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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Breaking the law or civil disobendience?


So the last several weeks (since school started at the U) traffic on foothill has gotten quite bad, and last week I had enough waiting in a long line of traffic and I began lane splitting. In Utah this is illegal. In the current market I believe that we will begin to see more and more motorcycles on the road which I think is good, but we need to get a lane splitting law on the books in Utah. I would happily trade having no real helmet law with having a lane splitting law. This would promote the use of motorcycles as people would see that motorcycle don't get stuck in traffic the same way cars do. So far I haven't had anyone honk at me, or so much as give me a glance. I think they realize that I am helping traffic move more quickly by splitting the lane to the front of the line while sitting at a traffic light. I think as long as I am not so unlucky as to come all the way to a stop light with a police officer sitting at the front there is no way that an officer in traffic will be able to catch me in the act. I am going to consider it my act of civil disobedience. I figure that if enough of us motorcyclists start doing it they will either turn a blind eye because we all do it, or it will raise enough interest to catch the eye of our idiot law makers up on the hill.

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1 Comments:

Blogger LB said...

Hmmm.... Not being a motorcycle rider I have a bit different idea. If all motorcyclists were trying to help the flow of traffic, I would consider your plan more. Unfortunately, they are not. I followed a motorcycle to work the other day and he bobbed and wove inside and outside the lanes seemlingly for his entertainment for a mile on 20th east which was very distracting for those of us behind him. Also he was going slower than the speed limit and nobody could pass him because of above behavior. When he hit foothill, he sped up and split the lanes, still bobbing between the space. I saw sparks when he hit a car mirror, which didn't dump him fortunately, but he sped off again between the lanes and the guy he hit could only roll down his window and yell at his back. Legailzing this lane splitting is not a good idea to me.

On another note, I also think bicyclists should obey traffic laws when they ride on the roads. This is what you are dealing with in my opinion.
LBL

12:42 PM  

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