One of the great benefits of riding in California is lane-splitting aka \u201clane sharing\u201d or filtering or white-lining \u2014 in other words, riding the gap between two lanes of cars that are doing the tired old traffic jam thing. It\u2019s illegal in most states, and while it\u2019s not technically legal here, it\u2019s also not technically illegal either. We get to do it here and the Highway Patrol looks the other way. This is a very good thing, because the traffic is so bad that you\u2019d never get anywhere if you didn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n
There are some people who don\u2019t like lane-splitting. I believe they come from one of two camps: jealous cagers or scared riders. Jealous cagers can\u2019t stand to see anyone getting something they\u2019re not getting too. Just as crabs in a bucket will pull back in those making an escape, jealous cagers think that if they\u2019re stuck in traffic, you should be stuck in traffic too. They can\u2019t stand to see you getting somewhere five minute faster than they can, and they don\u2019t realize that the motorcyclist lane-splitting past them is actually helping everyone go faster by not adding one more vehicle to that line of gridlocked cars.<\/p>\n
Scared riders think it\u2019s suicidal to lane-split because they don\u2019t have the courage to try it themselves. They don\u2019t realize that it\u2019s actually more dangerous to be sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, waiting to get squashed by an SUV driven by a cell-phone using, make-up applying, kid-wrangling, suburban housewife when she rear-ends the car in front of you \u2014 through you.<\/p>\n
Me, I love lane-splitting. My friend Slider commented the other day that \u201cEvery time we talk about lane-splitting, you smile.\u201d I couldn\u2019t argue \u2014 I was smiling at the time. I think lane-splitting is fun. You have to concentrate like hell, be in complete control of your motorcycle, read traffic like a mystic, constantly and instantly judge closing speeds and the size of gaps, and it\u2019s a continuous gut-check. It\u2019s riding at a higher level and I absolutely love it.<\/p>\n
Of course, I\u2019ve had some practice. I had a job a few years back where I commuted 65 miles each way 5 days a week through the worst traffic LA and Orange County has to offer, from the San Fernando Valley down to Aliso Viejo. If I hadn\u2019t lane-split it would have taken me hours to get to work. As it was, even with the splitting it generally took about an hour and twenty minutes each way. I rode that commute in sun and rain and wind and darkness and cold and heat and every weird weather pattern Mother Nature could muster. I rode through Sigalerts and construction delays and and even the occasional miraculous day of almost no traffic. And through it all, I was lane-splitting. You do it as much as I did, you\u2019re going to get good at it.<\/p>\n
I rode over to my mom\u2019s house this afternoon to do some chores around the house for her, and I got to do some lanesplitting on the way over there. I also happened to have my camera rig mounted so I filmed the ride, then I uploaded it to YouTube this evening. Check it out:<\/p>\n