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Lane splitting in L.A.
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For me, this is half the reason to ride in L.A. Have you ever tried to drive a car thru this traffic? I won't waste space here detailing the problems, frustrations, difficulties, uncertainties, and downright obnoxiousness of four-wheeling around town, not to mention the extra cost per mile. Whatever. That's just not how I roll.
My bike is a relatively wide one, so splitting lanes for me is a little more of a challenge than for those of you on those slim sport bikes. Generally, I can't go as fast in narrow confines. But even so, lane splitting makes it practical for me to make appointments halfway (or all the way) across town and have a reasonable certainty as to how much time to allow to get there.
There are several elements that make lane splitting a viable approach to getting around in L.A.
First, it's legal. My understanding is that the traffic laws simply fail to say anything about lane splitting being illegal. So that makes it legal. Of course, like all motor vehicle guidance, lane splitting must be done "in a safe and prudent manner." I remember something about a limit of 10 mph faster than the surrounding traffic, subject to overall speed limits, of course. But a woman rider I met recently told me the law says 15 mph faster is OK. Mostly, some people seem to go even faster than that, so it's nice to know they're 5 mph less of a scofflaw!
Second, lane splitting depends on confidence. A few years back when a four-wheeler made an abrupt lane change and caught me as I went past (minor damage, minor injury only -- it happened in a parking lot, not on the highway), I temporarily lost confidence in what drivers would do, and that made it much more problematic for me to split lanes faster than about 5 mph quicker than traffic. I mean, I literally pass 500 cars every time I travel from Santa Monica to South Pasadena in rush hour, and that's 500 chances for some stranger to do something stupid that seriously impacts me and mine. Without a reasonable level of confidence in surrounding drivers, that's 500 shots of adrenalin to my system. Even an adventure junkie wouldn't want to experience that every day. It took me about three months to gain back enough confidence to split lanes again without raising the hairs on the back of my neck!
Third, different roads have different logistics for lane splitting. It depends not only on the road surface (generally flat and smooth here in L.A.), but on the width of lanes, the front-to-back spacing of the cars you are passing, and the overall acumen and car-handling capabilities of the drivers on that road. I remember a poster I saw a while back showing a happy motorcycle rider whizzing among cars moving in heavy traffic, each one surmounted by a slalom pole, complete with flag. It struck me as funny, and I think of it sometimes when I can slalom along at a good clip because the cars are nicely spaced out for me. But I also remember a time when I was traveling completely across L.A. to meet my woman (now my wife) and encountering a total parking lot on L.A.'s downtown complex of freeways. With that much traffic, it's common to find that people are scattered left and right across lanes so that the pathway for splitting between them narrows to almost nothing every hundred yards or less!
Fourth, it takes experience and good judgment to make any progress splitting lanes. An instant of bad judgment and you're swapping paint with an angry driver -- or worse. But I find my pace to be a good way to measure my skill level. Years ago, I was the slowest lane splitter in L.A. Every bike I encountered wanted to get past me. Later on, I was at the 50 percentile, with some riders passing me, and me passing about the same number of them. As time went by, fewer and fewer riders find me blocking the road. To me, this is clear evidence that my skills and ability to judge the spaces around me have increased. That may not be true of every rider, of course, but it's true of me because I maintain a fairly constant standard of safety and prudence -- it's rare that I'll try to jam my motorcycle into a place it can barely fit. So if my speed goes up amidst a random collection of car drivers and traffic, then it must be because my ability went up.
Fifth, you gotta go with the flow. I generally think it's safer to be the second motorcycle through a pair of cars inching along the freeway. I remember one time when I was behind the wheel and a motorcycle came out of nowhere and whizzed right past my ear! I instantly thought back to so many times I had switched lanes with no more than a glance into my side view mirror and a quick flick of my turn signals, and I vowed to be a lot more prudent in the future. When you're the second motorcycle through, you know every driver you're going to pass has just had a vivid, often loud warning to be a little more careful about lane changes. But of course, sometimes that rider ahead of me is creeping along, and I feel it would be just as safe for me to forge my own path through the traffic, at my own pace, and would also waste a lot less time.
Sixth, I feel it's important to be friendly when passing your fellow Eathlings in their time of traffic troubles. I nearly always flash a thumbs-up when I pass a driver who has moved over to make more room for my bike to come through. I try not to rev my engine exactly opposite a driver's open window - there's little penalty in making my downshift a dozen feet ahead or behind, and it's a lot easier on other people's ears. And when people get mad a me -- in particular I remember a soccer mom in her train-size SVU who rolled down her window and turned to yell at me for daring to come within six inches of her precious "room on wheels" (all without taking her cell phone away from her ear, I might add) -- I simply smiled and moved on. Someday, I'll get a scrolling digital readout on the tail of my bike so I can educate some of the drivers I pass. But until then, a smile is better than a frown.
Seventh, you meet the most interesting people when lane splitting. Many is the time I have followed motorcycle police through traffic. They're a lot more prudent than you or I, generally speaking. One time, a two-wheeling cop I had been following pulled into the lane and motioned me to pass him. But I declined. In that traffic situation, and given the time I had in hand before I was due at my destination, I figured it was far safer to be behind that cop than in front of him.
Eighth, lane splitting creates opportunities for a good joke. My wife is fond of telling people she closes her eyes whenever I start splitting lanes in L.A. I always get a chuckle out of them when I immediately chime in: "I do, too".
If you want to share any of your lane-splitting wisdom or adventures, please email me.
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