Modern Vespa

You'd think that at least someone (besides scooterists) in that situation might be grateful that those little buzzing vehicles around them are making the traffic jam ever so much less? And that by not riding huge road and fuel hogging cages the scooterists are also conserving the environment and fuel for those very same cagers too?!!

Let me get this straight...
It is OK for you to break the law because you have two wheels?
Does that mean it is OK for me to get into a semi and push your car out of the way so that all of the cars behind us can move 10 ft closer to nowhere?
Laws are made for reasons..( most of the time for good reasons ).
Try this logic.. Cager "A" in his caddy coupe d'ville waiting in traffic, scoot guy "B" riding on the shoulder because he is better than everyone in line....?

Let me get this straight...
It is OK for you to break the law because you have two wheels?
Does that mean it is OK for me to get into a semi and push your car out of the way so that all of the cars behind us can move 10 ft closer to nowhere?
Laws are made for reasons..( most of the time for good reasons ).
Try this logic.. Cager "A" in his caddy coupe d'ville waiting in traffic, scoot guy "B" riding on the shoulder because he is better than everyone in line....
Cager "A" starts to overheat and steam pours out from under his hood and in a panic he pulls over to shoulder quickly... Right when scoot "B" pulls up beside him.
Scoot "B" is critical hurt and the ambulance can't get to him because other important people decided to use the shoulder...
Who is at fault? A for not looking into what is supposed to be a clear lane or B who is to important to follow the law?

Perhaps one of the only real advantages of living in CA.... Legal lane splitting.

+1

We're not immune to laws that we can get around. This sort of action is what makes many others hate anyone riding on two wheels.

I had a motorcycle guy in town here the other day first pass me in the bike lane and then use a turn lane to pass another car and cut back into the main lane. At the next light, he was one car ahead of me.

His net gain was about 20 feet and a heap of bad will.

Yes, and it works, right?
Or do you run into all of the imagined problems on the road that "got mine" was talking about, because of legal lane splitting there?

I know this is next part might be against MV policy and if it is I apolgize to Jess and everyone else.
If you are to arrogant to follow the laws where you live you should get off the road or start your own country where you can be the Imperial Ruler.

As far as I know we can pass in Indiana. And I do pass in traffic jams. It's part of the reason I have a scooter. I don't pass at 50, but as long as I'm moving, I'm okay with it.

I've also noticed that cops don't pay as much attention to me on my scooter. I don't know if they just don't realize that I can go faster, but I get ignored a lot.

However, when I see someone doing it down the middle of the highway I am angry and I try to block their path. Or I throw broken glass or use a lasso to yank them off of their bike...sometimes I'll use pepper spray to blind them and then I use the oil slick function on my Ford Pinto to make them wreck. And by oil slick I mean that I'm the one who caused the backup with an oil leak.

That is all.

When you accept your license you accept the laws.
You do not have to like them but it is your job/duty to uphold them while you are riding...

I believe the road has to be at least 2 lanes, and you have to split between the 1st and 2nd lanes at no greater than 35mph, IIRC..

I am sorry Californians...
I may not agree with it but lane splitting is legal in your part of the world and I accept it.
This is for the part of the world where it is not legal....
Just because you fit someplace does not give you the right to break the law..
When you accept your license you accept the laws.
You do not have to like them but it is your job/duty to uphold them while you are riding...
I know this is next part might be against MV policy and if it is I apolgize to Jess and everyone else.
If you are to arrogant to follow the laws where you live you should get off the road or start your own country where you can be the Imperial Ruler.
I am guilty of speeding but I do not justify it by saying it gets me home faster so there is less pollution in the air... If I get a ticket I accept it...

I am a lawbreaker. A very bad man.

I believe the complete text of it also stipulates that you cannot pass other cars more than 5mph faster than them. It was nice living in CA for a while.

There is no complete text. All rules regarding lane splitting in CA were removed from the books. In their place stands a single sentence, issued by the California Highway Patrol: Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible but must be done in a safe and prudent manner.

That's it. Nothing else. Every person who ever told you what the official rules are is 100% wrong. There are no specific guidelines whatsoever.

My info is nearly a decade old.

There is no complete text. All rules regarding lane splitting in CA were removed from the books. In their place stands a single sentence, issued by the California Highway Patrol: Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible but must be done in a safe and prudent manner.

The simple answer is.. if someone says it is illegal, please ask them to show you where it says lanesharing is prohibited, outlawed or even discouraged in the vehicle code.

