I live in Los Angeles County and have about a 90 mile round trip commute which I do on one of my bikes every day. I also lane share every day. Here in CA, motorcycles can ride in the HOV or toll lanes free of charge (at least those I ride in). When lane sharing, legally, it must be done in a safe and prudent manner (as mentioned by others), but that's subjective. I would say that in most cases, the officer’s testimony would prevail.
I'm not one who has to go fast (my primay commutter is a CB250 (70mpg)), but I do like to get through traffic when I able to do so safely (I sure don’t want to crash). Before I tell my story below, I’ll say that I’ve been riding for 35 years, have put about 280K miles on my bikes and commute on one of my bikes rain (which I don’t recommend) or shine. That said, I was once lane sharing on the freeway and approached a sheriff officer doing the same (on his motorcycle). He was mostly ridding the speed of traffic, but would lane share once in a while to get passed a vehicle or two. I flashed my brights a few times as I followed him at a safe distance, to signal that I'd like to pass. Seeing no acknowledgement, I moved into next slot over, between the 2 and 3 lanes, and in that slot, I did continue a safe distance past him before moving back into the ‘primary’ slot (between 1 & 2 lanes). He then lit me up and I pulled over. After giving him my license and registration, he said that he determines what is safe in the slot and that 5mph is all that was safe. He said I was doing between 10 to 15 over traffic (with traffic doing 20mph). My reply was “with the exceptions of when it was not safe, for which I made adjustments, you are correct”. He asked me how long I had my motorcycle license and I told him 35 years. He replied “Oh”, handed me back my license, got back on his motorcycle and that was the end of that. If I had been given a ticket, I would have fought it and won (almost certainly). The story is only to show that a rider with skill and experience (possibly more than the citing officer), along with a good driving record, does have a reasonable ‘say’ as to what’s safe. Of course this would not include riding recklessly or speeding (speed is not subjective). Chuck -- 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.
