Straddling Lanes a Safe Call for Motorcyclists, Experts Say

You’re on a motorcycle, sitting on the San Diego Freeway at rush hour, stuck between the rear bumper of one car and the front bumper of another, and you’re late.

Do you: A) stay put and spend the extra time concocting an excuse for your boss, or B) get on the throttle and ride between the lines of cars?

Surprisingly, the safe thing is to proceed ahead and straddle the lanes, says Harry Hurt, a professor of safety science at USC who conducted a motorcycle safety study for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“For a motorcyclist, that’s the safest place to be,” Hurt said. “A lot of people think it’s a hazard, but the cold hard facts are that it’s not.”

Hurt said his study found “that the number of accidents involving riding between cars was insignificant compared to the number of motorcycles caught in a sandwich between the vehicle ahead of them and the one following.”

Riding between lanes also affords motorcyclists a better view of potential obstructions, he said.

“One of the most critical things for motorcyclists on the freeway is all the junk on the road,” Hurt said. “If he is in a lane following a car, he can’t see what’s on the freeway until it comes flying up in front of him. If he’s out there splitting lanes, on the other hand, he can see what’s coming.”

As for cars changing lanes in a motorcycle’s path, Hurt said, most cyclists become very adept at noticing any changes in the direction of the wheels in front of them.

But a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol disagrees with Hurt’s conclusions. While acknowledging that lane splitting is legal, Officer Sandy Houston described it in a recent Street Smart column as not terribly safe either.

“There is much more potential for a collision when you’re splitting traffic than when you’re just in stop-and-go,” she said.

That comment drew a heated response from J.P. Burns, an avid motorcyclist who commutes 100 miles a day between his home in Costa Mesa and the Los Angeles offices of the motorcycle magazine where he is features editor.

“I realize that most non-motorcyclists are shocked and appalled when they learn I’m one of them,” Burns wrote. “No amount of explaining on my part can persuade them that lane splitting is really not as dangerous as it looks. All I know is I’ve been doing it ever since I moved to Southern California in 1988 and can count my ‘close calls’ on the fingers of one hand.”

For cyclists who do ride between lanes, Hurt has two bits of advice: Don’t travel more than 30 to 40 mph faster than the traffic you’re passing, and always wear a helmet.

Which brings us to our next item of business: California’s mandatory motorcycle helmet law.

“I’ve heard,” writes Jay Phelan, a researcher on the biology of aging at UC Irvine, “that the transportation bill signed by President Clinton will enable the governor to revoke the motorcycle helmet law. Is this true, and does Gov. Pete Wilson have any plans to do this?”

While it is true that the new transportation bill ends federal penalties for states without mandatory helmet laws, thus freeing them to make their own decisions on the matter, no governor may single-handedly revoke existing legislation. Wilson, in particular, wouldn’t do so if he could, said a spokesman for his office.

“The governor’s position is that he signed that legislation with the intent of protecting California taxpayers from uninsured motorcyclists who were not wearing their helmets,” spokesman Jesus Arredondo said. “We’ve seen a significant decrease in deaths and major injuries resulting from motorcycle accidents since the law was enacted in 1992. The legislation is working. Why fix something that isn’t broken?”

Still, encouraged by what they perceive as a changing climate represented by the new federal transportation legislation, a group spearheaded by Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) is attempting to do just that.

“I don’t believe that this is an area in which government has any business legislating,” said Morrow, who is sponsoring a bill to repeal the motorcycle helmet law. “This is a vivid example of nanny government: the government taking over as nanny and telling you what’s good and bad for you.”

Morrow’s bill--AB244--is scheduled for discussion by the Assembly Transportation Committee today.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.Haldane@latimes.com. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.