Lane splitting is one of my ‘favourite-est’
things about riding a motorcycle. Especially in Lagos, Nigeria where traffic
can go from 0-2000 cars in minutes. There is something magical about being able
to go wherever you want regardless of the horrible traffic conditions, getting
there fast and without spending a ton of money on gas. To do this effectively,
lane splitting is inevitable. Reason: If you lane split on your commute to and
from work and save an hour per day, you'll get back over a week of your life
every year. Would you rather sit in a car, being frustrated and wishing you
were somewhere else, or cruise home stress-free on a motorcycle in 1/3 of the
time?
Watching riders split lanes while
sitting low down, in a line of traffic, in a car can look pretty scary. But
look at it from a rider's point of view. High up and sitting in the gap,
there's plenty of room to make safe progress and spot lane changes before they
occur. Before we continue, let’s talk dressing.
Wear Safety Gear
This cannot be over-emphasized. If
you ride in Lagos and decide to do so with partial gear or none, then I think
you have a death wish. That being said, consider this: You’re attempting to
occupy the space of a car with something barely larger than a bicycle and
drivers who are pissed at sitting in traffic. Lagos drivers will always try
to change lanes. Sometimes they might not see or hear you coming and change
lanes into you. Always wear All The Gear, All The Time (ATGATT). Even for a
short stroll.
Lane splitting is dangerous. You
could die or seriously injure yourself. Know that if you're wearing anything
less than high-quality protective gear head-to-toe, you are increasing your
chances of bloody broken knees and ankles, a broken back or shattered and
bloody jaw. Invest in armored pants or Kevlar jeans, boots with ankle
protection, a back protector and a DOT, Snell or ECE certified helmet.
Lane-splitting is more like
racing than any other kind of riding. It demands your full concentration; there
is very little room for error and, if you crash, it can get ugly in a hurry.
The Basic Rules
Choose your exit. On the freeway, the safest practice is to split
between the furthest left lane and the second furthest left lane. These lanes
usually contain the sanest drivers on Lagos highways and little or no
trucks/trailers. I know what you're thinking and yes, a lot of times Lagosians
drive in any lane. In fact they drive on the curbs sometimes. Like I said, the
safest exit is between the first and second lanes. It's perfectly fine to split
between any two lanes of traffic and on surfaced streets, but not the safest. I
for one just look for the widest gap and go for that.
Use stop-lights to your advantage especially on the surfaced
streets, you can. When cars are stopped, they aren't going to change lanes into
you. I know it sounds obvious, but this is a big difference and something you
should keep in mind. When you catch a pack of cars at a traffic light, pick
your route through them and pay close attention to the light as well. If it
turns green before you reach the front, you'll be right in the middle of the
pack. Know when the cars are going to start moving again before they do and
you'll avoid a lot of trouble.
You should always move slightly faster than traffic. Going too
slowly is actually very dangerous. You end up spending a lot of time next to
cars, where drivers can't see you and where you're not paying attention to
them. But, if you go too fast, you won't have enough time to look at and judge
cars before you pass them. The ideal speed will change depending on a variety
of factors.
You should never ride next to a car. They will invariably try to
change lanes into you. There's a reason Nick Lenatsch calls this the death
zone. Plan your move, set the car up and make your pass. Don't whack the
throttle wide open as cars often do stupid things at the last second, but get
past as quickly as possible without drawing attention to yourself. Just like
riding on a track, smoothness is key.
If you catch another motorcycle, be patient for a second. They're
concentrating just as hard as you are and it might take them a second to see
you. If they don't, flash your lights a few times to get their attention. If
they don't have mirrors or aren't checking them, it's perfectly acceptable to
beep the horn. Most riders will slip in between cars and let you by. Be nice
and wave when people do this. If a rider sees you and refuses to let you by,
this is not the time to be aggressive. Either slow down to their pace and live
with it or move over a lane and go around. If you notice someone on your tail,
move over as soon as is convenient to let them by. Use hand signals to motion
them ahead and wave.
Technicalities
Lane splitting has its own set of
special riding techniques to master. Dragging the rear brake to smooth things
out at low speed is a common enough skill, but it's extra useful here. If you
have an awkward hiccup rolling off and back on the throttle between cars, you
may run out of room and crash.
Speaking of awkward moments,
you'll have one if your front brake lever makes contact with a car's mirror.
Pay special attention to the space between car mirrors and your bars.
Once you make it past the tightly
packed rows of stopped cars at an intersection, pull to one side to let other
bikes though. It's never a fun to be stuck between cars when the light turns
green. Keep the bike in gear too, when the signal changes you can take off
immediately and get out in front of the cars. This is one most satisfying
feelings you'll have riding on the street. Most of the time, things will go
smoothly and you'll get to do that.
There will be other times when
you come across a stake-bed gardener truck and have no hope of getting past.
Make sure the cars around you understand what you're doing and try again at the
next light. Traffic often loosens up once cars start moving and if those people
know there's a motorcyclist, they'll usually move over and let you by.
Sometimes the gardener truck appears out of nowhere. In these sort of
situations, you're reminded of why you don't just fly through stopped traffic
at 50mph. Getting stopped from 8mph can even be a challenge sometimes. Your
best defense against people opening their doors, pulling out of hidden
driveways and others making last ditch efforts at lane changes is to slow down
and pay close attention to what is going on around you.
