Lane Splitting Through Slow Cars on Two Lane Freeway

[jeffb502]

Somebody decided to drive the same speed in the fast lane as the car in the slow lane with only 2 lanes heading the same direction on this freeway. A group of people wanting to drive faster started forming behind the slow left lane driver, and I had more cars coming up behind me. I decided rather than get stuck in the middle of an increasingly large group I would just pass all of them to get to the open section of road for my own safety.

Link to original page on YouTube.

The last driver in the slow lane flashed high beams at me after I passed. I don't know if the driver was annoyed or just letting me know my high beam was on. I gave a friendly wave and kept going, with my high beam still on of course.

This is in CA where lane splitting is "not illegal," but the California Highway Patrol states "It is not advisable to lane split when traffic flow is 30mph or faster" (note they don't say it is illegal, just not advisable). I believe in this situation due to the generous lane width, traffic conditions, straightness of the road, and lack of wide vehicles, it was not unsafe to split.

Source: http://www.chp.ca.gov/programs/lanesplitguide.html

[allanoue]

You were breaking the law

from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d12/vc24409.htm
24409. Whenever a motor vehicle is being operated during darkness, the driver shall use a distribution of light, or composite beam, directed high enough and of sufficient intensity to reveal persons and vehicles at a safe distance in advance of the vehicle, subject to the following requirements and limitations:

(a) Whenever the driver of a vehicle approaches an oncoming vehicle within 500 feet, he shall use a distribution of light or composite beam so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver.

The lowermost distribution of light specified in this article shall be deemed to avoid glare at all times regardless of road contour.

(b) Whenever the driver of a vehicle follows another vehicle within 300 feet to the rear, he shall use the lowermost distribution of light specified in this article.

Amended Ch. 37, Stats. 1965. Effective September 17, 1965.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

You were breaking the law

from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d12/vc24409.htm
24409. Whenever a motor vehicle is being operated during darkness, the driver shall use a distribution of light, or composite beam, directed high enough and of sufficient intensity to reveal persons and vehicles at a safe distance in advance of the vehicle, subject to the following requirements and limitations:

(a) Whenever the driver of a vehicle approaches an oncoming vehicle within 500 feet, he shall use a distribution of light or composite beam so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver.

The lowermost distribution of light specified in this article shall be deemed to avoid glare at all times regardless of road contour.

(b) Whenever the driver of a vehicle follows another vehicle within 300 feet to the rear, he shall use the lowermost distribution of light specified in this article.

Amended Ch. 37, Stats. 1965. Effective September 17, 1965.

I am aware of that law. I use my high beam while passing for my own safety. That's why it's called "flash to pass"...having high beams on while passing makes me more conspicuous to drivers that may not otherwise see me. I'd rather be cited for riding with my high beam on than have somebody change lanes in to me while I'm passing them.

That said, I do drop to low beam only when I'm following a car on a two lane road in a no passing zone for some distance at night, but before starting my pass I go back to high beam to help them remember I'm there and try to communicate that I'm passing now.

[jeffb502]

Just re-read that vehicle code section. I guess women are allowed to use their high beams at all times? This vehicle code section would appear to be an unconstitutional violation of my rights under the 14th amendment due to gender discrimination.

Also, this law only seems to apply to drivers of vehicles, not riders :P

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by jeffb502

I am aware of that law. I use my high beam while passing for my own safety. That's why it's called "flash to pass"...having high beams on while passing makes me more conspicuous to drivers that may not otherwise see me. I'd rather be cited for riding with my high beam on than have somebody change lanes in to me while I'm passing them.

That said, I do drop to low beam only when I'm following a car on a two lane road in a no passing zone for some distance at night, but before starting my pass I go back to high beam to help them remember I'm there and try to communicate that I'm passing now.

It looks like you did not flash, ok by law, but just left them on. Which makes it harder for drivers to judge how far away you are and how fast you are going. It is unlawful to run high beams like that for your safety.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

It looks like you did not flash, ok by law, but just left them on. Which makes it harder for drivers to judge how far away you are and how fast you are going. It is unlawful to run high beams like that for your safety.

The vehicle code section you quoted makes it illegal to have your high beam on at any time. Flashing is having it on, therefore it is illegal to flash while passing (at night when 300 feet or less to the rear of a vehicle).

It is easier to tell how far away another vehicle is if it has 2 lights on, preferably separated from each other as far as possible. If you only have 1 light on it is harder for drivers to judge distance. This is a fundamental flaw of motorcycles at night that only have one light illuminated.

