ninjette.org - View Single Post

akima · August 28th, 2014, 02:50 AM

Hi @Snowieflake - welcome to the forum.

From your initial post, I think you have some very specific roads in mind. I can't figure out from your description if it's safe on those roads. You'll have to use your own judgement.

I can tell you though, that on a single lane (per direction) road, it's a bad idea to lane split on the right of the cars of your lane (closest to the hedge/pavement etc). The only time I ever do this is if the cars in the lane are completely stationary and even then, I do it very cautiously and very slowly, opting to split on the left of the car wherever possible.

These are some of the reasons I do not lane split to the right of cars (near the hedge):

* Roads are often designed so that they are hump shaped so that the water flows off to the side of road where the hedge or any drainage systems are. As such, the right side of the lane is more likely to have a poor surface and pot holes on account of water run off and puddle formation. It's not ideal to be encountering water damaged road (pot holes or bumpy sections) when you're stuck between a wall/hedge and a vehicle to your left.

* You're more likely to get dirt, leaves, muc, fallen branches, sticking out hedges and trash there. These things reduce grip or provide obstacles that can upset the bike or require avoidance manoeuvres - not ideal if you've got limited space because there's a vehicle to your left. When lane splitting, it's really important that you are able to quickly slow down if a vehicle starts drifting in its lane and for many other reasons (too numerous to list here). It's harder to slow down quickly if the road surface is as described.

* Drivers are more likely to expect you on their left. It's a common convention to filter to the left of vehicles. The convention ties in cleanly with the standard principle that faster, overtaking vehicles, overtake on the left hand side of the slower vehicle to the right. It's reasonable for a driver to look ahead and see a slow cyclist on their right hand side, or a horse, or even a pedestrian walking in the road... but not an undertaking motorcyclist coming up behind them.

* If a driver wants to overtake the vehicle in front of them, it's a near-universally excepted principle that they should check their left side mirror and do a left side shoulder check (blind spot) before pulling out. This is taught in any good driver training course. It's taught over here in England and I expect it's taught in the states. If you're splitting past them on the left, they are likely to see you if they're following this principle. If a driver is going to turn off onto a side-road to the right of them or simply pull over -- unless they live in an area with lots of cyclists -- it's not so likely that they will do a right side mirror check and a right side shoulder check to see if there is anything coming up on their right. If you're splitting on their right and they pull over / turn off without indicating (last minute decision) then they're probably going to take you out.

* When you're to the left of the vehicle you're really close to the driver of the vehicle (sitting in the left of the vehicle). They're more likely to hear you, they're more likely to see you and even a driver with bad spacial co-ordination is likely going to be able to steer their vehicle such that they don't hit you. If you're on the far side of the driver (to the right of the vehicle), then the opposite applies. I think the spacial co-ordination aspect applies particularly here: why do you think the "cars stay mostly to the left, hugging the double yellow", as you described it? I think it's because a lot of the drivers don't have a good feel for the size of their vehicle, so they employ the tactic of: if I drive close to the left of my lane where I can what I'm doing, the right side of my car is probably not going to hit anything because I'm on a big road. It's kind of like, they are driving motorbikes with really bike side cars sticking out to the right and just hoping that the side car isn't going to whack anything. Stay to the left where they are sat and where they have a good awareness of their vehicle, not to their right where they're not really sure what's going on.

Some things to bare in mind: I've written everything above from the perspective of driving on the right-hand side of the road. Over here everything is reversed as we drive on the left-hand side of the road. I wrote all of the above from the perspective of driving on the right, for your convenience.

There's a lot more elements to lane splitting that are vital to know other than which side of the lane should I split on when travelling on a single lane road. I've only covered that one element. You need to know a lot more to figure out whether it's safe or not. There are many things to take into consideration: Speed of traffic, your filtering speed compared to the traffic speed, traffic density, road conditions, visibility, quality of drivers in the area where you are filtering, number of turn offs, size of the vehicle you are passing, qty of other filtering riders (it's sometimes a PITA splitting at the same time as other riders!) and how aware the drivers are of motorcycles and of lane splitting motorcycles.

Take what you want from my post. Hope it helps. I lane split on every ride (you kinda have to over here!) and it's a really enjoyable part of my riding. I hope you learn to do it safely.

