People are ass holes and will swerve over to block you and try to take you out so going above 10 mph is fools play. I understand if you don’t like what I’m doing. I’ll take the ticket, whoopde doo, as I’ll just take it to my ambulance chaser, it’ll get dropped and I’ll get stuck with a fine. Not the end of the world. But for someone to try and take you out with attempted vehicular manslaughter over a small 450 pound bike who can actually get through the blockade and is not hindering a car, truck, etc, one iota, just makes me smh. They pull that shit and it’s pretty easy to maneuver, use the service road or whatever, and they honk the horn, flip you off, etc. They are just doing road rage because they are stuck, and I’m not. Jealousy takes over their bird brain. Let the cops handle me and bust me. You aren’t a cop you goon.

And myself and friend were caught doing this multiple times. No ticket, no getting pulled over, nothing. On a weekend, big wreck. LEO is out on the highway but we didn’t know it, directing traffic. We are clutching it, 5 mph, 10 mph, making our way through a 1-2 mile traffic backup. We reach the front of the line where the officer is motioning this lane go, then the other lane go, etc. That type of deal. He sees both of us, points at us, as in move your ass! He literally waved us by, willingly as it’s 2 more vehicles out of the bs. I mean this has happened several times. I guess the officer sees you doing 10 mph. Sees the full suits. Understands it’s baking hot. Just waves us on. Never been ticketed for it. Never been pulled over for it either. Yeah if I or we were some jackasses lane splitting at 40 mph I’d expect to get busted, ticketed, etc. But we don’t do that shit. It’s been so bad before, we lane split, get to the next exit, and find an eatery to get a cool drink, take the helmet off, peel the top of the suit down and just wait until it clears.

So you can do illegal shit without getting in trouble. It’s all in how you do it. I’m not sitting on the bike idling in 100 degree heat on a stuck highway. I’ll take the ticket if it ever happens. I’ve also done a track day at Laguna Seca in CA, and have ridden up and down between Monterey and Big Sur on the 1 and the coast. Native Cali dudes I’ve ridden with will lane split, fast, and I refuse to do it there, even though it’s legal. I still do 10-15 mph, maybe 20 mph tops and just catch up to them later. I’m ready for some asshole to open their door. They ain’t getting me.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Prefontaine,

I won’t split lanes. Even when I lived in CA and it was legal, I wouldn’t do it. I have no issue in crawling down the shoulder.

I don’t trust drivers to be in/stay in their lanes as I'm riding up unexpectedly between them.

I'm a long time MC rider and I'm a rider coach for the state program.
I voted "hate it" because it's fundamentally unsafe in my opinion.
Now, filtering at a stop, I can see where that is safer than sitting at the back of a line of traffic but that has the potential of ticking off other drivers.
So, I position myself for escape and watch my mirrors actively.
I used to travel CA a lot and a common practice there is to blast (and I do mean blast) between the lanes. I can't even count the times I was really startled by a lane spliter and I'm a guy who is actively looking for MC traffic when I'm driving. They are just blocked from view and moving at rate of speed well above the flow of traffic so they are on you before you even know they are there. Very dangerous in my mind.

I used to do it when I lived in Calif, it was quite a rush as you really had to be on your toes. Now that I am older, not sure if I would do it today.

My Fat ass and big ol Harley Bagger won't lane split easily. It's not legal in FL anyway, did you know it's only technically legal in CA for a Motorcycle to split lanes?

So lets define that, since that will start another discussion, Lane splitting is riding between moving traffic, any traffic, Lane Filtering, that's moving between stopped or slow moving traffic.

Like Kleenex the term Lane splitting is the general term used by people, but there are two.

Bicycles- it is illegal to to split lanes on your bicycle in CA..... Go figure...


El Linko!

Lane splitting actually makes a lot of sense once you get over the pissy little bitch inside of you that can't stand to see ANYBODY get one car length in front of you for ANY reason.

People that hate lane splitting are usually the same people that don't understand the zipper merge and make it their life's mission to not only merge three miles BEFORE the merge point, but block the 2nd lane so nobody else can get past them.

Filtering to the front of a line of cars at a stoplight means I don't have to risk getting rear-end pancaked by some douche looking at their phone. If I get to the front of the line I will literally be through the intersection before the mouth-breather in the first car stops looking at Candy Crush long enough to notice the light is green.

"If I have to wait, so do you....." Fuck you. No, I don't. I can literally filter through here and get moving with ZERO impact to you. In fact, filtering and splitting creates MORE capacity and less elastic rebound.

If you think letting a bike get by you is the equivalent of somebody cutting the line at your avocado-toast food truck, you're an asshole. You don't know what your talking about. Mind your fucking business. Pilot your vehicle. Put down your fucking phone.

It's done all over the world, except here. You people that hate it literally need to get the fuck out of your little bubble and realize the world doesn't revolve around you. You're not "FIRST IN LINE" and everybody else MUST STAY IN ORDER BEHIND YOU or it's some kind of personal challenge to the size of your dick (this is mostly aimed at Karens, who are supremely agitated by the dick challenge).

You worry about you, and where your car is going. I'll worry about where my bike is going. How about I don't scratch your stupid fucking rolling penis extension, and you put down the porn and look around you before making left turns?

No where in this rant do I excuse the asshole douchebags that give all bikers a bad name. Fuck those guys too. They're dangerous and deserve to get locked up and have their bikes seized. If they want to kill themselves, fine. Go do it on the track.

And don't ride on the fucking shoulder. That's just stupid. Go walk the shoulder of any highway for a hundred yards. It's so full of sharp, rust, you're-about-to-have-a-really-bad-day debris that it's insane to put your tires at the mercy of everything that gets hurtled to the side of the road.

It happens around here but generally by young riders on sport bikes, and usually they are rational in how they do it, filtering up at a red light. I don't believe it is legal to truly lane split when traffic is moving above walking speed.

I don't think there is any safety advantage given the way people drive. Getting rear ended at a red light is not common, but getting hit by being the first into the intersection when your light turns green is.