It is legal in Texas to go through a red light on a bike if it doesn't turn green in a reasonable amount of time.
Especially left turn green arrows.
rochs01, post: 326906, member: 266 wrote: It is legal in Texas to go through a red light on a bike if it doesn't turn green in a reasonable amount of time.
Especially left turn green arrows.
Oklahoma too. I don't have it handy, but I think our law reads something like "..in the absence of other vehicles". Some folks erroneously blame the lack of mass of some motorcycles for not tripping the inductive detector loops we have around here. I have found that locally it has more to do with the detector loops than the size of the bike. Some wouldn't work if you parked the Queen Mary on top of them.
How about splitting a lane with the front wheel off the ground?
I do it upon reaching a red light, and there is sufficient room between stopped cars. It is more to avoid of being surrounded by cars that change lanes without signaling after the clump of traffic takes off again. It can take quite a while for cars to space out again.
I used to do it in when I was in college in Alabama. It never occurred to me it was possibly illegal.
I noticed, while in Greece, that it is very common, and that the Greek drivers really watch out for each other. The driving in Greece may seem chaotic but in reality each person is paying total attention and watching out for everyone else. I didn't see cell phones being used by drivers, for instance. Not ever our cab driver.
Jim Frame, post: 326869, member: 10 wrote: My understanding, based on recent news stories, is that it's neither legal not illegal in California, but rather a matter of officer discretion. There's a bill before the legislature right now that would make it legal.
Bicycle lanes and motorcycles splitting lanes in heavy traffic...both very good reasons to look over your shoulder before switching lanes.
Living in a rural community, I never see it happening, because there is no need.
However it is very common in southern California.
It IS legal in California. It is one of the things you are taught in driver's training.
The DMV advises that although it is legal, it is not safe and should be avoided if possible.
I had a young man white line on my right side this morning. I was in the fast lane on an arterial doing about 2 over. He kept running it up to my bumper and backing off. I still refused to go faster than the car in front of me. When he got fed up and shot the gap he had to hit 80 plus. That's when the cherries lit up. He instinctively accelerated for a second, then pulled over. Expensive way to start the day...
Jim in AZ, post: 326859, member: 249 wrote: Legal?! Really?! Wow - sorry then, although I can't imagine why its legal... (Edit - Just read Mr. Cash's link, can't say I agree with it.)
Can't cite the source but apparently the rationale for it starts in the 1940s, when some air cooled motorcycles (Vincents, Indians, Harleys, etc.) would overheat in stop and go traffic if not kept moving.
Mike Marks, post: 327085, member: 1108 wrote: Can't cite the source but apparently the rationale for it starts in the 1940s, when some air cooled motorcycles (Vincents, Indians, Harleys, etc.) would overheat in stop and go traffic if not kept moving.
Note: Although metallurgy and manufacturing has made leaps and bounds since the '40s, air-cooled gasoline recips still get hot when they don't have a minimum of air flowing over them, especially on hot summer days. I have a couple of older British bikes that are extremely sensitive to traffic heat. What happens is the gasoline in the carburetor float bowl actually boils (vapor lock) and God hisself can't start the bike again until it cools.
Flights in the summer with my thumpers are planned for low traffic and few stops. 😉
Precision-geo-inc, post: 326864, member: 9801 wrote: Read Paden's link. It's legal because it's actually safer than sitting in traffic with a bunch of people playing on their cell phones.
It's sad how car drivers, who have nothing to really lose besides maybe a side mirror, have such righteous animosity towards cyclists who have potentially everything to lose if things go wrong. In other countries such entitlement doesn't exist on the part of car drivers. Everyone shares the road most likely because before they could afford a car they too were riding around on scooters or motorcycles.
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"It's sad..."
I don't find it anything close to sad... Sad is when they are picking them up off the pavement.
Actually, it is legal in CA. The motorcyclist is supposed to be going at least 15 mph faster than surrounding traffic. Don't know how they came up with that one, but it was in the DMV motorcycle handbook last time I looked. I didn't see it in the vehicle code, so it must be something in the Code of Regulations, or perhaps simply implied and given guidelines since the practice is not expressly prohibited.