[jeffb502]

Also noteworthy is that many people, in alarmingly increasing numbers, misinterpret a flashing high beam as a "flash to yield" aka "please move in front of me now." I don't flash my high beam when somebody is about to violate my right of way and I don't want them to, because it is very likely it will encourage them to do so. Just leaving it on most of the time makes me more visible and doesn't send mixed signals.

[allanoue]

Shinning a light directly into you eyes instead directed down some, will blind at night. Blinding the drivers around you does not make you safe.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

Shinning a light directly into you eyes instead directed down some, will blind at night. Blinding the drivers around you does not make you safe.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Shining a bright light in somebody's side view mirror for a few seconds (which is what this video shows) only blinds them if they stare directly into it. The bright light would tell them I am there, then they just have to follow the directions in the California driver's handbook about when a driver leaves their high beams on and not stare into the light. In this case, watch where they are driving, don't stare at the bright light in their mirror.

If somebody is behind me at night with their high beams on (or with low beam aftermarket HIDs creating ridiculous amounts of glare) here is what I do to not be blinded: (1) If the light is shining at my center rear view mirror and I don't have an auto dimming center rear view mirror, flip the toggle to move the mirror to night mode. (2) If the light is shining at a side view mirror, I don't have an auto dimming side view mirror, and the vehicle is positioned where it is shining light directly at the side view mirror and not passing me and I am not passing it, adjust the mirror to point the light away from my eyes or adjust my speed to move the vehicle out of that mirror's viewing angle. If they're passing me at a high speed differential with their high beams on no big deal...just keep driving and they'll be gone soon.

I agree it's dangerous to blind oncoming traffic on a 2-lane (1 lane each way, undivided highway) type rural road, and I do dim my hi beam when oncoming traffic is approaching on these roads and I can see I am likely to blind the drivers, especially when the road curves to the right since that points my lights directly at oncoming traffic. When the road curves to the left my Ninja 300's high beam is pointed off the road to the right to see deer, so there's no reason to dim it in that situation. If you've ever looked at the 300's high beam it's a ridiculously concentrated spot beam, almost like a pencil beam off road light.

Sometimes shining a very bright light at a driver is the best thing we can do for our own safety. I used to use a very bright LED tactical flashlight mounted to my helmet, along with about 1000 lumens worth of LED lights on my handlebars (with no horizontal cutoff, which creates more glare than a motorcycle low beam), riding my bicycle at night. If a driver didn't see the lights on the bars and started to pull out in front of me, they got a face full of focused high color temperature LED lumens. It never failed once to get their attention in multiple situations, usually involving me having the right of way on a main road and the driver starting to pull out from a stop sign or red light into my path. The vehicle code specifically authorizes bicycles to use helmet lights on roadways (and requires at least a helmet light if none is mounted to the bicycle). I think it would be nice to have a motorcycle helmet with some very bright LED headlights built in to serve the same purpose my home made bicycle helmet/light combo did.

Also notice in the video above in 20 seconds of riding there are two vehicles going the other way with non DOT approved aftermarket HID kits which shine light everywhere. These are supposed to be the cars' low beams, but the amount of glare/blinding effect is at least as much as the stock high beam on my Ninjette. As long as people are going around blinding everybody else with their aftermarket HIDs it is safer for me to keep my high beam on to try to help the already blinded drivers see me.

I do like this discussion, and had no idea we were going to talk about high beam safety here. Thanks for keeping it civil. I enjoy being able to share arguments and counter arguments without somebody going all ad hominem. I'm going to keep using my high beam when it's safe and practicable, and turning it off when it's unsafe to use it, regardless of what the law says. Ultimately I'm responsible for my own safety and based on my training and experience I would argue it would have been unsafe for me to be splitting traffic in the situation above with only a low beam on, since it would be way too easy for my low beam to blend in with the low beams of the cars I was passing and the front two or three cars may not have been able to see me approaching.

[jeffb502]

Oh and btw I think I said this in my welcome thread that you responded to, but I'll say it again because it's still true:

STRONG BAD RULES!

[allanoue]

tldr
yes I disagree and so does the law
and strong bad rocks

[subxero]

blinding people is not a good strategy IMO Not only can they not see but it also pisses them off.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

tldr

Here are the bullet points:

• I am not blinding people.
• There are methods to reduce the glare from a passing vehicle with unusually bright low beams or with high beams on.
• I dim my high beams when appropriate to prevent unsafe situations.
• I learned from my night time bicycle riding experience that there are some situations where intentionally shining a bright light at the face of another vehicle operator improved my safety and prevented right of way violations.
• I am competing for attention with other road users that are shining bright/glaring lights into the eyes of the same drivers whose attention I am trying to obtain.
• In the video above the safest lighting configuration for me and other road users was high beam on.

