The appeal of riding a motorcycle should be obvious – the wind, the elements, the performance, all accessible via the drama of piloting two wheels. However, the cost should be equally obvious. After all, they say there are two types of riders – those who have been down, and those who are going down. The following video is an example of the latter, where we’re watching as a lane-splitting biker gets taken out by the sideview mirror on a Chevy Bolt EV.
Once again coming to us from social media, the video is just a few seconds long, and appears as though it was captured in California by the dash cam of a nearby motorist. The video opens on a multi-lane highway at rush hour, with heavy traffic clogging the lanes. The light is low and the headlights on the cars are on. In the distance, we see a long line of cars on the highway at the foot of some hills. Up ahead of the dash cam car, we see a Chevy Bolt EV, while next to it is a Tesla Model 3 sedan.
As the video gets under way, we see a biker come up along the driver’s side of the dash cam car, aiming to split the lanes between the Chevy Bolt EV and Tesla Model 3. The bike isn’t exactly small – in fact, the pair of saddle bags added to the rear end give the two-wheeler some substantial girth.
Regardless, the rider goes for the gap, swinging their bike between the two all-electric vehicles. Unfortunately, it looks like the rider isn’t paying much attention, and glances left into the cabin of the Tesla. It’s at that moment that the bike strikes the sideview mirror on the Chevy Bolt EV.
The bike ping pongs between the two cars, sending the rider tumbling to the ground. Luckily, it looks like the cars manage to miss the rider as they scramble to their feet.
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Comments
This lane splitting is so stupid. You really want to put your life in the hands odpf two drivers texting, drinking or on drugs?
No matter who is at fault the rider loses.
The rider got what he deserved. Worst is when your doing 75mph and a crotch rocket flies between you and scares the s**t out of you.
Absolutely. Who the hell does the rider think he is, moving through traffic faster than the cage drivers. He should be waiting his turn way back somewhere behind you. It’s only fair that way.
The only time I’ve been hit on the freeway in 28 years of riding is when i was sitting in the lane, by myself, and one of you crazy cagers didn’t signal and swerved directly into me without signalling. I lane split daily because its the safest method of travel, if you do it slowly and filter forward.
28 year, what an idiot, you’d think you would have grown mentally.
Jason, you really need to lay off the drugs!
They have caused you to become NULL & VOID!!
Common sense passed you by & left you in the dust!
I have been street riding for over 52 years (& still am) & that lane splitting should be illegal nationwide. There is no sane reasoning for allowing it or participating in it. You are dealing with 3 motorized vehicles that are controlled by humans & you have no idea if they are aware of your presence or not. When you split a lane, you have just placed yourself in a very close proximity to a larger vehicle that your presence has just surprised a driver & their reaction to your noise or presence is going to produce a reaction by them. The crotch rockets are a whole other problem, but their life expectancy is right up there with being a “professional rapper”. Lane splitting is a situation that a seasoned mature rider would attempt to avoid instead of creating. I wish you many years of safe & enjoyable riding.
CR.8
I totally agree. I’ve been riding bikes since I was about 8 or 9 years old. When I moved to California, I had an 883 Sporty (HD) without bags. Being a smaller bike, I did the lane splitting a few times before I said no more and sold my bike. I truly feel it’s a bad thing, especially with a bigger bike.
Like Al said too. It drives me nuts when the traffic if flowing at 70 + MPH and bikes are still splitting lanes.
Wannabe organ donors.
Clearly you aren’t aware of actual studies showing lane splitting to be more safe.
What is safer: picking your moment to go between cars? Or sitting behind one whole the driver behind you is texting at 80?
Just because the rider here made a mistake doesn’t make the whole process unsafe. If that’s how things worked, I would call you driving your car dangerous based on all the deaths from drunk driving. Idiotic, right?
Uncited “actual studies” are vaporspeak (a phrase I coined in response to people who “googled it,” and therefore know the truth.) I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong but, without citing credible sources, you’re just blowing breeze.
It is the sign of the intellectually deficient to demand citations in a dopey online comment written on a phone.
You have access to all of humanity’s knowledge. Go seek it, instead of defaulting that because it wasn’t provided in a 2″ square window, that something is being hidden.
And use your own rational brain. Do you think being in front of a 4,000lb vehicle with an inattentive driver while approaching stopping traffic is safer than being to the side of it? Think carefully now.
Just because this guy screwed up doesn’t make the process bad, same as just because lots of people drive drunk and kill thousands annually doesn’t make driving something to ban.
The lack of logic with you people is astounding. No wonder you drive American cars.
