I truly believe that everything in life happens for a reason. My lane splitting etiquette post generated a somewhat sophisticated comment the other day - “Lane Splitting is for IDIOTs”. I was never the one to participate in pissing matches. But again, everything in life happens for a reason. So just the next day after that post I saw a proof of why staying in your lane on a motorcycle in traffic is more dangerous than being in between lanes.

I was riding on a freeway, traffic going at a very quick pace. I positioned myself in between lanes but did not bother going faster than the flow of traffic. The traffic was going at the speed of at least 60mph and was pretty dense too. I spotted a couple of chopper riders further away in the lane left of me, no more than 6 cars away. Suddenly IT happened. Apparently the traffic was slowing down significantly way ahead and someone fell asleep, woke up and stopped abruptly. The wave of brake lights began rolling on. The choppers promptly braked, slowed down and stopped too. However this old pickup truck one car behind them did not. Once the driver realized he had to slow down significantly he hit his brakes. The smoke from his tires was as big as from a motorcycle burnout. I was sure the truck was going to rear end the car in front of it which in turn would roll over the choppers. The unsuspecting choppers were not even slightly concerned. Miraculously the truck stopped one inch away from the car in front of it.

I slowly kept going in between lanes and looked at the chopper riders. They seemed to look unaware that their lives could have been changed a split second ago. I was just glad to see that everyone was safe. Life goes on, lessons are hopefully learned.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Riding, Life, Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.