Southern California Public Radio station 89.3 KPCC ran an AirTalk segment yesterday to discuss lane splitting with Bay Area motorcycle community mouthpiece / CityBike editor Gabe Ets-Hokin and Vice President of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Robert Gladden.
It’s great to see – or hear – the non-moto media actually talking to people in the motorcycle community – most of the recent coverage has been uninformed at best. However, it’s unclear why they chose to run a photo of a Mongol rider not lane splitting as the article photo. Whatever – we’re outlaws, on steel horses we ride.
The piece runs just over 16 minutes and contains a lot of really good discussion with Gladden, Ets-Hokin and several callers. Host Larry Mantle is quite vocal about motorists “blocking” riders being ridiculous and unacceptable. Gladden – while representing the unfortunately anti-filtering position of the MSF – makes the astute point that “drivers that attempt to impede the progress of a motorcyclist who’s been lane splitting” is:
Shocking… because these people are using their car as a weapon, in essence, and that wouldn’t be tolerated in civil society if it were another kind of weapon. It just shows that maybe they’re jealous, they should get on a motorcycle and try riding to work themselves and get in the carpoool lane and see how that works for them. But it also shows that they’re not really paying attention to the laws…
Another high point – Mantle responding to a caller who voiced support for blocking motorcyclists with:
I understand concern about that, I guess I don’t understand how attempting to block the motorcycle and make it worse somehow sends a message about safety.
Definitely worth a listen. Check it out here.
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