Bike tailgating cop

[sfcali86]

so i was in my car yesturday. I saw a bike coming behing me, i moved so he could split the lane. There was a sheriff up ahead, he was doing at least 75 i was doing 65 im no expert just a guess, but he pulled right behind the cop car and was tailgating him for at least a mile or two then the rider just blasted past the lane next to him and took the exit. What was amazing is the officer didnt react, he actually moved over to let him split lanes. I want to know should he have bin pulled over i thought here in CA you couldnt split lanes unless it your going under 35MPH

 

[MarinaFazer]

You can split lanes in CA.

You shouldn't speed past a cop or tailgate them.

But if a cop is going 65, yes, I pass them even in my car...they're holdin' everyone up! It'll depend on if the cop had enough donuts for the day. LOL

 

[Roadstergal]

There are no laws specifically regarding lanesharing in CA. It's simply not illegal, as it is in other states. CHP's guideline is 'safe and prudent.'

I've shared past cops before, and they don't give me a second glance. I don't tailgate, though; I always offset myself, whether sharing or not. Gotta have that escape route open.

 

[notjohndavid]

related to lanesplitting but not to your question.

I just got a ticket for $203 in San Diego for what I thought what lane splitting.

At a traffic light I went around traffic on the right hand side (between the right hand lane and between a bunch of parallel parked cars). the cop said I couldn't do that because there was no lane. Had there been a lane it would have been okay. In other words had I passed the cars at the light on the other side (between the two lanes of traffic) he wouldn't have pulled me over. I never thought about it before but after I got the ticket I realized that it wasn't a safe thing to do since the cars at the light could have taken a right hand turn on red and plowed over me as I was passing. (The light was red)

 

[VEGASRIDER]

The answer to your questions, there are countless of threads regarding lane sharing or splitting. Just hit the search tab.

But there are specific rules and guidlines in California that a rider must adhere to when splitting to make it prudent and safe for everyone. For example, they cannot exceed more than 10-15 mph than the speed of traffic, and cannot go faster than 35mph when splitting, cannot split along solid yellow or white lines, etc, yada, yada, yada. Not adhering to these guidlines will help enforce people's negative views about lane sharing, and maybe someday, your privlidge will be taken away thanks to riders such as the one you described.

The state of California defines it as "Permissable" not legal or illegal.

 

[madmanmaigret]

I agree with Vegas. Everytime you or one of your friends (I know this was a rondom guy) does something "squidly" it give us a bad name in the eye of the public.

 

[SovietRobot]

The answer to your questions, there are countless of threads regarding lane sharing or splitting. Just hit the search tab.

But there are specific rules and guidlines in California that a rider must adhere to when splitting to make it prudent and safe for everyone. For example, they cannot exceed more than 10-15 mph than the speed of traffic, and cannot go faster than 35mph when splitting, cannot split along solid yellow or white lines, etc, yada, yada, yada. Not adhering to these guidlines will help enforce people's negative views about lane sharing, and maybe someday, your privlidge will be taken away thanks to riders such as the one you described.

The state of California defines it as "Permissable" not legal or illegal.

I couldn't find any actual wording in the CVC, but those seem to be the accepted guidelines by the motorcycling community and law enforcement, but not quoted law.(correct me if I'm wrong)

 

[chunkygoat]

not at all in reference to tailgating a cop - but i was going through a parking lot today at maybe 10mph and a pa state trooper is cutting across parking spots and wasn't looking at all, i saw his head looking in the other direction and he started to pull out in front of me.

So i stopped - THEN he looked at the last second and slammed the brakes. I just shook my head.

Cops aren't too bright are they, at least not all of them.

 

[opds9091]

So where do i look for the lane splitting info, or does anyone know what and when it could be done.

 

[SovietRobot]

not at all in reference to tailgating a cop - but i was going through a parking lot today at maybe 10mph and a pa state trooper is cutting across parking spots and wasn't looking at all, i saw his head looking in the other direction and he started to pull out in front of me.

So i stopped - THEN he looked at the last second and slammed the brakes. I just shook my head.

Cops aren't too bright are they, at least not all of them.

I see people do that all the time but wouldn't expect a cop to do it.
But they're still human.

 

[MarinaFazer]

I see people do that all the time but wouldn't expect a cop to do it.
But they're still human.

They're just as bad as us. Just because you drive a car all day long doesn't mean you're any good at it. We all fall victim to day dreaming, staring at something elsewhere, and close calls. :Flip:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

So where do i look for the lane splitting info, or does anyone know what and when it could be done.

You can't do it legally in Florida, or anywhere else for that matter except California, and they use the term "Permissable", not legal.

http://laneshare.org/index.html

 

[grumpy1luvs2eat]

You could ASK a cop when you see one......GRUMPY

 

[chunkygoat]

i did that once, except i asked a cop about the law on open liquor containers in an RV. He didn't like my question but said if it was locked up it was ok.

 

[SovietRobot]

i did that once, except i asked a cop about the law on open liquor containers in an RV. He didn't like my question but said if it was locked up it was ok.

It's just like in limos I guess. Illegal but not enforced.

 

[cv_rider]

The answer to your questions, there are countless of threads regarding lane sharing or splitting. Just hit the search tab.

But there are specific rules and guidlines in California that a rider must adhere to when splitting to make it prudent and safe for everyone. For example, they cannot exceed more than 10-15 mph than the speed of traffic, and cannot go faster than 35mph when splitting, cannot split along solid yellow or white lines, etc, yada, yada, yada. Not adhering to these guidlines will help enforce people's negative views about lane sharing, and maybe someday, your privlidge will be taken away thanks to riders such as the one you described.

The state of California defines it as "Permissable" not legal or illegal.

I don't think that there are specific rules about lane splitting in CA. You need to be "safe and prudent" and that's up to the police to determine for the given conditions. The 10-15mph over traffic speed and 35mph max speed are good guidelines for what might be considered safe and prudent by police, but that's not written down in the law. You have no written law to protect you if the police says you were not safe and prudent but you think you were. That's just (an extremely minor) part of the risk of lane splitting.

 

[Goop]

What about cutting up to the front of a line of stopped vehicles at a stop light? I do this daily during my commute in San Diego. I do it only when there is a decent gap between the two lanes of stopped cars so I don't clip any mirrors. Is just a variety of lane splitting? I'm assuming it is...

 

[SovietRobot]

What about cutting up to the front of a line of stopped vehicles at a stop light? I do this daily during my commute in San Diego. I do it only when there is a decent gap between the two lanes of stopped cars so I don't clip any mirrors. Is just a variety of lane splitting? I'm assuming it is...

It's called "filtering" and it's legal in CA.
I do it infront of cops all the time and they don't mind.

The people in the cars get pissed though and scoot forward and try to go before me. I leave them in the dust though.

 

[Red Wazp]

Remember to split between the lanes of traffic not on either side. I find many Ca. drivers actually move over so we can lane split.
As much as many of us like to bash the cagers I find most Ca drivers (up here in the mountains) will move over to let bikes pass them. Any other state it just doesn't happen, seems to be more of a "I'm in front of you so tough sh*t, I ain't movin' for nobody"

 

[CHEMIKER]

I do it only when there is a decent gap between the two lanes of stopped cars so I don't clip any mirrors.

The mirrors on the 07+ fold in to make filtering in tight traffic more convenient Not sure about the previous models.

If you pull the mirrors toward you by the stem, they fold in at the base without affecting alignment. Filter to the front of traffic, put the mirrors back, and be on your way :thumbup: