OFF THE WIRE
attended the California Motorcycle Safety Program's Advice Committee Meeting a few weeks back, at the CHP board meeting here in Sacramento.
Berkeley Research team did a study of 733 Car driver's interviewed & 560 Bikers interviewed at CA gas stations by Berkeley Researchers on Lane Sharing.
Lane Sharing is when a biker goes from one lane to the other & stops between each car to make sure it's safe to continue forward. This is allowable. Lane Sharing is when two vehicles SHARE the lane in same space.
Lane Splitting is when bikers ride the white line straight ahead & don't get off of it, going between two lanes. This is not allowable! This is called straddling the line.
BTW there is no vehicle codes about Lane Sharing / Splitting.
The stats will not add up to 100%, they are just stats about each question asked.
53% of car drivers believe lane sharing is allowable
23% of cars block bikers because they don't like it
1.5% refused to answer
54% think of all asked think that it's illegal to lane share.
44% of all will block if possible
33% have caused accidents trying to block bikers
CHP has put together a 30 second video for public awareness. It doesn't have complete approval to put out to the public as of yet. It was a good video as they showed it to all of us at the meeting. It shows how to properly lane share & does show about lane splitting.
Not enough money to allow amber alert to post messages twice a day during rush hour about bikers sharing the lanes & the road. There are other things that are more important than just posting twice a day about bikers.
