[highwayblaze]

Originally Posted by gods-envy

i think its a dangerous thing and should not be done.
I mean imagine urself in a car and ur trying to take a left or something and suddenly out of no where a bike rider overtakes u from the left..
dont u think this is dangerous and life threathning
I am definitely against lane cutting

Its dangerous but hey...use the bike to your advantage in traffic. Its legal in California. If you crash and get hurt or worse, blame it on destiny
.
.
. the last line was a joke!

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by gods-envy

i think its a dangerous thing and should not be done. I mean imagine urself in a car and ur trying to take a left or something and suddenly out of no where a bike rider overtakes u from the left..dont u think this is dangerous and life threathning I am definitely against lane cutting

In southern calif. traffic, cars are usually stuck doing less than 15 mph. There is no where to go, take a left to where?

In So Cal. I usually lane split getting ahead of all cars at stop lights. This is widely regarded as safe, when all cars have come to a stand still. Even with a speed differential of 10 mph, with the top speed being less than 45mph, I would consider it to be safe (provided the rider has full gear on). Safe by my motorcycling standards, not compared to driving a cage, or lying on a coutch watching a soap.
-GG

[TomRider]

Haa. In Bangalore, it s totally unsafe. Once i was traveling in outer ring road behind a BMTC bus at around 60-70 kmph. and i took my bike to the extreme right line to overtake the bus. To my surprise, i saw a parked scooter (Chetak) in the middle of the road. That guy had stopped there and was talking to someone on mobile. Somehow i managed to slowdown and avoid him. So in my opinion it totally unsafe in Bangalore to do lane splitting. But we are forced to do it.

We can predict the traffic easily in US and it will be almost correct. But in Bangalore our predictions can be wrong most of the times.

[netchef]

Originally Posted by yogesh sarkar

It should be called optimal utilization of the available resources .

Hee hee

Originally Posted by deepakhon

It also means that the lanes are far wider than they are supposed to be

Dont' agree with you, Sir. Our lanes would barely accommodate a decent sized car.

Originally Posted by straight6

You have to do it here unless you're the boss and no ones going to say anything to you for being late every time .

Time over all else. Real rat race, eh?

Originally Posted by VJ_MAVRICK

I feel these rides deserve to be lane limited :autowallah's , buses and damn those cabbies . That would make indian roads a much safer and disciplined by @least 60 to 70%.

Originally Posted by Hurrycane12

They should start lane splitting and also ensuring divided two ways.

Dividers at a lot of place are stones slabs or metal barriers which are moved by the local guys to make their own way. Also lot of roads without dividers lead to a pile of traffic one e.g would be the road leading from Lemon Grass to Jakkasandra (Kormangala); there is a minimum waiting period every day here and in the rains it get worse.

Originally Posted by sanjayatarizona

@netchef:I think we would be hard pressed to find even one driver on this forum who does not do this. Even if we try to avoid doing this, we would get shepherded by all the rest of our wonderful traffic to the left and right of us, into the spaces between lanes/cars unless one is riding a battle tank/road roller etc

Or a Hummer.

Originally Posted by diabloo

If any old-timer around, wasn't there a separate lane for autos in Bangalore?

I must rate as the oldest timer here. Can't recall there being designated lanes for anything run with any success or duration, though it was attempted on a couple of roads.

Originally Posted by gendarmee

well, lane splitting is a good idea.
Splitting should be done based on the speed of the vehicle and not type of vehicle, faster vehicles take the extreme right, while slower ones keep to the left(and wade through the jaywalkers & hawkers) and as different 2 wheeler & 4 wheeler's move at different speed. but the roads are not broad enough to have many lanes of traffic.

A better option, in fact a proper one, would be to have a specific lane for commercial vehicles, one that separates it from free flowing traffic, as the commercial vehicles need to stop frequently.

I believe the lane system is a part of the traffic rules too.

That said, i've seen the bus lane system being implemented only in Delhi, even the metro rail there network is damn good, may be thats because its the capital & probably easing traffic of all cities is not on the priority list.


used to be hyd too, until the ruling gov in the 80's messed it up.

Makes lots of sense. One ride on a decent highway and it's the first prayer that comes to mind: will the slow pokes please stick to the left, and will those that 'think' they are fast PLEASE watch their RVMs for signs of a faster vehicle bearing down on them?
Amen

Originally Posted by highwayblaze

Who doesnt do it? whether a good idea or not everyone does it! I do too...and I'm all FOR IT.

Originally Posted by gods-envy

i think its a dangerous thing and should not be done.
I mean imagine urself in a car and ur trying to take a left or something and suddenly out of no where a bike rider overtakes u from the left..
dont u think this is dangerous and life threathning
I am definitely against lane cutting

[netchef]

Originally Posted by diabloo

Whats lane-splitting?

Riding down the dotted line that separates lanes. In theory, when both lanes are occupied properly (by a vehicle that fills the lane such as a car or bus), there is still a safety margin between each adjacent vehicle and the edge of their lane. It's this 'breathing space' that I allude to.

