And that never bothered me in my 10 years in SoCal. But many others took (still take, I'm sure) the middle of the lane as open road even if traffic is jerking along at 0 to 10...and that's when it gets dangerous. In no small part because it's very difficult for your basic, run-of-the-mill commuter driver to judge great disparities in speeds relative to his own, even if he is checking the rearview mirror for oncoming lane splitters.The Annoyed Man wrote:I never blew past other cars in a way to frighten or startle other drivers, and once the traffic was moving, even if only 10-15 mph, I kept in my lane.
I witnessed a crash on the 405 southbound near Long Beach in the 80s, prior to the 1992 California helmet law. Guy on a rice rocket with a girl on the back, neither wearing a helmet. Heavy 4:00 p.m. traffic, and I saw them in my rearview mirror coming at a good clip between the far left and next-to-left lanes. Can't accurately guess at the speed, but when they passed me on my left while I was doing less than 10 or 15, I'd put my money on 35 or faster. A few cars in front of me, a small two-door changed lanes (none of the witnesses could confirm he signaled). The biker smacked into the rear quarter-panel. Evidently he got trapped somewhat by the handle bars and went face-first into the car's trunk before bouncing over; she was launched at a slight angle, and caromed of the side of a car two in front of the one changing lanes, so she was airborn for a good 25+ feet before glancing off that car and coming to rest probably 40-45 feet down the road.
Several of us jumped out of our cars, and one was an EMT. I had no training or equipment, and really didn't know what to do (the incident motivated me to take an emergency first-aid course a couple months later). It was not a pretty scene. The EMT made it clear the woman was DRT, and he worked on the guy. Life Flight got there in less than 10 minutes.
So as Jim said about the Wiki article, Victoria, Australia may have no recorded accidents resulting from lane splitting, but I'll gurantee Kalifornia does. Done safely at low speeds--and on highways where the lanes are wide enough to accommodate two trucks side-by-side and still have room in the middle--lane-splitting doesn't annoy me. Worst that can happen then (assuming one of said trucks doesn't roll over you if you go down) is a fender bender and maybe a broken limb or two. But I don't know how you'd enforce something like a "max 5 mph over ambient traffic, and no faster than 15 mph" sort of law. So, ultimately, I'm not a fan of lane-splitting. (This from a guy who grew up as a teenager on a motorcycle in a country where, more often than not, there were no marked lanes.
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