Originally Posted by
neanderthal
Those of you residing in AZ should be contacting your representatives regularly. And telling your fellow riders, friends and neighbours to advocate on your behalf as well.
Tout the benefits;
* each bike is one less car on the road.
* lane splitting allows a vehicle (bike) to use non usable space on the road
* both the above reduce congestion
* all the above reduce tailpipe emissions; more vehicular traffic actually moving rather than crawling or idling
* bikes occupy less space on the road, ie; two bikes next to each other in the same lane use the same space as one car (I don't really advocate that myself, but the lawmaker needs to see as many pluses as possible!)
* you can easily see around motorcycles at the traffic ahead
* rear end crashes constitute the 2nd highest accident type involving more than one vehicle.
* fewer fatalities if motorcyclists can filter to the front of the traffic at lights and stop signs.
* if passed, more people might be more inclined to ride, reducing pressure on the road systems, while allowing the same number of commuters to use it.
* that ^ more efficient use of the roads is like adding a lane of traffic to the roads, but without the construction, the delays and especially the costs of actually adding a lane to the roads
* etc etc etc
Sure, drivers aren't expecting bikes to pop up between them, but then again, lane splitting only really requires that drivers stay in the center of their lane, and the biker can squeeze in between the cars if they feel comfortable doing so. In other words, done properly, lane splitting doesn't require anything extra from the drivers, just that they do what they should already be doing.