It's not.

There is a law prohibiting lane straddling, that is 21658(a) CVC. This is one law commonly cited when people are riding the bots-dots and are effectively occupying both lanes simultaneously and the citing officer feels their actions were unsafe. Other sections commonly cited are unsafe passing, unsafe speed, following too closely, failure to signal lane change and a few others, all as applicable. I am not saying lanesharing cannot be done unsafely, I'm just saying that when it is done safely, it is 100% legal in CA.

Many states have laws specifically outlawing the practice and describing it exactly. In CA, they tried to pass such a law (waaaay before my time) and the CHP came out against it as well as the AMA. The reason the CHP protested the legislation, or so I am told, is because they rode air-cooled Harleys and most everyone at that time was on air-cooled bikes (Harley's/Indians, BSA's and the like). The wide and relatively new freeways of LA were becoming jammed up and the police found lanesharing a safe and easy way to get around quickly and easily. I am told, for that reason, it has remained unregulated and therefore lawful in CA.

When done safely, lanesharing (or filtering, as it is called in Europe) is a traffic reducer, assuming all of those bikes would represent more cars and trucks, immobilized in gridlocked traffic. Allowing traffic to flow safely between stopped or slowed vehicles make sense.

I copied this (below) from an informational website and it sums it all up pretty well. There are also a couple of other threads on this topic and a link to laneshare.org (see links below) with lots more information.

Meanwhile, grab a bag of Fritos and enjoy this:

Is lane-sharing legal?
Here's the text (verbatim) from the CHP's site: "Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible under California law but must done in a safe and prudent manner." The text used to also include "The motorcycle should be traveling no more than 10 mph faster than surrounding traffic (without exceeding the speed limit) and not come close enough to that traffic to cause a collision." but has since been removed. Perhaps they wanted to give cops more latitude to interpret what they thought was safe so they removed it.

Lane sharing on surface streets is probably not addressed in city or county laws so I would do this with caution, as individual cops will decide whether or not they like what they see. As with most prudent riders, I share lanes as necessary on surface streets if I don't see any cops, but I stop immediately if I spot one.

You can also find more on lane-splitting in the DMV Motorcycle handbook (see page 20 in the current handbook).

Can I laneshare to the front of a metered onramp?
In the magazine "Friction Zone," a reader asked "Is it legal to lane split to a metering light? In some areas there are two to three lanes when taking the onramp to the freeway. I normally laneshare right up to the limit line, come to a complete stop, and proceed at the same time (but at a lower speed) as the car I am sharing the lane with and then move in behind him. Am I doing anything wrong?"

The answer from Sergeant Price: "Splitting traffic is not specifically addressed in the California Vehicle Code. However, nothing prevents two vehicles from sharing the same traffic lane until it becomes unsafe. Therefore, you can split traffic on an onramp to advance to the front. However, once at the front of the line, there are usually regulatory signs that limit the number of vehicles allowed to enter the freeway on each successive green light. Usually these signs state "One vehicle per green each lane" or "Two (or three) vehicles per green each lane."

"In the first scenario, this means if there are two metered lanes for traffic, then only one vehicle from each lane may enter the freeway when the light turns green. A motorcycle sharing a lane with another vehicle is in violation of the posted provisions of the sign.

"In the second scenario a motorcyclist would not be in violation of the provisions of the sign since he would be sharing the lane with another vehicle and more than one is allowed for each lane. Be sure to read the signs in your area."

But it used to be that cars were all air cooled, and they sure can't split lanes! And if it's legal here because of our engines, how come it's not legal in other states? I am flummoxed.

I split lanes daily (mostly backed up traffic at lights). I am very careful. I get where I am going much faster than if I didn't. I use less gas this way and no one gets where they are going slower because of me.

I am a lawbreaker. A very bad man.

When were cars aircooled other than the VW and Corvair?

I am flummoxed.

Although lane splitting is legal in California (and in many other parts of the world as well), it is nevertheless a very common practice in many other places in which it is not legal. I lane split all the time, including in New Jersey. Many, many other scooter riders do as well. The overwhelming majority of car drivers are indifferent to this or move out of the way to allow the scooter by. In my experience, the risk that someone will become enraged at seeing a scooter lanesplitting is miniscule. Just to make things clear, I recognize that police who stop bikers for lanesplitting are enforcing the law, and I do not have a problem with that.
Brendan