It’s about time we had a mature debate in Australia about lane-splitting and filtering.
It’s legal in places like California and encouraged in England to free up traffic. Why are Australian authorities so much against it? Are they just jealous that motorcyclists don’t have to be caught in traffic jams?
And why are we only on the defensive about lane-splitting? We should be actively extolling its virtues, not trying to hose down every time some bureaucratic nutter with too much time and money on their hands decides it would be worth bringing in a specific law to stop the practice.
Most motorcycle accidents are rear-enders. If we bikers were legally permitted to split lanes or filter, they could avoid being sitting ducks in traffic.
I’d like to know how many accidents are caused by lane-splitting or filtering? Very few I could imagine.
But what would I know? What would any of us know? There is precious little data available.
So that’s where we should start. These lane-splitting trials in Sydney and proposed trials in Victoria will come to nothing unless there is some supporting evidence.
Meanwhile, click HERE and check out this US video which shows the virtues of lane-splitting.
