Road Splitting (Just Splitting Lanes is for *******)

[SacramentoMike]

Still involved in what may be a life-long process of reviewing, organizing, editing and posting the vids I made in the Alps this summer, and finally got this one posted on YouTube. I labeled it "Lane Splitting, Italian Style."

Our tour guide told us that morning that we'd be coming into a town Called Riva (or Riva da Garda, since it's on the shore of Lake Garda, which can be seen in the background in part of the vid), and that the road would be pretty clogged with traffic. But don't worry, he says. Lane splitting is legal in Italy. "In fact, they might give you a ticket for not lane splitting." Now, I know what lane splitting is here in Cali, but this was something else entirely, as you'll see. They just split the whole damn road!

As to how the locals feel about it, they're clearly used to it and it didn't seem to bother anybody. I stopped next to a brown van at one point and exchanged a few words with the driver--don't remember what was said, but at the 1:15 point, as I was about to pull away again, you can see he gives me a thumbs-up. Probably wishing he could do the same.

The full video, in two parts, is a good fifteen minutes of this stuff--went on for miles and miles. But this two minutes is enough to give you a good flavor of it. When we arrived at our destination, the 'Zonies and the Canadians in the group were wearing grins that barely fit inside their helmets. So was I.

 

[Larry33319]

WOW, that was absolutly beautiful.

 

[allrider]

That's the way we should all be able to do it.

What were you riding? Sounded like a can of rocks when you sped up.

 

[FJRBluesman]

What were you riding? Sounded like a can of rocks when you sped up.

That was the new Beemer rear end. They made it a little loser to reduce friction and fires. So far, so good.

Mike;

When coming up to road work stops that is aghhhhh, done here.. sort of.

I'm not too sure I'd like that and trusting the oncoming traffic.

Looked like great vistas though!

 

[BigFJR]

Looks like Hwy 1 after Laguna Seca weekend!

 

[mcatrophy]

The Italians and the French are very aware of scooters and motorcycles, and in general will move over to help filtering, fairly obvious in the video. In France, some drivers will almost put their car into the roadside ditch to make room for you to come by, it can be almost embarrassing if you don't want to overtake!

In the UK, drivers are much less aware of two-wheelers, probably because they're nothing like as common. I'd say 5% will see you come up behind and move over a bit if they can.

The majority, say 90%, won't see you, or if they do they won't change their line.

The last 5% will try to make things difficult for you.

A little lane splitting story: A very slow moving motorway, 0-20mph traffic, I'm doing 15-30mph filtering between two lanes. Came up behind one of the last 5%, he moved a bit to his left so blocking my passage. Thought to myself "Maybe he just drifted a bit, I'll try the other side". So crossed his lane behind him, moving over to his right. And he moved to his right. We repeated this dance once more to the left and the right.

"Oh, Ok, we have a d*mb*ss here", thought I (I can be a little slow to pick things up at times).

So I moved over to his left again, but slowed a little to make a bit of space, then as he moved to block me I opened the throttle, rapidly switched sides to the right and passed him before he had time to react. It wasn't as dangerous as it sounds, but it did require a bit of planning with positioning, surrounding vehicles, speeds and so on.

I also made sure I got by a few more vehicles just in case he decided on some sort of retaliatory action.

It was a very satisfying manoeuvre

.

And the authorities in the UK quietly encourage filtering and lane splitting, but if you get involved in an accident, you are at a legal disadvantage to start off with, but that doesn't mean you are automatically legally 100% at fault.

But, going over the double white line as you can see at the end of the video is a definite no-no

, instant fine and license points.

 

[2fjr]

NIce video! I got to experience the same thing this summer. I was so impressed with the car drivers acceptance of the bikes coming by so close. I actually rode by Lake Garda as well, along with the Dolomites and other parts of the Alps. Even did some lane splitting on the Autobahn. When the cars see bikes coming in the rearview they move over in the lanes to make room for you. Stuff that would get you killed if you did it here was perfectly normal there. I loved it! Oh, I was on an older 1100RT with bags.

 

[beemerdons]

That's the way we should all be able to do it.

What were you riding? Sounded like a can of rocks when you sped up.

SacramentoMike had Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut for dinner the night before, the sound you heard was just SacMiguel farting as he was riding down the road!

 

[Checkswrecks]

*****.

You ain't ridden traffic till you've borrowed or rented in India!

 

[AVGeek]

I witnessed great 2 wheel culture in Barcelona and Paris earlier this year. If it had been in the budget, I would have joined the fray! I'll have to post it to YouTube, but I shot some video of the traffic madness on the circle around L'Arc de Triomphe.

 

[dcarver]

So how come sometimes the pack ceased forward motion? Why not just go? Didn't see anything that would impede progress...

 

[beemerdons]

So how come sometimes the pack ceased forward motion? Why not just go? Didn't see anything that would impede progress...

Brother Don I cannot speak for SacramentoMike, but there was a big titted Italian girl in a convertible next to me so I was in no hurry to go. There might have been a cute guy on a Vespa alongside for SacMike!

 

[SacramentoMike]

To give actual answers to the questions, I was on a GS650. Sounded pretty much like ever other thumper to me.

And every time I slowed down, it was 'cuz the guy in front of me slowed down. Don't ask me what the dude in the first bike was thinking when he slowed down. Maybe he saw Gina Lollobrigida too.

 

[CAJW]

That's the way we should all be able to do it.

What were you riding? Sounded like a can of rocks when you sped up.

Good analogy of the sound. I was wondering, SM, what did you do to piss off so many riders who passed you? Not ONE wave! I mean jeez, you'd think they were all pirates passing a BMW.

 

[SacramentoMike]

That's the way we should all be able to do it.

What were you riding? Sounded like a can of rocks when you sped up.

Good analogy of the sound. I was wondering, SM, what did you do to piss off so many riders who passed you? Not ONE wave! I mean jeez, you'd think they were all pirates passing a BMW.

They also had just passed Gina. Preoccupied, I guess.

In fact, I'd say we got the same proportion of waves from other bikes that I get anywhere I ride hereabouts.

 

[beemerdons]

That's the way we should all be able to do it.

What were you riding? Sounded like a can of rocks when you sped up.

Good analogy of the sound. I was wondering, SM, what did you do to piss off so many riders who passed you? Not ONE wave! I mean jeez, you'd think they were all pirates passing a BMW.

Brother John we were riding with 5 Canadians in our group with Maple Leaf flags on their helmets, those Canuckistanis can piss off the Pope!

 

[Geezer]

Not only was if very nice to see the cars keeping to the outside of their lanes, but they even left space between each other. I have never seen space between bumpers in the USA in slow moving traffic.

 

[Top_Speed1]

In the US, some cager would surely jack his wheel to the left just out of jealousy.

 

[odot]

Only in new york. Then again....I hear philly is even worse then new york.