Dario, your opening up a whole new can of worms. As a firefighter I cut people out of cars with an open bottle in the car, a phone in there hands, a needle in there arm. Some were saved others we have to wait for a coroner to come before we remove them. Are you saying nobody rides a bike while impaired? I scraped a lot of bikers of the road and although we usually don’t know if they were impaired sometimes its mentioned in the news paper. As far as texting and driving I have never seen an 80 year old walking around with a cellphone glued to their hand let alone texting while driving.
I don’t see how this is a reply to my comment.
Of all the uninformed people, you should know the danger of being rear ended by an inattentive driver and the benefit of moving forward through traffic and being between lanes when someone behind forgets themselves in tiktok.
So, you’re admitting you can’t prove what you said. You’re just making up statistics – vaporspeak. The onus of proving a statement falls on the person making it, not upon the person receiving it. Put up, or shut up. If you’re right, it should be worth the effort. If you’re full of beans, that will become self-evident by your failure to back up your vaporspeak.
Well then, there’s the problem, you don’t see.
LMAO.
They shouldn’t be allowed to drive between cars period.
Looks like an EV sandwich with a HD are the meat.
Hope they were ok, but it was a stupid move with any bike let alone a bagger.
These damn electric vehicles are at fault. This would never have happened between two ICE vehicles.
A lot of people aren’t getting your humor. LOL
Shhhhh. That’s how we separate the woke from the rest of us normal people.
Everyone is “woke.” The only difference between any two people is what triggers their wokeness.
The sun triggered mine this morning when I woke at 8:00 am. LOL
Anyone who is against lane-splitting, if you don’t like it then don’t do it. Those of us that are comforts with it are allowed to use it to great benefit. If a motorcyclist is going above 45 between cars, he/she is a fool and will get what’s coming to them. And it will be deserved. If you’re unsure that you can fit, don’t try. I ride a fairly large R125gs and I lane split just fine.
I’m comforts with it too. I like to lane split with my 2500 Crew Cab Dually . Doesn’t work too well though 🫤
Your attitude sucks. You don’t care about anybody but your own “comfort”. When you split between 2 cars you are surprising 2 drivers & if they are elderly their reactions may not be in your favor & then that is an experience that they would have to live with the rest of their lives. Don’t know what “great benefit” that can come out of this but it is like buying a lottery ticket, sometimes you win & sometimes you lose. Don’t forget, it is not all about you. I do wish you many safe enjoyable 2wheel miles.
Cars have mirrors, people are supposed to be scanning them at all times. Maybe it is the people that need training, and if they get so easily startled, perhaps they need to hang up the keys.
You do realize you are condemning a population of people to be placed in the path of inattentive drivers, because many of the drivers are inattentive. You think motorcyclists should bear the penalty of our failed driver training, enforcement, and plain old giving a crap?
Biker’s shouldn’t “bear the penalty”, but it’s the risk you take when you do this. Because unfortunately, no matter who’s fault it is, the biker is going to lose that “battle”. It’s one of those “it doesn’t matter who’s right, you’re still dead” situations. Either way the choice is yours, but yeah, you don’t get to complain when you’re the one smeared on the pavement. You made that decision, the car (likely) didn’t try to hit you.
Take look at the Chevy’s position in the lane. Almost looks like he was trying to cut the bike off. If this was in California, lane splitting is legal and exactly as it was being done – between the #1 and #2 lanes. IMO, the driver of the Chevy is at fault for crowding hlthe bike out of it’s rightful place in traffic.
In CA, it’s a driver’s duty to look out for ALL of the other vehicles and possible hazards on the road. More proof that it’s way too easy to get a driver’s license. Let’s make driving testing actually weed out the incompetent, and let judges rescind licenses for these kinds of failures.
No, I don’t ride a bike. But I don’t drive as badly as that buffoon in the Bolt.
The Bolt was still within its lane. That’s all that matters.
Not in California. From the California Highway Patrol:
“Effective January 1, 2017, section 21658.1 was added to the California Vehicle Code and defines lane splitting. The following is section 21658.1 in its entirety:
21658.1 (a) For the purposes of this section, “lane splitting” means driving a motorcycle, as defined in Section 400, that has two wheels in contact with the ground, between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane, including on both divided and undivided streets, roads, or highways.”
Lane splitting by motorcyclists is legal in California.
Intentionally blocking or impeding a motorcyclist in a way that could cause harm to the rider is illegal.
Opening a vehicle door to impede a motorcyclist is illegal.
Drivers in the far left lane should move to the left of their lane to give motorcyclists ample room to pass.
If this is from California, the left, right, or both vehicles could be at fault.
Lane splitting is practiced world-wide, except for about 45 States in the US and Canada. I’ve lane split on 6 continents, without an issue. It’s the US drivers that tend to be the worst about allowing smooth operation between cars and motorcycles. We’re not taking up your lane space, we’re not going to delay you, we’re getting a road-damaging vehicle (EVs are heavy, and that Volt will do 1100 times more road damage than the bike) off the road, and we’re quite fuel efficient.
