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This video features Claude Wyle, a Personal Injury attorney based in California.
Claude Wyle:
Getting the motorcyclist off the road and through traffic so they are not interacting with the other vehicles is much safer.
Tom Mustin:
When you're riding a motorcycle on the highway, where is the safest place to be? Our answer might not be what you expect. We're gonna talk to California attorney and motorcyclist Claude Wyle about that on today's episode of Ask the Lawyer. Claude, thanks for joining us today.
Claude Wyle:
Thank you, Tom, it's good to see you.
Tom Mustin:
Great to have you. So we're gonna start up by asking you, what is lane splitting on a motorcycle? And is that legal in California?
Claude Wyle:
Okay. First of all, lane splitting also called lane sharing, lane filtering, amongst a lot of other names, and yes, it's a 100% affirmatively legal in California. What lane splitting is not is when you have control of a lane, but you're either on the right wheel track or the left wheel track of your lane, but you still have control of one lane. When you are technically lane splitting is when there is a motor vehicle on your left and a motor vehicle on your right and you're in between them, but your wheels are gonna be in one lane or the other. For instance, if you are lane splitting between the number one and the number two lane, which is usually the place of choice for motorcyclists, then your tires are probably gonna be in the left portion of the number two lane, or the right portion of the number one lane, you're not gonna be riding the dots, you're not gonna sit there and bump your way over the reflectors. So lane splitting is when there is a vehicle on either side of you and you're in the middle, but your tires are on one side of the lane or the other.
Tom Mustin:
Okay. And I wanna ask you, is it illegal in other states? So I know it is legal in California.
Claude Wyle:
It's illegal in 48 states.
Tom Mustin:
Oh, wow.
Claude Wyle:
Right now I don't remember in what other state it is legal, I think it's another very hot state like Arizona or Florida. The reason it came about... I don't know if you wanna know the history of it, the reason it came about is 'cause bikes were overheating, and when they were overheating, they were stalling, and they were stalling on the freeway, and it was so dangerous because then they would get rear-ended when they stalled out on the freeway. This kinda came from the Los Angeles traffic, and what would happen is there'd be a lot of traffic and a motorcyclist would be behind a car in a traffic jam, and with a Harley, of course, you've got two cylinders and the cylinder in front is always in the air, but the cylinder behind, if the bike isn't moving, the cylinder behind is just getting heated up. So when the cylinder behind got heated up, the bike would overheat, the car would stall, and the poor motorcyclist would be stuck out in the middle of the freeway with cars or trucks in front, and cars or trucks behind, and that was very dangerous. That's why we first started doing lane splitting.
Tom Mustin:
I did not know that, I'm learning something new here, Claude, great. Hey, I wanna ask you, is there a recommended speed limit for lane splitting or can you just do it at any speed?
Claude Wyle:
At this time in California law and in the guidelines from the California Highway Patrol, we don't really have a recommended speed. It used to be around 30-35 and no more than 10 or 15 miles an hour faster than the rest of the traffic. But they took that away. Somebody who didn't like lane splitting, decided that if you give guidelines for safer lane splitting, that was encouraging lane splitting and that was a bad idea. So then they tried to make lane splitting illegal, and they didn't have any... On the legislative committee, they didn't have any motorcyclists, not one. And they were gonna make it illegal, and then finally a friend of ours, someone whom we've represented, got on the committee and studies happened, and the study that they had over at UC Berkeley right here across the bay, said that lane splitting was more safe than not lane splitting, and so with that in hand, and with that in mind, they made lane splitting not just not illegal, but affirmatively legal, and that was signed into law.
Tom Mustin:
Well, let me follow up on that question because, how is it safer sometimes... Why is lane splitting safer for motorcyclists in some cases? Why is that?
Claude Wyle:
Well, okay, I'm glad you asked, because it really is a lot safer. It's also called lane filtering, and it's basically getting the motorcycle out of that spot between the back of a car or bus and the front of a car or bus. You don't really wanna have the motorcyclist sandwiched in between. If you can get the motorcyclist through lane splitting, lane sharing, lane filtering to get out of the way, off the road, it is safer because they are no longer a hazard. Many people have a problem perceiving that they're coming up to the back of a motorcycle. Many people will look at the back of the van in front of them, or the back of the 18-wheeler, and they will just move their car right up to the back and go right through a motorcyclist. It's happened, we've had so many of those cases. People just often don't see them. I don't know why it doesn't register in their mind, but getting the motorcyclists off the road and through traffic so they are not interacting with the other vehicles is much safer than having them stranded and going two miles an hour in the middle of a traffic jam.
Tom Mustin:
Okay, so we know that's in just regular traffic. Is lane splitting for motorcyclists... For 18-wheelers or city buses legal as well, and is that safe?
Claude Wyle:
It's legal. I would say that it's not as safe. City buses and 18-wheelers and all sorts of really large vehicles take up much more of the lane, and if they take up much more of the lane, that means there's less lane for the motorcycle, and especially with some of our big Harleys with really wide bars, you might end up with 3.5 feet of bar and not enough room to get through. It's probably not a good idea to lane split next to a giant vehicle like a city bus or an 18-wheeler, because if that person moves over even one foot, they might pinch you off and you might run out of room and you might end up just... Even if you just touch one of the other vehicles, that can send a bike out of control. So it's legal, you can do it safely, but you better have a big gap in between so that you know you won't run out of room.
Tom Mustin:
And Claude, I know you're an experienced motorcyclist yourself, so do you have any tips for motorcyclists to stay safe when they are lane splitting?
Claude Wyle:
Yeah, the tip I have is to always be aware of all of the vehicles coming up, as we would say, downstream, look ahead, because if you can see that there might be less of a gap up ahead, then you can moderate your speed and not get caught in a dangerous situation. So I don't recommend lane splitting at 70 miles an hour or speeding faster than the speed of traffic. I think that's a bad idea. I've had clients who were lane splitting at faster than 55 or at 55, it's not as good an idea. It doesn't mean it's illegal, it doesn't mean they don't have a right to recover if somebody violates their right of way, but it is not as safe as if you were lane splitting say at 30 to 35 maximum. Really, lane splitting in my mind should be more about trying to remove yourself from a dangerous situation by being stuck with traffic as opposed to just beating traffic to work.
Tom Mustin:
Well, this has been a fascinating discussion, and we really appreciate your expertise, Claude. Thanks for joining us today.
Claude Wyle:
Absolutely. Any time you wanna hear about lane splitting or anything that has to do with motorcycling, we are brought in... Our firm has brought into motorcycle cases all across the country as consultants and often as co-counsel, and we're happy to help. Even if you don't wanna bring us in as co-counsel, call us up, ask us a question. We've got the experts who know the most about motorcycling in the whole country. We're the guys, we're the biking lawyers. Thanks, Tom.
Tom Mustin:
Well, great to talk to you, Claude, thank you. So that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask the Lawyer. My guest has been lawyer Claude Wyle. If you'd like to ask Claude questions about your situation, call the number you see on the screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Tom Mustin for Ask the Lawyers.
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