

10-Foot Traffic Lanes Are Safer and Still Move Plenty of Cars - qzervaas
http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/07/10-foot-traffic-lanes-are-saferand-still-move-plenty-of-cars/399761/

======
reustle
Another important factor is how much of an effect 10ft vs 12ft lanes have on
motorcycle filtering (lane splitting). Outside of the US (north america), it
is a common practice and known to be safe [1]

[1] [http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/uc-berkeley-study-finds-
lan...](http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/uc-berkeley-study-finds-lane-
splitting-reduces-motorcyc-1708755125)

~~~
ubernostrum
That study... is not really what you're presenting it to be.

What the study actually _found_ was that if you're sober, wearing protective
gear and riding at a speed not much faster than surrounding traffic, then when
you get into a collision it's likely your injuries will be less severe.

The study tries to correlate those things with motorcylists who lane-split,
while openly admitting that they actually correlate with motorcyclists who
commute to and from work on their motorcycles.

And notably, lane-splitting is not "safer" in the sense of preventing
accidents. Lane-splitting as actually practiced has the sole purpose of
getting the motorcycle to higher speed than the surrounding traffic, and when
you do that you find there just isn't any way to cheat the Solomon curve:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_curve](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_curve)

(Wikipedia's scare intro on "cast doubt on its findings" refers to a study
which disagrees on the effects of being _slower_ than surrounding traffic,
while not disputing the effects of being _faster_ )

~~~
imh
I think OP is talking more about city streets, so high speed literature and
the Solomon curve doesn't apply so much. There are two distinct behaviors
here. Lane splitting happens when the cars are moving. Filtering happens when
the cars are stopped. As someone who commutes on a motorcycle in the city, I
don't care much for splitting, but filtering through a traffic jam is
incredibly helpful.

~~~
ubernostrum
The study about lane-splitting safety, cited by the comment I responded to,
was looking at highway riding (hence commuters).

