pass every car at a red light?

[kevin_stevens]

Originally Posted by KidOnASupersport

do it so you don't get rearended

Yeah, that argument is bullshit. If you were just trying to avoid getting rear-ended, you'd pull up between the first row or two of stopped cars, stop, and wait. Nobody does that, if they filter they filter up as far as they can.

KeS

[termlifed]

Originally Posted by kevin_stevens

Yeah, that argument is bullshit. If you were just trying to avoid getting rear-ended, you'd pull up between the first row or two of stopped cars, stop, and wait. Nobody does that, if they filter they filter up as far as they can.

KeS

¿por qué no los dos?

Split not to get rear ended and enjoy the perks while you're at it.

[RobMoore]

Good luck with the cagers letting you back into the lane if you stop short of the front of the line.

The reason to go to the front is to get back in a lane when the light goes green.

[NYC Diesel]

pass every car at a red light?

Yea of course, why not.

[PhilB]

Originally Posted by maverick0716

Maybe I'm just ignorant, but how can you say that travelling in the middle of two lanes with vehicles occupying both lanes isn't dangerous? If any vehicle swerves in the slightest amount, you will be screwed? Am I wrong?

Yes, you're wrong. Lanesharing is safer than sitting in traffic, if done reasonably. The CHP recommends that you not go more than about 10mph faster than traffic is going, and that traffic not be going faster than about 40mph. If you go with that (which I do, approximately), it's a perfectly reasonable way to ride, and the same as or less dangerous than riding in traffic without doing it.

PhilB

[Scissors]

Originally Posted by RobMoore

Riding is dangerous.

True. Even driving is dangerous, with ~25,000 deaths per 312,000,000 people per year for those in non-motorcycle/trike/etc. road-legal vehicles. This is 1/24th the rate of the nation's #1 killer: heart disease.

Since riding a motorcycle is ~35 times more dangerous per vehicle mile traveled, riding your motorcycle exclusively makes riding the #1 most likely cause of your death.

Of course, an individual can reduce this by riding less, more safely, in better conditions, and with better gear*.

As for stop lights, only 5% of fatalities on motorcycles follow an initial impact from the rear. 15% are from the side (red light runners and the like), and 80% are from the front (hitting trees, hitting vehicles, etc.)

Part of the question of safety in splitting up to the front at a red light comes down to: are you safer as part of a pack of cars, or are you safer taking off in front of them and being "on your own", so to speak? Keep in mind that left-turners are the ones most likely to kill you.

*Though gear doesn't help much to prevent on-scene fatalities. Less than 10% of accidents result in a need for a helmet, for example. Though road rash greatly increases the risk of infection, and therefore death. The best thing you can do is avoid wrecks in the first place.

[RobMoore]

The stats you list are of fatalities, so the chance of a rear end collision could be greater than 5% of overall causes; it might not kill you, but it can still mess you up or ruin your day.

I don't want to wreck at all, but I certainly don't want to give anyone else the chance to cause it. I'd rather get out on my own.

[kevin_stevens]

Originally Posted by RobMoore

Good luck with the cagers letting you back into the lane if you stop short of the front of the line.

The reason to go to the front is to get back in a lane when the light goes green.

I've done this many times and *never* had a problem getting back in. It's exactly like the situation where traffic stops unexpectedly and the people still in the intersection pull up to the side of the lane when the light goes red to clear the way. Once traffic starts they pull back in, no problem.

KeS

[UltimateOG]

Originally Posted by kevin_stevens

I've done this many times and *never* had a problem getting back in. It's exactly like the situation where traffic stops unexpectedly and the people still in the intersection pull up to the side of the lane when the light goes red to clear the way. Once traffic starts they pull back in, no problem.

KeS

Must be nice where you are cuz here they damn sure don't do that. Oceanside by far is the worst, travel through there just one time, just ONCE, hell i would even pay for your gas and you would know what I am talking about.

[RobMoore]

Kes must live where they filmed the Truman show.

[UltimateOG]

Maybe I do not know I have never watched the Truman Show. I only know that i hate driving and riding through Coast Highway.

[kevin_stevens]

Originally Posted by UltimateOG

Must be nice where you are cuz here they damn sure don't do that. Oceanside by far is the worst, travel through there just one time, just ONCE, hell i would even pay for your gas and you would know what I am talking about.

Yeah, of course. Because I live all of 30 miles away, and drivers are *completely* different there. And in the course of 12K miles/year of riding, I never get up to Oceanside - never used Privateer's Garage in Carlsbad, never go to Las Olas or that Cuban restaurant north on PCH.



KeS

[UltimateOG]

There is a Cuban restaurant around here?

[RobMoore]

It is probably Mexican masquerading as Cuban, like the Italian places here.

[kevin_stevens]

Originally Posted by UltimateOG

There is a Cuban restaurant around here?

Home

Buy your own gas.

KeS