Each bullet point is taken in series from the paragraphs of the 801 word post you said was too long and you didn't read, so if you disagree with a bullet point you could just read the corresponding paragraph for my discussion of it.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by jeffb502

Here are the bullet points:

• I am not blinding people.
• There are methods to reduce the glare from a passing vehicle with unusually bright low beams or with high beams on.
• I dim my high beams when appropriate to prevent unsafe situations.
• I learned from my night time bicycle riding experience that there are some situations where intentionally shining a bright light at the face of another vehicle operator improved my safety and prevented right of way violations.
• I am competing for attention with other road users that are shining bright/glaring lights into the eyes of the same drivers whose attention I am trying to obtain.
• In the video above the safest lighting configuration for me and other road users was high beam on.

Each bullet point is taken in series from the paragraphs of the 801 word post you said was too long and you didn't read, so if you disagree with a bullet point you could just read the corresponding paragraph for my discussion of it.

It is simple and self evident.
@subxero has it right. You do not want to be splitting between blind POed drivers. You are asking for trouble. I know I will not convince you. New riders should not think this is safe.

[alex.s]

this is california. it would be odd if he had not immediately split and gotten out of the way of the rest of the cars.

california drivers are not texan drivers, nor floridian drivers, nor new yorker drivers. they can't drive for **** in anything but perfect weather which is alright because the weather is perfect 99% of the time, and they know how to deal with motorcyclists.

[Alex]

[allanoue]

@alex.s @Alex
Splitting is not my objection.

[alex.s]

i would agree with you about the lights when passing but i don't because this bike's lowbeam is a single bulb. single bulbs when splitting look like some other car in the back. double bulbs will not be confused while splitting. so again, you're wrong, this is california.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by alex.s

i would agree with you about the lights when passing but i don't because this bike's lowbeam is a single bulb. single bulbs when splitting look like some other car in the back. double bulbs will not be confused while splitting. so again, you're wrong, this is california.

Finally...I thought I was alone here with the PA crowd lol.

[allanoue]

So you are saying you ride high beam all the time at night? Chips do not or they did not the 4 years I was there. Certainly not when they are splitting.

[alex.s]

honestly though, the bike should have two low beams and side yellow thingies always on. dont know why it doesn't.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by allanoue

So you are saying you ride high beam all the time at night? Chips do not or they did not the 4 years I was there. Certainly not when they are splitting.

i didn't say ride with brights all the time. nobody likes getting blinded. but if you are splitting at night you should have your brights on if you only have one lowbeam headlight.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

So you are saying you ride high beam all the time at night? Chips do not or they did not the 4 years I was there. Certainly not when they are splitting.

Nobody said they ride with their high beam on all the time. You're going all slippery slope here.

Originally Posted by alex.s

honestly though, the bike should have two low beams and side yellow thingies always on. dont know why it doesn't.

I concur.

Originally Posted by alex.s

i didn't say ride with brights all the time. nobody likes getting blinded. but if you are splitting at night you should have your brights on if you only have one lowbeam headlight.

I also concur.

[alex.s]

i drive my car in traffic a lot as well as bikes. i have bikes split by me in the car very often... like literally many times every time i'm out (depending on weather) and if they are splitting on your right side, you cannot see them in your rear view mirror until they are about 6" behind you. you can't see them in the left mirror, and the size that they are in your right hand mirror is less than an inch which is about a quarter of the size of your mirror. an inch at about 6 feet away, how easily can you distinguish a bike light from a car light at night when it is about a quarter inch size 6 feet away from you to your side when you are looking forward? what about an abnormally bright light that you can see is actually two lights? what if it has little yellow things beside it?

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by jeffb502

I gave a friendly wave and kept going, with my high beam still on of course.

Looking at your video, you should have turned on your lows after splitting. You all should get a mod to have two low beam lights.

[jeffb502]

I noticed on the 300 they at least took a first step towards more visibility by adding the two little white 194 type bulbs on the outside edge of each headlight housing. I would prefer those to be amber, and brighter. The little 194 license plate light bulbs aren't going to be very visible at all.

I think having the front turn signals always on at full brightness would be a good first step to increasing night time visibility. I've seen this on lots of cruisers, and I think the Honda CBR250r does this also.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

Looking at your video, you should have turned on your lows after splitting. You all should get a mod to have two low beam lights.

Opposite direction traffic (in cars) frequently uses high beams on this road if they're not following anybody, and it doesn't bother me. I wasn't behind anybody at this point and I'd like to be able to see any blown up truck tire pieces or other debris laying in the roadway.

