Motorcycle Lane-splitting and Safety in California

This report describes lane-splitting among 5,969 motorcyclists who were involved in traffic collisions from June 2012 through August 2013 in California. Motorcyclists who were lane-splitting were notably different from those who were not lane-splitting: they were more often riding on weekdays and during commute hours, were using better helmets, and were traveling at lower speeds. Lane-splitting riders were also less likely to have been using alcohol and less likely to have been carrying a passenger. Lane-splitting motorcyclists were also injured much less frequently during their collisions. Both traffic speed and motorcycle speed differential (the difference between motorcycle speed and traffic speed) were important in predicting the occurrence of injury. Lane-splitting appears to be a relatively safe motorcycle riding strategy if done in traffic moving at 50 MPH or less and if motorcyclists do not exceed the speed of other vehicles by more than 15 MPH.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ots.ca.gov/pdf/Publications/Motorcycle-Lane-Splitting-and-Safety-2015.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Berkeley

  Safe Transportation Research and Education Center
  2614 Dwight Way, #7374
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720-7374

  California Office of Traffic Safety

  2208 Kausen Drive, Suite 300
  Elk Grove, California  United States  95758
• Authors:
  • Rice, Thomas
  • Troszak, Lara
  • Erhardt, Taryn
• Publication Date: 2015-5-29

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 32p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Demographics; Motorcycles; Traffic safety; Traffic speed
• Uncontrolled Terms: Lane splitting; Speed differential
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01584225
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: CALTRANS, TRIS, ATRI, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 29 2015 9:54AM