Like Will, I've found it safer to have the option to split lanes in heavy traffic situations. Often it is to get through bogged down traffic, but sometimes it's as a necessary escape route for when some knucklehead on a cell phone decides to change lanes into the spot I occupy, or mom reaching over the backseat to help Junior open the apple slices from his happy meal fails to notice the motorcycle between her and the car ahead of them both.
When motorcyclists get into accidents while lane splitting, it's because either the motorcyclist, the car/truck driver, or most likely both were not paying enough attention to the circumstances around them. When on my bike, I'm constantly scanning the behavior of the drivers around me. Most who would do something stupid usually show it in little things like continually drifting from one side of a lane to the other, alternately speeding and slowing for no apparent reason, looking down at their phone or holding it glued to their ear, or paying more attention to other occupants of their vehicle than to the road.
Dave K mentioned CHP guidelines being that it's OK up to 35 MPH. I guess they don't follow those guidelines themselves as I've been passed by many lane-splitting CHP when I was travelling 55 or more in traffic. No lights or sirens, just a cop impatient with being in traffic or trying to sneak up on someone who might be speeding ahead of the group of traffic.
If traffic is moving along steadily at 40 or more, I generally won't split lanes.
eapls2708, post: 327109, member: 589 wrote: Actually, it is legal in CA.
Per the L.A. Times:
The state has never expressly forbidden or allowed it. Technically neither legal nor illegal, the practice has had the tacit approval of the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The absence of a provision in the Vehicle Code will come into play when assessing fault after a collision. That is, failure to yield right-of-way, reckless driving, etc. will play a part in any citations and insurance settlement.
There was mention above about bicycles. I'm within a few miles of a route that must be on every crazy biker's list of the best way to go from Pacific to Atlantic or vice versa. Heaviest in the summer, of course, but continues for about nine months of the year. In my area this is merely a very old two-lane highway with no shoulders, but it is a State highway. Like most very old highways, there are very few cuts and very few fills, just plenty of small hill after small hill type driving conditions. That turned into a fatality several weeks ago. A pickup pulling a typical two-wheel trailer was passing a rider going up one of these little hills when an oncoming vehicle magically appeared from the other side of the little hill. The pickup whipped back into his lane to miss a head on and caught the rider with the trailer as it whipped back into the proper lane. There is one less 60 year-old university librarian today. She was killed instantly.
Today, I came up behind a line of five of them all spaced about 250 feet apart. They saw me and kept signaling to pass them going up hill. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of the fellow sitting in jail right now feeling horribly guilty about killing some innocent woman he didn't know.
Jim in AZ, post: 327108, member: 249 wrote: "It's sad..."
I don't find it anything close to sad... Sad is when they are picking them up off the pavement.
Yes exactly. That's often the end result of the kind of attitude I was describing.
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imaudigger, post: 327072, member: 7286 wrote: Bicycle lanes and motorcycles splitting lanes in heavy traffic...both very good reasons to look over your shoulder before switching lanes.
Living in a rural community, I never see it happening, because there is no need.
However it is very common in southern California.
It IS legal in California. It is one of the things you are taught in driver's training.The DMV advises that although it is legal, it is not safe and should be avoided if possible.
Similar to jumping off the top of a tall building...?
This conversation is so similar to the one that I have with folks who never owned a boat, "It's just a hole in the water that you throw money in."
Folks that are critical of lane splitting have never felt the freedom of riding, or the amount of safety you actually do feel on a bike. I never felt unsafe on mine.
foggyidea, post: 327202, member: 155 wrote: This conversation is so similar to the one that I have with folks who never owned a boat, "It's just a hole in the water that you throw money in."
Folks that are critical of lane splitting have never felt the freedom of riding, or the amount of safety you actually do feel on a bike. I never felt unsafe on mine.
I've had that feeling. I've also felt an F150 roll over my legs at 40 mph. It hurts..
Yeah, so does smacking your bean on the boom! But I still sail as often as possible.
foggyidea, post: 327206, member: 155 wrote: Yeah, so does smacking your bean on the boom! But I still sail as often as possible.
The skipper of the J24 I race on after getting hit by the boom!
