driving in a not safe and prudent manner is illegal whether you are doing it on a bike while lane splitting or in a semi pulling into a rest stop. if you get stopped while lane splitting, you would never get a ticket for just lane splitting, your ticket would concern some other action, ie reckless driving, unsafe operation of a mv, etc. of course if you do get a ticket and are following the chp guidelines, you do have the option to challenge the ticket. look its not worth arguing about. people used to snort incense around here and go nuts, there was no law making it legal and no law making it illegal. it wasn't in a grey area where it wasn't legal or legal and they finally passed a law making it illegal. you think that things not specifically covered under the law as illegal aren't legal and I cannot understand that. sorry as I stated before, I personally cant wait till they repeal the law against it here in fla, there are crazy old people everywhere.
________________________________ From: mbs <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: jeff mercier <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 4:47 PM Subject: Re: [Nighthawk Lovers] Re: About Lane Splitting The CHP's new guidelines are a good step in the right direction but they say just what I said “its not illegal” they do not remove the grey area that has always been there. They actually keep the grey area intact when they say: “With respect to possible law enforcement action,keep in mind that it will be up to the discretion of the Law Enforcement Officer to determine if riding behavior while lane splitting is or was safe and prudent.” In other words if an officer feels that splitting a lane at 5mph between stopped traffic is not “safe and prudent” he/she can ticket you if he/she wants. And there would be no traffic code you could cite that allows motorcycles to split lanes in those conditions should you want to fight it. There are the guidelines but they are just that, not laws or traffic codes and they don't have to follow them if they choose not to. Keep in mind the CHP does not make laws and other departments do not have to follow their guidelines. Most would probably use the guidelines but it is a possibility they won't. Reckless riding is illegal and even under the new guidelines it is up to the officer whether or not any type of lane splitting is reckless. What is needed are traffic codes in place that specifically allow lane splitting not just guidelines that leave it up to an officers discretion. Whether or not 53% of Californians know about the legalities of lane splitting is beside the point, all I know is that it is accepted and expected for the most part here in the Bay Area. At least that’s my experience during my daily commute on Bay Area highways. I can't speak for other parts of California but I imagine its the same in the other urban areas. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
