What annoys me is when a biker cannot make up his mind about what he is.
most motorcyclists have a pretty good idea what they are. they're road users. i don't know if you've ever spent any serious time on a motorcycle, but it's pretty hard to be oblivious to road use when you're on one.
I am referring to a biker that is driving slowly, for whatever reason, in the middle of the lane.
he's driving in the middle of the lane, because he's using the road. that's what it's for. he's probably going somewhere.
Now, I cannot pass this biker, so I have to slow down and drive behind him, at whatever low speed he is happy with.
yes. obviously. because he's in the lane in front of you. what was your alternative plan? ramp him?
Later, when we hit traffic congestion, he decides that now is a good time to drive between lanes, as he can move faster than the cars. Great.
great indeed.
Also, is lane splitting legal? I thought bikes had to stay inside the lanes, just like cars?
it's a grey area, to some degree, in South Africa law for two reasons. firstly, lane splitting is legal in given circumstances - they call it 'filtering', and you can filter when approaching a closed intersection, at which traffic is standing still or has slowed significantly. the details are in the relevant law and you can go look them up. the grey area with respect to that comes in around the idea of traffic slowing down significantly. that has to be judged, before its legality can be determined and so in practice it is presumed to acceptable. (this is known as effective decriminalization).
the second grey area is around lane splitting and overtaking - there was a case made, successfully, that motorcyclists are often overtaking vehicles in motion. successive overtaking maneuvers are still overtaking which is legal, and not lane splitting. actual lane splitting is judged to have occurred when the motorcyclist rides the line between lanes, in fast-moving traffic. this is illegal, though hard to prove, because of the overtaking issue. again, it's effectively decriminalized.
speeding is always illegal, irrespective of the mode of transport, but if that's your gripe, your problem is a great deal more far-reaching than motorcyclists, who represent a tiny fraction of the road user population.
so, given all that, the motorcyclist you're complaining about (above) is actually riding both completely legally and safely (assuming that they only filter when traffic slows, as you have described.) . and you're complaining about that.
it seems to me that you just don't like it, probably because you think that you should be able to use that lane space yourself. the idea that a motorcyclist is entitled to occupy a lane, like any other road user, is not one that seems commonly understood in South Africa. i regularly see drivers trying to force their way into the same lane as a motorcyclist.
Mike Hoxbig said:
Everyone has to put up with bad drivers, not just bikers, so seeking sympathy is not going to do you any good. It doesn't change the fact that a large number of bikers are indeed knobs.
fella...my point was that those things cannot actually be performed by a motorcyclist. for reasons of, well, for reason of reality. the follow-on point, to bring it out quite clearly, was that those things are far more dangerous, representing a complete cognitive break with the act of driving, and in the vast majority of road events. so the whining about motorcyclists is pretty selective in relation to where the traffic problems are being caused.
and no, i don't want your sympathy. i'd like you and your fellow road users to stop maiming my friends and i, because you're irritated with traffic, or because your new iPad didn't magically make you cool, or because you got trapped in a loveless marriage when you unexpectedly impregnated a colleague and have lived a life of surly resentment ever since.
no matter how miserable and under appreciated you feel, that can never carry more weight than the risk of taking someone else's life, or the risk of paralyzing them.
to understand this, you need to appreciate that what's a fender bender for you, is a wheelchair for me. that's a disproportionate risk differential, and one that you, who carries the lower risk must operate under. the fact you're comfortable calling strangers "c*nts* purely based on their transport indicates to me that you're not. but, hell. YMMV. you might be right. and approaching life the way you have on this thread might well be the correct way to do it.
you try your approach an i'll try mine. and in the meantime, when i come across you and your like, i'll be speeding up dramatically to get away from your bad temper, rage and inability to parse normal road situations, and the risk that represents to me.
hope it helps.
d
. They obviously don't check the cars signals.
