Thoughts on Lane Splitting?

[Aprilian]

Erich, I don't know if you have actually seen filtering in Europe.   Your math is bass ackwards.

No Filtering -  every vehicle waits at a red light in two rows, and only 20 make it through on the green light (10 from each lane).
vs. Filtering - where 6 bikes queue up between the two lanes, and accelerate ahead of the first cars as they leave the green light in now 3 columns.   26 make it through the light now. 

So if you were vehicles 21-26, filtering actually got you home earlier.

I like your comment about selling HOV lane passes.  Yes, it caused uproar, but today its no big farkling deal.   I'd pay to lane split!!!  Perhaps if we proposed it as a revenue enhancement tool, we'd get it passed quickly.  Different color license plates would confirm you had paid for the privilege.

[vince]

Oh those HOV lanes. What a waste of our tax dollar. Just a few weeks back I got on 35W South from Lake street. The HOV lane is full of cars. Oh wait there is a cop in the lane and another on the right shoulder. Traffic is coming to a stand still now. All and I mean all cars and trucks are trying to get out of the lane before they get to the cop. It takes me 20 minutes to get to crosstown 62 and I am in the left lane. In that time the only thing that passed me was a city bus and one motorcycle.
I get to crosstown and the lane fills up again. I go around the curve and leave the crosstown and I am in the left lane. Guess what. Another cop on the side of the highway right at the end of the entrance ramp from the crosstown.  An another mad fight to get out of the HOV lane before they get to the cop. It takes me another 20+ minutes to get to county road 13 in Burnsville. How many anything passed me on the way there. Not one, nothing.
So when you see a car or truck in that lane. He is stealing and should not be there. The only thing that should be in that lane is a motorcycle.

[Deplorable, thank you!]

Erich, I don't know if you have actually seen filtering in Europe.   Your math is bass ackwards.

No Filtering -  every vehicle waits at a red light in two rows, and only 20 make it through on the green light (10 from each lane).
vs. Filtering - where 6 bikes queue up between the two lanes, and accelerate ahead of the first cars as they leave the green light in now 3 columns.   26 make it through the light now. 

So if you were vehicles 21-26, filtering actually got you home earlier.

I like your comment about selling HOV lane passes.  Yes, it caused uproar, but today its no big farkling deal.   I'd pay to lane split!!!  Perhaps if we proposed it as a revenue enhancement tool, we'd get it passed quickly.  Different color license plates would confirm you had paid for the privilege.

This logic only works if those 6 bikes were already in front of you. if they were behind you and passed you to move forward you lost out !

[Elk]

Exactly.

It works in Italy because the scooters and bikes continually lane split.  They do not filter and then zip to get in front of cars when the light turns green.  Filtering and then getting in front of cars slows the cars down.  It is quicker for bikes however.

Instead, in Italy, instead of two lanes of traffic in one direction, there is now three.  The third is the "lane" between the normal two, now continually occupied by scooters.  The cars are not slowed down by the practice as the scooters are never in the car's lane, nor vice versa.  It is delicious, semi-organized chaos. 

This is very different than filtering as we are discussing here.

To add to the fun, the scooters and bikes also run on sidewalks to get around stopped traffic, will enter a lane going in the opposite direction to get around a stopped car or bus, etc.  It is quite a spectacle.  But it seems to work in their culture.

[VFJayR]

I am a huge fan of lane splitting and particularly the filter, but I tend to agree with some of the comments  already posted about how it will not work here.

1- Minnesota drivers are bad.  they are not good or particularly well trained or enforced.and leo.  Yesterday i saw (and almost crashed with) 6 cars diving into my lane.  South Minneapolis, downtown and northeast
2- Motorcyclists here have a declining reputation (cars hate us) and there are probably a lot of reasons for that with varying degrees of legitimacy
3- it would only really effective during the riding season, see #1
4- on the plus side:  The new age bicyclists now have a ton of dedicated bike lanes, and from what I have observed, a complete disregard for all commonly accepted traffic laws.  cagers are slowly getting used to random fly by's and lane filtering in town.

I have done both in CA and have to say that filtering and splitting at low speeds is genius and generally really easy to do without creating issues for the other motorists.  I would support it here as long as the state and safety offices/officers fully promoted the program.

[pkpk]

Off topic but.....Hi Jay!  Long time, how are you doing?!

[VFJayR]

PKPK?!? 

I am doing well!  Busty but Well.  And you?

[pkpk]

PKPK?!? 

I am doing well!  Busty but Well.  And you?

Doing well, thanks.  Haven't been able to do much group riding the last few years.  First it's the young daughter growing up, now it's the old parents getting too old.  Still like to lurk here though.