I'm picky about my lighting (and also about not casting unnecessary glare into the eyes of my fellow road users), and my limited night time riding on the 300 has shown me my low beam needs to be adjusted a bit higher (it doesn't shine far enough up the road to illuminate hazards at freeway speed) and my high beam needs to be adjusted lower (it's pointed straight ahead, so on level ground I don't see any of the light on the ground). I just found a video and I'm going out to the garage to adjust them now.

Blinding people is all about the beam pattern. On a straight road with a large center divider area I'm not going to blind anybody on the other side of the road with my little 300 high beam that shoots a beam straight forward with little side spill. If I had my low beam adjusted too high with the amount of spill it has that would more easily blind oncoming traffic than a properly adjusted high beam.

[alex.s]

you are actually supposed to use low beams when there is opposing traffic though. because it does blind. especially if its around a corner and the bike is leaned. our headlights are up higher than most cars. more like a truck.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by allanoue

You all should get a mod to have two low beam lights.

The reflectors are what make the difference between a high beam and a low beam. The low beam and high beam on the Ninja 300 both use a 55w H7 bulb, just in a different housing. In this case a custom low beam cut reflector would have to be made to fit in the high beam reflector housing, then there would be no high beam capability.

I guess a custom setup with 2 custom reflectors compatible with dual filament bulbs would work, but that would require a lot of wiring expertise and money to do properly.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by alex.s

you are actually supposed to use low beams when there is opposing traffic though. because it does blind. especially if its around a corner and the bike is leaned

Yep, already covered that one in my long post that nobody read lol. Also, the low beam can be blinding to oncoming traffic with the bike leaned (for example, around a right bend, leaning right causes the left edge of the horizontal low beam to rise, shining light directly into the eyes of people coming around the bend on the other side of the double yellow line).

[alex.s]

i read it before replying.

[jeffb502]

Found this video which was very helpful

Link to original page on YouTube.

A 1/4" ratchet with a standard 12mm socket fits in there just fine, and they adjust quickly/easily. I moved the low beam up a bit and the high beam down a bit. I like that they're independently adjustable. Now I want to go for a ride in the dark to see how they'll work.

[allanoue]

Don't be pissing off all the cagers, if not for your own safety then for the next rider behind you.

[jeffb502]

As a cager myself I can't recall a time I've ever been pissed off by a stock motorcycle high beam being on, even within 500' approaching or 300' behind me. The only time I've been annoyed by motorcycle lights is with aftermarket HIDs mounted in standard halogen housings, even when they're supposed to be low beams. They annoy me because they're blinding everybody, and I can tell they have a less useful distribution of light by the simple fact that they're blinding me, which means they're sending a bunch of light uselessly above where the horizontal cutoff should be.

Another annoyance I've been seeing more frequently is the people with aftermarket HIDs pointed straight at the ground. Obviously they got tired of having other drivers turn on their high beams or people complaining their lights were shining glare everywhere, so they crank the adjusters all the way down where they only light up the road about 20' in front of the car. This annoys me because they will not be able to see any reflectors on vehicles, cones, road signs, safety vests, me sliding down the road after I lowside, etc, and they will not be able to identify road hazards on roads with no street lights until it's too late to do anything about it.

I guess we all have our own pet peeves, but I go by the golden rule when I'm on the road. If I wouldn't want another road user to do it, I don't do it myself. I try to put myself in others' shoes, and the last thing I want to do is piss somebody off. If I was one of the drivers in the video would I have a problem with the motorcycle rider using his high beam? Absolutely not. I've seen multiple Ninja 300s riding around town and on the freeway with their high beams on while driving my car, and never been blinded by one.

[NevadaWolf]

Originally Posted by alex.s

honestly though, the bike should have ... side yellow thingies always on. dont know why it doesn't.

Eh hem, this might help.

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163431

Carry on.

[alex.s]

i would like it but i think that guy has me on ignore!

[NevadaWolf]

Originally Posted by alex.s

i would like it but i think that guy has me on ignore!

Use the contact link on modmy250.com to ask about it?

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

Eh hem, this might help.

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163431

Carry on.

^^I found this post helpful.

That's perfect! I remember seeing that a while ago but I don't think it had been completed yet. Don't know how I missed it. Thanks for the heads up.

[NevadaWolf]

If you are interested, need to hurry as he's shutting down modmy250.

[jeffb502]

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

If you are interested, need to hurry as he's shutting down modmy250.

I just sent him a PM. There's no mention of the running light module on modmy250.com and that thread doesn't make it seem like he has any running light modules left, but we'll see. Thanks for being so helpful. I watched your video in the thread about the module and that just makes me want the module more...and some LED rear turn signals too. All this safety gear is making my credit card company happy lol.