Modern Buddy

Just found out the hard way that lane splitting is against the law in FLorida. Going into Fort Myers beach. Car's lined up about a mile. $161.00 fine. Nuts! I'm 71 and this is my first ticket. Oh well. 12,600 miles on my 09 Buddy.

It's illegal anywhere but California!

Hard lesson to learn.

ericalm wrote:It's illegal anywhere but California!

Hard lesson to learn.

I commuted on the P200 this morning and was joined in traffic by a gent on an '04 Vespa ET2. He was a recent Cali transplant and asked about lane splitting. I advised against it on legal grounds, but wished him well if he decided to try it. It was a pretty funny question, as his bike was box-stock on a 40mph road and he was out gunned at every traffic light. I rode along wing for a bit to keep the locals at bay; it was a funny little formation in to be in the passing lane.

Sailboat13 wrote:Just found out the hard way that lane splitting is against the law in FLorida. Going into Fort Myers beach. Car's lined up about a mile. $161.00 fine. Nuts! I'm 71 and this is my first ticket. Oh well. 12,600 miles on my 09 Buddy.

Firstly, congrats on being 71, previously ticketless, and most importantly still riding!

Secondly, were it me, possesing that near perfect driving record I'd fight it, citing a safety maneuver to avoid an obstacle

That IS what caused you to HAVE to drive between vehicles, right?

mattgordon wrote:

Sailboat13 wrote:Just found out the hard way that lane splitting is against the law in FLorida. Going into Fort Myers beach. Car's lined up about a mile. $161.00 fine. Nuts! I'm 71 and this is my first ticket. Oh well. 12,600 miles on my 09 Buddy.

...
Secondly, were it me, possesing that near perfect driving record I'd fight it, citing a safety maneuver to avoid an obstacle

I agree about going to court, except I'd take in a copy of my perfect driving record (get it at the DMV) and ask for traffic school since you were simply misinformed about the law. (Don't say "ignorant" of the law, say "misinformed") and stick to the simple point that you want to go to driving school in lieu of conviction in order to update your driving skills and knowledge. Be polite to the judge. It wouldn't hurt to explain that you'd like to keep your clean driving record, too, but don't belabor the point.

Good luck.

if they ever make splitting illegal in california i may seriously consider giving up riding. at least if i continue to live and ride in congested cities. i would think this limitation also discourages "filtering" and simply sliding through traffic? i think riders get used to not getting too close to other vehicles if not allowed to split. maybe this isn't such a good thing? and when splitting and traffic begins to move riding becomes something of an adventure

its jusr such a great way to make time, having your own skinny lane to move down. you literally own the street. without it, not as much

When I first moved to California, I wondered why I had never noticed motorcycles lane splitting before....now I know. Sorry you learned the hard way.

I should have found out first before I tried to ride between those cars. Dumb move on my part. I keep thinking of how happy I've been with the money I've saved on gas,,,,,,,,now, I wonder how many times I could fill my Buddy at the pump for $161.00. It's disheartening, but I have no one to blame but myself. You'd think at 71 years old I would have a little more common sense. If your not sure about something don't do it.

California also makes it easy to fight a ticket. I wait until the last minute (which is 3 months in CA) to request a written explanation which gives you another 3 months. Then you wait for an extended period of time to find out if your explanation was accepted or not. If it wasn't, you are given another 3 months to request a court date. Again I wait the maximum amount of time before requesting a date and again, it's an extended period of time. The only time I had to go this far, it was well over a year, the officer didn't show and the ticket was tossed. You might want to check out the possibilities in your state.