Wake Up America: California is Bringing Lane Splitting to You

California is paving the way California Will Legalize Lane Splitting Look out America; Lane splitting is coming to you. They say California leads the nation. If so, then lane splitting is coming to you. Lane splitting is nothing like Abraham Lincoln splitting logs. Every state or region has its customs of the road. For example, in Massachusetts the first car gets to make a left turn when the red light turns green, cutting in front of the car coming straight forward. It takes only one or two near misses to learn that rule of the road. New York has a more frustrating custom of the rule. The first three cars retain the right to drive through the stoplight when it flashes red from yellow. The result is often gridlock. Lane splitting is apparently a European custom and jumped the Atlantic and the American continent to land in Southern California. It is neither expressly legal nor illegal under the Motor Vehicle Code. It is implicitly tolerated by the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Lane splitting occurs when a motorcyclist on the centerline splits through two lines of cars moving or stuck in traffic. The motorcyclist is going fast, seemingly speeding. He’s protected from radar guns by the surrounding cars. Dennis Zine, a Los Angeles City Council Member and motorcycle officer for 18 years, says an motorcycle officer could apprehend a lane splitter, who is thereby oblivious to the speed limit. Picture this: You are stuck in stop and go traffic, intensely concentrating on the vehicles around you, when like a bat out of hell, a motorcycle suddenly roars past you. Your eyes flick instinctively over to the cycle, and you rear end the car in front, setting off a chain reaction. You are legally at fault, but the anonymous cyclist continues on his way, oblivious to the mayhem he has created - free of liability. If there’s no accident, you are jealous because that damn biker is speeding ahead while you are mired in traffic with no way out. You are infused with road rage. You are tempted, oh are you tempted, the next time you see a lane splitter coming through the rear view mirror, to just nudge your car a little closer to the center line, but you don’t. You won’t. Come on Californian! Admit to it! You thought of it! Of course you don’t do it. You will not injure that SOB. I’m not tempted because I have learnt patience over the years. I simply factor extra time in my driving schedule. We measure distance by time and not miles in the greater Los Angeles Basin. You might think it, but morality, humanism and the law stop you. An accident through carelessness is also possible. The car driver could be distracted while stuck in traffic. Texting (illegal in California), cell phoning (also illegal in California unless hands free), dashboard dining, adjusting the entertainment package come quickly to mind. The cyclist could also be distracted for a second. A bill allowing lane splitting is speeding through the California Legislature on a non-partisan basis, proving the Legislature can do more than raise taxes, The California Assemble approved a measure last Thursday 58-14 to legalize lane splitting in California, subject to two unrealistic and unenforceable conditions: 1) The motorcyclist drive no safer than 15mph above the surrounding traffic; and 2) In on case can the lane splitter drive faster than 50mph. Driving at the speed limit is also not the rule of the road in California. Drivers are used to driving from LaLa Land or the OC to Vegas (290 miles) in roughly 3½ hours. The legislation is purportedly backed by a UC Berkeley professor’s study of 6,000 motorcycle accidents, including 1,000 lane splitters. The study has yet to be released to the public. Lane splitting will spread across the amber waves of grain through the 47,836 miles of the Eisenhower Interstate Freeway System Look out Denver Mousetrap Look out Surekill Depressway Look our Cross Bronx Expressway Look out Circle Interchange in Houston Look out America; the lane splitter is coming to you