I'm in a handful of forums, one of which that I joined , actually by accident, is a sportsbike forum. Recently I entered into an ongoing discussion about the concept of "lane splitting" and why it should be legalized. Just to make it clear, the concept of lane splitting is motorcycles being able to pass between cars which are driving in their own lanes. Passing between them for as far as they can go is the thrust of their rationale for doing this.
The situations given for allowing it seem to come down to essentially three, repeated reasons: A repeated fear of being the last in line in traffic and then getting rear-ended by a cager, Another reason was simply not wanting to sit in traffic. The third was they didn't want their air-cooled bikes to sit still. There might have been more reasons but these three seem to be the front runners.
Now, for the record, I am personally big time against said practice.
The people in that forum are almost entirely young people, or as I (after reading their explosion of, in my humble opinion, illogical statements) have come to think of them as young, highly impatient, immortal, and clearly poor decision makers. Of the people that participated in the discussion, fully 85% are for it, say they do it all the time, and further say they will not stop it, law or no law. There was one fella that urged his fellow riders to drive "offensively".
Regardless of any counterpoint I could write, regardless of what alternatives to their reasons that I could give, the repeated and apparently almost universal reply they would give me is that if it would be legal, then no one would be breaking the law. And there ended their thought processes on the subject. Even my statement saying that the cemetery is full of people that did nothing wrong and followed the rules, had zero impact on them. To me they either are incapable or unwilling to THINK the concept through. If its legal its ok is the mantra.
I felt like I was talking to rocks or aliens. They're young, immortal, and have fast bikes that they are supremely over-confident about being able to operate without any accidents. These kids scare the hell out of me.
I am interested in hearing the thoughts of an older, mortal crowd on this subject. Does this concept scare you? Do these kids scare you? What the heck is wrong with this younger generation?
My daughter is 36 (or 37), solidly married and not apt to get on a bike any time soon. But if I did have a daughter dating a young fella that did this I would certainly put the kibosh on that relationship fast!
The situations given for allowing it seem to come down to essentially three, repeated reasons: A repeated fear of being the last in line in traffic and then getting rear-ended by a cager, Another reason was simply not wanting to sit in traffic. The third was they didn't want their air-cooled bikes to sit still. There might have been more reasons but these three seem to be the front runners.
Now, for the record, I am personally big time against said practice.
The people in that forum are almost entirely young people, or as I (after reading their explosion of, in my humble opinion, illogical statements) have come to think of them as young, highly impatient, immortal, and clearly poor decision makers. Of the people that participated in the discussion, fully 85% are for it, say they do it all the time, and further say they will not stop it, law or no law. There was one fella that urged his fellow riders to drive "offensively".
Regardless of any counterpoint I could write, regardless of what alternatives to their reasons that I could give, the repeated and apparently almost universal reply they would give me is that if it would be legal, then no one would be breaking the law. And there ended their thought processes on the subject. Even my statement saying that the cemetery is full of people that did nothing wrong and followed the rules, had zero impact on them. To me they either are incapable or unwilling to THINK the concept through. If its legal its ok is the mantra.
I felt like I was talking to rocks or aliens. They're young, immortal, and have fast bikes that they are supremely over-confident about being able to operate without any accidents. These kids scare the hell out of me.
I am interested in hearing the thoughts of an older, mortal crowd on this subject. Does this concept scare you? Do these kids scare you? What the heck is wrong with this younger generation?
My daughter is 36 (or 37), solidly married and not apt to get on a bike any time soon. But if I did have a daughter dating a young fella that did this I would certainly put the kibosh on that relationship fast!
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