August 28th, 2014, 02:50 AM	#34
akima Nooblet Name: Akima Location: England Join Date: Jul 2011 Motorcycle(s): 2011 Ninja 250R FI Posts: A lot. Blog Entries: 5 MOTM - Oct '13	Hi @Snowieflake - welcome to the forum. From your initial post, I think you have some very specific roads in mind. I can't figure out from your description if it's safe on those roads. You'll have to use your own judgement. I can tell you though, that on a single lane (per direction) road, it's a bad idea to lane split on the right of the cars of your lane (closest to the hedge/pavement etc). The only time I ever do this is if the cars in the lane are completely stationary and even then, I do it very cautiously and very slowly, opting to split on the left of the car wherever possible. These are some of the reasons I do not lane split to the right of cars (near the hedge): * Roads are often designed so that they are hump shaped so that the water flows off to the side of road where the hedge or any drainage systems are. As such, the right side of the lane is more likely to have a poor surface and pot holes on account of water run off and puddle formation. It's not ideal to be encountering water damaged road (pot holes or bumpy sections) when you're stuck between a wall/hedge and a vehicle to your left. * You're more likely to get dirt, leaves, muc, fallen branches, sticking out hedges and trash there. These things reduce grip or provide obstacles that can upset the bike or require avoidance manoeuvres - not ideal if you've got limited space because there's a vehicle to your left. When lane splitting, it's really important that you are able to quickly slow down if a vehicle starts drifting in its lane and for many other reasons (too numerous to list here). It's harder to slow down quickly if the road surface is as described. * Drivers are more likely to expect you on their left. It's a common convention to filter to the left of vehicles. The convention ties in cleanly with the standard principle that faster, overtaking vehicles, overtake on the left hand side of the slower vehicle to the right. It's reasonable for a driver to look ahead and see a slow cyclist on their right hand side, or a horse, or even a pedestrian walking in the road... but not an undertaking motorcyclist coming up behind them. * If a driver wants to overtake the vehicle in front of them, it's a near-universally excepted principle that they should check their left side mirror and do a left side shoulder check (blind spot) before pulling out. This is taught in any good driver training course. It's taught over here in England and I expect it's taught in the states. If you're splitting past them on the left, they are likely to see you if they're following this principle. If a driver is going to turn off onto a side-road to the right of them or simply pull over -- unless they live in an area with lots of cyclists -- it's not so likely that they will do a right side mirror check and a right side shoulder check to see if there is anything coming up on their right. If you're splitting on their right and they pull over / turn off without indicating (last minute decision) then they're probably going to take you out. * When you're to the left of the vehicle you're really close to the driver of the vehicle (sitting in the left of the vehicle). They're more likely to hear you, they're more likely to see you and even a driver with bad spacial co-ordination is likely going to be able to steer their vehicle such that they don't hit you. If you're on the far side of the driver (to the right of the vehicle), then the opposite applies. I think the spacial co-ordination aspect applies particularly here: why do you think the "cars stay mostly to the left, hugging the double yellow", as you described it? I think it's because a lot of the drivers don't have a good feel for the size of their vehicle, so they employ the tactic of: if I drive close to the left of my lane where I can what I'm doing, the right side of my car is probably not going to hit anything because I'm on a big road. It's kind of like, they are driving motorbikes with really bike side cars sticking out to the right and just hoping that the side car isn't going to whack anything. Stay to the left where they are sat and where they have a good awareness of their vehicle, not to their right where they're not really sure what's going on. Some things to bare in mind: I've written everything above from the perspective of driving on the right-hand side of the road. Over here everything is reversed as we drive on the left-hand side of the road. I wrote all of the above from the perspective of driving on the right, for your convenience. There's a lot more elements to lane splitting that are vital to know other than which side of the lane should I split on when travelling on a single lane road. I've only covered that one element. You need to know a lot more to figure out whether it's safe or not. There are many things to take into consideration: Speed of traffic, your filtering speed compared to the traffic speed, traffic density, road conditions, visibility, quality of drivers in the area where you are filtering, number of turn offs, size of the vehicle you are passing, qty of other filtering riders (it's sometimes a PITA splitting at the same time as other riders!) and how aware the drivers are of motorcycles and of lane splitting motorcycles. Take what you want from my post. Hope it helps. I lane split on every ride (you kinda have to over here!) and it's a really enjoyable part of my riding. I hope you learn to do it safely.