To you non-splitters, you can't think of it like just riding blithely down a nice little "motorcycle lane;" it's really a series of completely separate decision points with every car or pair of cars you pass.
Well said, Mike-From-Sacramento-Who-Rides-a-Blue-Motorcycle. :blink: For me, one of the moments when my mental threat level goes from yellow to orange is when I come up to an open spot in one lane and packed cars in the other, particularly if the open-spot lane is moving faster. You KNOW someone's gonna jump into that space.
I can recall once in such a situation I had to dive the handlebar hard left then right in a dramatic slow-speed swerve to avoid someone who jumped over. That was a maneuver I had practiced many times when going down a deserted road. And it was helpful to have my revs up when I did it.
And a quick comment to folks who say they would never lane share: Every rider who does it routinely had a moment where it was the first time he / she said "F**k this," did a shoulder check for other riders, and pulled up between the cars. It starts out very slowly, gingerly, modestly, briefly, because it is a new experience. That's how it was for me. I was very nervous when I first rode my Sporty in rush-hour traffic, let alone up between cars. But with practice and experience comes confidence and the development of personal preferences and strategies. I guarantee you, if you commuted by MC every day, and it were legal to get out of the traffic jam by going up the middle, you would eventually do it. And then you would do it some more, and then you would do it all the time, and then you would DIG IT! :yahoo: (Anybody seen Hurt Locker???
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