A perfectly depressing article about why we could save billions with a little common motorcycle-sense. It’s Economics, Stupid! Why Motorcycle Lane Filtering is Becoming More Accepted. "Filtering" is really the more necessary right than "splitting." Filtering is the ability to move to the front of a stopped or super-slow-moving line of traffic. In general, I suspect Americans are not smart enough to cope with splitting at any sort of traffic speed. We've been downbreeding for a couple of centuries and, now, even the low art of video games is overtaxing our capabilities.
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Mar 5, 2015
3 comments:
Disagree? Bring it on. Have more to add? Feel free to set me straight. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't do a great job of figuring out which Anonymous commenters are actually real people, not Russians or Chinese bots. Because of that, I don't accept anonymous posts. If you have something worth saying, you shouldn't be afraid of using your ID.
I've seen lane-splitters in California. They're crazy and your nuts to think this is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteA recent Belgian study has shown that lanesplitting can reduce peak congestion by 40%. Can you imagine reducing your commute by 40% without requiring any additional funding or construction?
ReplyDeleteA recent Berkeley study of lane splitters in the LA area has shown that lanesplitting is just as safe as not lanesplitting. Lanesplitters were much less likely to be rear ended, but were slightly more likely to bump into the side of a car, which seems pretty intuitive.
Given that the net safety cost is nil, and the net congestion improvement (for EVERYONE, mind you, not just the motorcyclists) is 40%, it sounds like a good idea to me.
But if you'd like to sit in traffic all day, by all means, be my guest.
If filtering wasn't legal in the UK I'd seriously consider not riding to work.
ReplyDeleteIt's a common and accepted practice and most vehicle users are reasonably aware of it.
http://www.motorcycling-uk.com/training/motorcycle_filtering.htm