And that's the deal. Here's a historical context of my lane splitting experience.
Colorado
I left Austin for Denver back in early 2000 which was about when Texas repealed its helmet law.
In Denver, I'd see lots of dudes riding with no helmets and in the summer, no jackets.
I wound up working with a few motorcycle riders, mostly Harley guys. I remember one of the guys talking about how badly he wanted to lane split coming back down I-70 from Summit County in heavy traffic. But, he was afraid of getting caught and getting a ticket.
California
In 2004 (after getting laid off in Denver) I moved to Los Angeles and I would see these guys lane splitting and thought they were insane. Later, I found out that it was in fact legal in California.
It was much later that I found out that there was a technical reason for it and there were also rules about it.
Apparently, in stop and go traffic (which we had a lot of in SoCal), motorcycles which were air cooled would overheat and thus, they were able to get a law passed to allow motorcycles to keep moving between cars in these traffic conditions.
But, there were two major points:
1 - they're only supposed to do it between the furthest left lane and the lane to its right.
2 - they're only supposed to go 10 mph above the flow of traffic.
Side note - when you're in traffic with lane splitting motorcycles, LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES is an absolute fact.
After getting the side view mirror on my Expedition slapped by some pissed off motorcycle rider who I never saw lane splitting his way past me on The 110 on my way to LAX, I learned to always be watching my rearview mirror for lane splitting motorcycles.
I always move slightly left in my lane to give them plenty of room to pass me, especially the guys with the ape hangers.
That's fine. It works in California.
But, that doesn't mean these guys are supposed to be lane splitting at 100 mph when traffic is doing 70 mph.
Australia
When I moved to Australia at the end of 2007, I found an entirely different lane splitting phenomena. My Piaggio Scooter riding co-worker called it "Filtering".
Basically at every stop light, he'd ride between cars up to the front of the line so that he'd be ready to take off first when the light changed.
Malaysia
When I went to Kuala Lumpur, it was crazy how many scooters would crowd up to the front of every stop light and then take off before all the cars.
Again, those methods work too.
Houston
What we're seeing here in Houston is the occasional sport bike rider who is doing 110+ mph, weaving across lanes on I-45.
That is nuts. But... at least, most of those guys have ridiculously loud exhaust systems so you can hear them coming and they're wearing helmets and jackets for those inevitable crashes.
