Firstly, I am not involved in this campaign in any way beyond being a person who rides a motorcycle and drives cars in Oregon.
Secondly, looks like our legislature here in Oregon is considering legalizing lane-splitting. Here is a link with directions on how to submit a comment in support (or not) of the bill. All comments are due by 8am on March 3rd. I know it's short notice, but I only just heard about the bill.
I have submitted my comments in favor.
I'm not sure if/when I'll go back to riding on the street, but I'm absolutely in favor of increasing the uptake for general efficiency. I like the idea of this being a place where more people ride (and drivers are more conscious of the number of bikes and actually look for them).
In reply to Jesse Ransom (FFS) :
Thanks! I'm not sure if I even would lane split if it becomes legal, but I'd be glad if others can.
I don't live in Oregon, but I learned to ride in CA, where lane splitting is 'legal'.
Done properly, lane splitting is actually safer for the motorcyclist than sitting in traffic. Not to mention the obvious benefits as far as efficiency, and dealing with hot weather.
There's very few things I miss about living in CA, but lane splitting is one of them.
The prohibition of lane splitting in Oregon has severely diminished the enjoyment of my motorcycles.
I hardly ride anymore, where I used to ride always (unless it was raining at the start).
I have on occasion forgotten and have been verbally assaulted for "cutting" in line by my fellow Oregonians (not looking to test limits there).
I'd like to say that if this passes I will ride more. we'll see...
We can lane split in WA, and I have used it exactly once. I was on I5 stuck in stopped traffic at JBLM. I'd been idling and rolling a tiny bit for about ten minutes when a bike came up behind me slowly. He honked twice and I fell in behind him. We split together (me right behind him, duh) until we got through the traffic. It was fantastic and made me feel a lot safer that there were two of us even though traffic was at a full stop so there was not a ton of no-look-lane-changers to worry about.
I support the legality to do this...as others have said: I don't know that I'll use it much though.
In reply to Mezzanine :
I've only lived in Oregon since getting my motorcycle endorsement... er... a long time ago. So I've never lane split/shared/filtered.
I think it could be handy occasionally. It may be over-optimistic, but I think I like it as much for encouraging a little education about motorcycles, attention from drivers. I mean, that's clearly substantially optimistic. I just think there's so much room for improvement and so much good could be done for everyone by making traffic flow better and be more attentive.
Of course, we're terrible about driver education. I was an avid cyclist here for years before I ever found any documentation about what "sharrows" were (the marks on the pavement indicating that this is specifically a route bicyclists are encouraged to use), and underscoring the fundamental that bicycles get to have some roadway, which is true regardless of whether there are sharrows. I can only imagine that most non-cycling drivers still have no idea what they are or what they mean, which is probably indicative of how much education about lane-sharing there will be if this passes. Presumably there will be plenty of backlash and angry drivers before understanding dawns, if it does.
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