Where is the statement in that statute that says the “laned vehicles” need to get out of the way? Swerving/impeding the biker is clearly illegal, but nowhere does it say ( anywhere that I’ve found anyways), the other vehicles need to yield/alter their course to the lane splitter…
You got part of it right. It is the drivers duty to look out for all
other vehicles within his or her line of sight. Accordingly, it was the duty of the motorcycle driver to ensure there was room for safe passage before splitting the lane and to identify and avoid all obstacles (like side view mirrors). Totally the biker’s fault.
Crazyfornia!
That’s what they called it back in the 60’s and 70’s. California has been the cutting edge in new technology and innovation for decades. We owe California a debt of gratitude for being free thinkers and moving the country forward in many positive ways. Yes it has its problems, but 40 million people make it home for a reason.
It’s legal to lane split in California as long as you’re speed isn’t more than 10 mph of the traffic. I’ve been riding for almost 40 years and try not to lane split unless there’s ample room between vehicles or when coming to an intersection.
It’s kind of amazes me that a liberal, regulation crazy, nanny state like California still allows this.
What would you expect from a state that allows people to shoplift and set up residence in the streets?
Yes, because no other states, especially red states, have shoplifting and homeless. Facts are funny things. Crime rates in some very red states are higher than in California.
Crime rates are highest in the major cities and all major cities are blue, no matter if the state is red or blue.
Patrick, cities have very high population density numbers. More people = more crime. Turn Fox News off and start using your brain.
Except population density is not the cause. Urban areas have much higher per capita rates of homicides, shootings and violent crimes. Check the FBI stats.
Urban areas also have greater poverty per capita than rural areas. The correlation is between crime and poverty, not just crime and population density.
Crime is not caused by political inclination. It is not caused by race, gender or sexual preferences. Crime is caused by poverty – more specifically, the desperation that arises from crushing poverty. The simple fact is most poor people (the vast majority, in fact) congregate in cities because that is where they can find enough services and support to simply survive another day. If you want to eliminate (or drastically reduce) crime, be a Christian. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter those without. And, for the love of God and Humanity, educate the children and save them from being raised in poverty! I don’t understand why so-called Christian conservatives have so little compassion and so much animosity toward anyone who is different from them (in nearly any way!). To quote the great leader himself, “It’s so sad!”
Support the family structure. End the policies that result in the destruction of families.
Never gonna happen. We’ve got to find a way to make the world we live in work, not try to turn back time.
You absolutely cannot back this statement up with hard data. It’s vaporspeak.
The illegal becomes legal in California and now we see the consequences in more ways than lane splitting.
It’s always been legal in California. Never was illegal.
Just like in 193 Countries around the world.
This video is a conservative plot to make EVs look bad. The bike rider sacrificed his bike and potentially his life for a lost cause. That reason is more acceptable to me than the bike rider just being stupid. His insurance company should see this and refuse to pay.
I’ve been riding for almost 40 years. I never was comfortable splitting lanes, but on an air-cooled motorcycle, you can’t sit in traffic without moving, because the engine will quickly overheat, causing catastrophic damage. Whenever I did split lanes, my speed was maybe 5 MPH, just enough to provide enough cooling for the engine, and I did this only until traffic moved fast enough to adequately cool the engine.
The Chevy Bolt was riding towards the left side of the lane, but was completely in the lane and didn’t make any move towards the motorcyclist. To me, the motorcyclist was at fault; he (or she) was going too fast and didn’t have enough room to pass between the two cars. The motorcyclist hit the Chevy, not the other way around.
It was so satisfying to watch as the outcome was well deserved. It is truly unfortunate the cars had to suffer the consequences.
In Calif. It is illegal to share lanes above 35 mph.(lanesplit)
As a commuter motorcyclist riding in the SF Bay area for near sixteen years, I can honestly say that lane filtering while adhering to the rules is a safe practice. That said, too many riders take it to the extreme, and fly through traffic as if they are invincible! Two reasons lane filtering is legal in California is most bikes are air cooled so sitting stationary on a motorcycle in gridlock will destroy an engine quickly. The second reason is to legally provide the vulnerable motorcyclist with a way to keep innatentive cage drivers from colliding into the rear end of a motorcycle. All naysayers base their opinions on erroneous info, and misbehaving riders. Lastly, if a cage’s side mirror is taken out by a bike, as long as the bike is traversing the lane next to that cage, insurance faults the cage for not yielding the right of way.
Your attitude is evident in the fact you refer to car drivers as “cage drivers.” That’s on par with referring to motorcyclists as “organ donors.” Shame on you!
It’s equally obvious in the way the biker was failing to maintain his attention on the road ahead of him. Gawking into cars as you split lanes is negligence, plain and simple.