The Great Motorcycle Vanishing Act (Condensed Edit) | GTAMotorcycle.com

The Great Motorcycle Vanishing Act (Condensed Edit)

"when done responsibly".....

that aside. If it were implemented and ppl got used to it and got over the "me first" mentality in their cars, it would improve traffic congestion.
 
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Hey, if all lanes were as wide as shown, and motorcyclists rode like the demo at 45 seconds, instead of real-life at 20 seconds, there would be less issue.

Then again in the demo, both bikes are in someone's blind spot.

It also needs to remove all of the "fluff" e.g. "Moving air to keep them cool", or "the engine will seize".
 
"when done responsibly".....

that aside. If it were implemented and ppl got used to it and got over the "me first" mentality in their cars, it would improve traffic congestion.

I don't think it will make any difference in our part of the world. What percentage of vehicles on the road at any given time are bikes really?
In the GTA I'd go as far as to suggest bikes are statisticly insignificant.
Allowing the few bikes out there to lane-split/filter isn't going to put much of a dent in congestion.

I'm not against it, but holding up lane splitting as the cure for congestion is a little far fetched.
Personally... I wouldn't do it. I'd be fearful of cagers abruptly switching lanes in front of me.
I'd sooner ride up the shoulder...
 
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I wish, but probably never in my lifetime. :(
 
I don't think it will make any difference in our part of the world. What percentage of vehicles on the road at any given time are bikes really?
In the GTA I'd go as far as to suggest bikes are statisticly insignificant.
Allowing the few bikes out there to lane-split/filter isn't going to put much of a dent in congestion.

I'm not against it, but holding up lane splitting as the cure for congestion is a little far fetched.
Personally... I wouldn't do it. I'd be fearful of cagers abruptly switching lanes in from of me.
I'd sooner ride up the shoulder...

All of the above. We don't matter here in Ontario - the "average" rider in most Provinces (perhaps BC aside due to their climate) only average 1000K per year, and ride from May through October at most - 6 months. Many riders average less than 1000K a year (simply look at the used market odometer readings) and only during the hot months, so say June through September - 4 months.

So yes, unlike US states where motorcycling is a 10-12 month of the year reality, we ARE statistically invisible, and asking the general public to make a polar shift in their behaviour and expectations around motorcycles based on a 4-6 month period of expecting to see motorcycles on the road to begin with is unlikely IMHO.

Years after it went into law people still don't know that they're supposed to change lanes away from stopped emergency vehicles. Many claim ignorance or simply refuse to do it since it's an inconvenience. Hell...people can't even maintain their own damn lane through double lefts. My point is...what's the chance that if filtering/splitting became legal tomorrow we still won't see riders getting injured by clueless cagers a decade from now who take the "screw you, you're not getting past me" mentality we all see and experience routinely on our roads, or just blindly don't care?

We all know the motorcycle ultimately loses in these debates.

It also needs to remove all of the "fluff" e.g. "Moving air to keep them cool", or "the engine will seize".

Yes, there was some grasping at straws in there - at least the narrator used the term "arguably" in several of the statements. I think the congestion arguments are utterly ridiculous as well.

Like others, I can see benefits in splitting/filtering IF the planets aligned and all the below was reality:

- No riders abused it. Good luck with that - ever been filtered by a squid doing 50K through stopped traffic at a light? I have.

- Cagers actually respected the reasoning behind it instead of intentionally changing lanes to block you in an effort to satisfy their "you're not getting ahead of me" mentality.

- Cagers were actually properly educated about both being legal. Again, good luck with that - efforts to educate people about existing (far more important) laws fall on deaf ears as it is, something that only matters for 4-6 months of year at best is a total lost cause.
 
I don't think it will make any difference in our part of the world. What percentage of vehicles on the road at any given time are bikes really?
In the GTA I'd go as far as to suggest bikes are statisticly insignificant.
Allowing the few bikes out there to lane-split/filter isn't going to put much of a dent in congestion.

I'm not against it, but holding up lane splitting as the cure for congestion is a little far fetched.
Personally... I wouldn't do it. I'd be fearful of cagers abruptly switching lanes in from of me.
I'd sooner ride up the shoulder...

^Agreed. Technically, I agree with everything said in the video but it's not as applicable to us here in Ontario. The video also doesn't mention the cons of lane splitting such as having less room to maneuver away from a vehicle about to side swipe you. I would be all for lane splitting but I don't expect these arguments to win over the rule makers.
 
what they forgot to mention is that paint turns to ice when it meets rain
 
If climate is the issue, someone should do a video of a skidoo lane splitting as a tribute to us all here in Canada. It would go viral.

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I've spent about 6 - 7 weeks in California over the past 4 years and have seen lane splitting on their major highways around LA and San Diego at speeds of 80 - 120 kph. Majority of this done without any drama and it all looked very civilized. There were a few SS bikes that blasted through at speeds way in excess of the speed limit, but they were the exception.

Would this work in Ontario? Maybe, but given the low competence or recklessness of some drivers (tailgating, weaving through traffic without using signals, etc......), especially in the GTA, and low level of driver awareness of bikes in general I think riders would be at much higher risk of incidents here vs. the riding environment in CA.
 
I've spent about 6 - 7 weeks in California over the past 4 years and have seen lane splitting on their major highways around LA and San Diego at speeds of 80 - 120 kph. Majority of this done without any drama and it all looked very civilized. There were a few SS bikes that blasted through at speeds way in excess of the speed limit, but they were the exception.

Would this work in Ontario? Maybe, but given the low competence or recklessness of some drivers (tailgating, weaving through traffic without using signals, etc......), especially in the GTA, and low level of driver awareness of bikes in general I think riders would be at much higher risk of incidents here vs. the riding environment in CA.

I thought california allowed lane splitting as long as you were within 15mph of surrounding traffic. That would explain the lack of blasting through as some riders are smart enough to realize they could lose their good thing by being *****.
 
I thought california allowed lane splitting as long as you were within 15mph of surrounding traffic.........

Don't know the CA laws but the lane splitting differential in speed I observed was not huge, so this sounds right. The very fast SS riders ( again, the exception ) were way above the speed limit anyway, so the fine details re lane splitting were probably a moot point to them.
 

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