Focus: What's going on in your
head?
More than technical operating
skills, splitting lanes requires the ability to be present, evaluate and make
advance decisions about your course of travel while maintaining the ability to
react quickly to unexpected events.
More than anything else, you need
to use your eyes to take in as much as you can about your environment. This
means seeing more than just what your eyes are focused on. When I'm blasting
through traffic on the E1 (a.k.a third mainland bridge), I'm not picking out
things to focus on or look at, but instead keeping my eyes up and forward with
a focal point somewhere roughly an 1/8 mile ahead of me. If you have targets,
you run the risk to fixate on them, block everything else out and set a
collision course. Don't do that. Keep your field of view wide and avoid
focusing on one specific thing. The immediate foreground isn't in focus, but I
still give it awareness. Learn to use the out of focus corners of your vision
and if a car grabs your attention, slow down and make sure it's safe to pass
them. At first, this will be extremely hard and will limit your speed. If
people surprise you and you feel an adrenaline rush, that's bad. Slow down
until you can see where you're going and where you are. When you're first
starting out, it will be mentally draining to pay so much attention to so many
different things. Take it easy and you'll get better. Once you can see all the
cars, start paying attention to the negative space between them. Search for
narrow spots and prepare for them in advance.
In addition to mentally
calculating your position in relation to others, you must also be able to evaluate
traffic to spot untrustworthy drivers. It's like a Rorschach test you don't
want to fail. Look in the driver’s mirrors and back windows. Are they talking
on the phone, watching a movie, eating/shaving/brushing their teeth, screaming
at their kids, etc.? These people are what I would call untrustworthy. You
can't depend on them to stay in the center of their lane, use their turn
signals or look before they make snap lane changes.
Be extremely judgmental toward
other drivers. If there's ever a time to stop being politically correct, it's
when you're sandwiched between lanes on the highway. Start profiling. Is that
lady driving an Escalade on 24" rims while texting on her rhinestone
encrusted Blackberry? Does she have a "Children are a gift from God sticker"
on her back bumper? When I see this lady, I give her a wide berth. How about
the guy in the '89 Civic with a double-decker wing, coffee can exhaust, seat
leaned WAY back and broken driver side mirror? How about the old, vaguely northern
man in the beat to shit minivan? Would you trust these people with your life?
If a person gives me any reason to think that they might be aggressive, absent
minded, stupid or is otherwise suspicious, I give them my full attention.
People in unfamiliar places (I'm looking at you 93 year old Igbo man with Ebonyi
plates in the 190 Benz) tend to dart across 4 lanes of traffic to make that
off-ramp they weren't expecting. People that have a lot of bumper stickers tend
to do make bad decisions. Riders of Goldwings and Harleys will often attempt to
lane-split, holding you up, and rarely check their mirrors. Don't even get me
started on Danfo drivers. When you come across anyone that doesn't immediately
come off as a competent and trustworthy driver, slow down and wait for them to
make whatever bad move it is they're going to make. If it seems like it's going
to be awhile, go around or wait for them to stop and proceed cautiously.
There are no hard and fast rules
on who you can trust, but I've found that if you commute on your motorcycle,
you'll notice that you end up seeing the same people every day. You'll cross paths
with the same motorcyclists on opposite sides of the highway, and see many of
the same car drivers. Knowing the roads and freeways you ride help quite a bit
as well.
Watch for patterns
You need to develop a sixth sense
to tell you what cars are going to do before they do it. Don't worry, that's
not as paranormal as it sounds. On the highway, is one lane of traffic slowing
down while another continues apace? If so, expect drivers to try and dart from
the slowing lane into the one where traffic is still flowing. In stopped
traffic, has one lane started move before another? Again, expect drivers to
shift into lanes with higher speeds, even if its futile.
Riding between lanes of equal
speed traffic, watch for gaps to open up that cars could turn into. Avoid
sitting next to those gaps. Sometimes, passing two cars while they're next to
each other is safer than waiting until one is in front of the other. If a car
has no way to shift lanes, then it probably won't.
Take advantage of the safety
benefits
While navigating a constantly
shifting, unpredictable, deadly obstacle course does have its risks, splitting
lanes will help you overcome some of the inherent safety deficiencies a
motorcycle is saddled with.
Be Reasonable, be Responsible, be
Respectful, be aware of all Roadway and traffic conditions.
- Be Reasonable means not more than 10 MPH faster
than in-city traffic flow and not over 30 MPH on the freeway.
- Be Responsible for your own safety and decisions.
• Don't put yourself
in dangerous positions.
• If you can't fit,
don't split.
- Be Respectful ---
sharing the road goes both ways.
• Don't rely on loud pipes to keep
you safe, loud pipes often startle people and poison the attitude of car
drivers toward motorcyclists.
• Other vehicles are
not required to make space for motorcycles to lane split.
- Be aware Roadways
and traffic can be hazardous.
• Uneven pavement
• Wide trucks
• Distracted drivers
• Weather conditions
• Curves, Etc.
We'd be glad to hear from you in the comments section below.