What people have hinted at is that drivers do not expect anyone there (as per the letter of the law), hence could squash the rider with a perfectly legal manoeuvre.

(Mods: sorry, the system didn't let me reply to all the quotes in one go.)

[diabloo]

Exactly ! Few roads had designated roads for autos. So the road width was reduced. But most autos didn't take that lane.

Originally Posted by netchef

I must rate as the oldest timer here. Can't recall there being designated lanes for anything run with any success or duration, though it was attempted on a couple of roads.

[Hurrycane12]

Originally Posted by diabloo

Exactly ! Few roads had designated roads for autos. So the road width was reduced. But most autos didn't take that lane.

The only road which i had seen had a seperate Auto lane was M G Road; i guess the implamentation of most Bus Lane / Auto Lane etc happens only in the Central Business District of the city. The other part of the city are generally ignored.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by netchef

Riding down the dotted line that separates lanes. In theory, when both lanes are occupied properly (by a vehicle that fills the lane such as a car or bus), there is still a safety margin between each adjacent vehicle and the edge of their lane. It's this 'breathing space' that I allude to.

What people have hinted at is that drivers do not expect anyone there (as per the letter of the law), hence could squash the rider with a perfectly legal manoeuvre.

Rajeev - The more pertinent danger would be the blind spots in the cars/vehicles rear view mirrors. A lot of the time bikers riding adjacent to you can get in your blind spot & even people who use their mirrors diligently can fail to spot a two-wheeler rider.

Has happened with me many a time even though I always use my ORVM's but even then it many a time I've come close to swiping a two-wheeler which was doing lane-splitting & was in my blind spot. It's usually either that naturally we look to the side before turning/changing lanes & I've caught them out of the corner of my eye & taken evasive action or that they were good riders & they anticipated my move & moved out.

[netchef]

Originally Posted by iraghava

Rajeev - The more pertinent danger would be the blind spots in the cars/vehicles rear view mirrors. A lot of the time bikers riding adjacent to you can get in your blind spot & even people who use their mirrors diligently can fail to spot a two-wheeler rider.

Has happened with me many a time even though I always use my ORVM's but even then it many a time I've come close to swiping a two-wheeler which was doing lane-splitting & was in my blind spot. It's usually either that naturally we look to the side before turning/changing lanes & I've caught them out of the corner of my eye & taken evasive action or that they were good riders & they anticipated my move & moved out.

I agree. It's also in my assessment a manoeuvre best left to the breed of riders who have more advanced skills.
Naturally, with speed, distancing must happen in direct proportion, so it's probably only to be attempted at 'traffic light' sort of speeds or slightly higher- as someone was saying.

[amtak]

Along with lane splitting, we have people spitting aak thu!
On a serious note, if done safely, I dont see any issues in that.

[netchef]

Originally Posted by amtak

Along with lane splitting, we have people spitting aak thu!
On a serious note, if done safely, I dont see any issues in that.

That's quite a hazard I must say. One needs to be circumspect especially when passing a bus-load of salivating folks, mouths full of Asian Paints!
I've been lucky never to have had anyone paint my wagon.

[theMAG]

Lanes are the only way to add some traffic sense to the current nonsense: I'd always believed having atleast 2 lanes (due to paucity of space) - one for 4 wheelers and above - cars, buses, and another for vehicles with lesser than 4 wheels - ricks, bikes would work wonders. Sharing road space with diverse categories of vehicles surrounding you is simply not on.

[vabs78]

Lane splitting is not safe at all, mainly due to blind spots. Butttttt... do you have a choice? I will at least add 15-20 mins to my commute time if I don't.

[netchef]

Originally Posted by theMAG

Lanes are the only way to add some traffic sense to the current nonsense: I'd always believed having atleast 2 lanes (due to paucity of space) - one for 4 wheelers and above - cars, buses, and another for vehicles with lesser than 4 wheels - ricks, bikes would work wonders. Sharing road space with diverse categories of vehicles surrounding you is simply not on.

theMAG: I hear you, Sir. This road design/traffic management thing is getting quite contentious and the oxymoron is that we build new but not necessarily sensible, thereby compounding design flaws of our legacy roads. Case in point is the relatively new flyover in Bangalore on the Airport Road which doesn't have a loop for pedestrians.

My question too is what happens under 'overtaking' conditions? Does one overtake from the right within one's lane, meaning that in each lane such manoeuvres could take place simultaneously, creating an ideal condition for mayhem?

Originally Posted by vabs78

Lane splitting is not safe at all, mainly due to blind spots. Butttttt... do you have a choice? I will at least add 15-20 mins to my commute time if I don't.

vabs78: cruel real-world conditions, eh?

[spadival]

Some times, I lane split at traffic signals. Most traffic signals have only 2 lanes. Which means that there is a lane for vehicles going straight/right and a lane for vehicles turning left. If I need to go straight, I lane split in between the two.

Not really unsafe because traffic around the signal is at full stop or dead slow.