I made 'roadshow' today!

The Gary Richards column in the Mercury News in todays (June 3) paper,
in at least the morning edition. With his recent writings about ways to
save fuel, I wrote to him about being a full time motorcycle commuter.

One of the things I requested, was that he remind drivers that lane
sharing is not illegal, and that he rebut what some radio announcers
have advocated.

His printed opinion of the DJ's advice: "Stupid and irresponsible."
Does anyone have the station ID and date that I can send him? He
promised more on lane sharing in Monday's edition.

Ken
'91 K100rs

 

To summarize for those that missed it, it's the same old story of
jealousy. Gary printed letters from people who were just plain jealous.
A few conceeded that acting in road rage against lane-splitters was
technically illegal, but that people shouldn't lane split in the first
place just because they legally could. Gary's opinion was similar: it
is dangerous and people just shouldn't do it. *sigh* Cagers are jealous
of bikers, cagers are jealous of cagers who drive bigger cages... if
everyone would just mind their own @#$#@ business and DRIVE SAFELY, the
world would be a much better place. Funny that the classification of
road rage as a mental disorder came out today. (I personally don't
_like_ to lane-split, and I don't if traffic is moving above ~15-20
mph, but that is my choice.) Maybe someone should write Gary and remind
him that the majority of two-party motorcycle accidents are the cager's
fault. Then maybe he could point the finger where it squarely belongs.

 

I wonder if that's really true, or at least if it's seen that way. If
you're lane-splitting and you clip a mirror, I think everyone--the
cager, the cop, the judge--will consider the accident to be your fault
because it wouldln't have happened if you weren't lane-splitting.
Especially when you consider that the 4-wheeled vehicles you were
riding between were not moving, or moving much slower than you and
didn't have the lateral freedom of movement.

(If an angry cager opens a door deliberately in your path, or spits
tobacco-juice in your eyes as you go by, that's different of course.
But how often does that really happen?)

 

Happened once to me, juuusst missed ripping the door off of an old
Beetle. CHP will cite the bike rider for sure, it is called "Assumtion
of Risk".

--
PC Paul
89 PC800
77 R100RS

Trip pics at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/paul1cart/my_photos

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to
society" - Theodore Roosevelt

 

From the Hurt Report at http://www.magpie.com/nycmoto/hurt.html

6. In multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle
violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in
two-thirds of those accidents.

7. The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in
traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents. The driver
of the other vehicle involved in collision with the motorcycle did not
see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle
until too late to avoid the collision.

8. Deliberate hostile action by a motorist against a motorcycle rider is
a rare accident cause. The most frequent accident configuration is the
motorcycle proceeding straight then the automobile makes a left turn in
front of the oncoming motorcycle.

10. Intersections are the most likely place for the motorcycle accident,
with the other vehicle violating the motorcycle right-of-way, and often
violating traffic controls.

To order:

Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures,
Volume 1: Technical Report, Hurt, H.H., Ouellet, J.V. and Thom, D.R.,
Traffic Safety Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,

California 90007, Contract No. DOT HS-5-01160, January 1981 (Final Report)

This document is available through:

National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, Virginia 22161
(703)-487-4600

Vol.I (The Main Report and Summary) is PB81206443 (~400 pages)
Vol.II (Appendix: Supplementary Data) is PB81206450 (~400 pages)
Either document is $42.95 plus $3.00 shipping. (circa 1990)

 

Are you sure? Road rage isn't exactly ignored these days. Quite the
opposite. When traffic is stopped, I don't go more than about 15mph, if
that, so I'd hopefully have time to stop. If traffic is moving 15 mph,
say, then I'd like to see what believable scenario a driver or
passenger would have for opening a door wide open in a moving vehicle.

 

Well, sometimes they do have that lateral freedom of movement, and the
exercise it to put themselves in the way of an approaching vehicle.
(But more often, they do nothing or even get out of the way.)

Never had either happen to me.

 

There's an apocryphal story of a guy who did that, caused a traffic jam,
bragged, "Look! I got one!", and got arrested for attempted murder. I
believe it is illegal to open your car door into traffic.

 

(snip)

Don't know what you would class as rare, but have had doors opened twice
in 15 years of commuting in the BA .. once NB on the peninsula (80) the
passenger in a POS driven by some young guy .. once EB on Hwy 4 in
Antioch .. old guy driving a mustang ... also numerous incidents of
'squeezing' .. one NB on 80 before the Vallejo bridge where the moron
hit!! the car to his left .. I would say base on my experience these
things DO happen pretty often .. especially when once in a lifetime is
plenty!! Was lucky in all cases and was able to stop or avoid. And in all
these cases the cage had NO reason to act out .. in all these events
there was no 'preceding history' .....

But trying to get non-moto people or even non-commute moto people to see
our perspective is probably impossible (include Roadshow Gary) and also
probably a big waste of time.

 

I've been riding for almost ten years, but lanesplitting regularly only
much more recently. So maybe I just haven't seen it yet. I'm glad you
foresaw those events and managed to avoid them.

Getting Gary Roadshow to change his mind about how dangerous he thinks
lanesplitting is is worthwhile. If he would change his tune to "In dense
traffic, motorcycles are safer between cars' doors is safer than between
their bumpers. Drivers should get used to the reality of lanesplitting
motorcycles and, in dense traffic, should expect motorcycles to come
driving by", I'll be happy.

 

PerTimberwoof ba.motorcycles:

Agree that getting Gary to change his mind would be worthwhile // just
don't think it's going to happen .. thus my 'waste of time' comment; not
implying it wouldn't be great if he did.

 

My most common problem is ciggies being flipped out the window of the
preceding car. I hate that. I've only had one actually hit me, but it
hit me right on the throat. I've come to expect a butt to eventually
come flying out of every car where the smoker is holding it outside.

"Oops, it just slipped right out of my fingers."

Ken

 

The gods of fire smiled on you.

 

Or maybe trying to catch some doofus being dangerous toward a
motorcycle, and using you as a decoy. That's a much healthier attitude
than "ohgodohgodohgod he's gonna write me a ticket!"

In September? What's he trying to do -- start a forest fire?

Did you wave? }: )

See, the doofus saw you because you head your headlights on ... and
didn't see the CHP because he didn't.

 

I rode into a speed trap once, fortunately for me so did Mr. Fuckwit.
Not only did Mr. Fuckwit not see me, he missed the stop sign he drove
through and the cop parked just down the road. I did the dodge the
fuckwit ina cage drill, the cop went full disco and bagged a keeper.