Richard I had that happen to me already, we were on a bridge, already going the ... Ill say... rate of traffic, everyone speeds on 295 and for some reason everyone loves to race up the dames point bridge and they all start bobbing back and forth like idiots trying to get in front of each other, pass each other, only to jam up on the other side of the bridge. I never understood this, just WHY??
I usually try to stay out of that crap, but sure nuff, one clown wants to come in my lane, I have NOWHERE to go on the right, there's a big ass truck there and I can't even sprint in front of it, the car in front of me is making that stunt about impossible with his position. Im yelling at them, beeping my horn, they don't hear so I smack on her side window hoping to get some attention, YO !!! STOP!!! WTF!!!!
she stops moving over for a few seconds, im thinking ok good she seen me, then she starts coming over again. This time I swing harder to bang harder, I had my brand new track gloves on, was trying to break them in, as new gloves always give me grief with my hands falling asleep until I get them worn in for about 3 or 4 months. I didn't think I swung THAT hard, I was not intending to as I didn't want a huge repulsing input into the bike possibly lurching my handlebars in those close quarters. Well those titanium knuckles shattered the entire window. I mean this thing just CRASH into 1000 little squares. She lurched back over into her lane and almost took out the person on the other side of her she over corrected so far and just slowed WAY down almost getting piled into by the people behind her. I just kept going, there is nowhere to pull over for a few miles up there and I really did not care at that point TBH.
Sadly in Jax, people drive stupid as it is already, and lane splitting between 2 cars in one of their lanes, is just BEGGING to get smooshed. If she would have hit me and put me down, Id have been run over by probably 10 to 15 cars before folks started stopping....game over.
Occasionally you get the squid missiles who want to dodge and scream between traffic, doing really stupid stunts, but otherwise Id have to say you will almost never see lane splitting here. I would see it coming out of the Navy base at knockoff time, as traffic from Navsta Maport to Atlantic AVe,which is about 5 miles, is a road block that can easily take an hour or more to travel. (and since there are no longer drive thru liquor stores, a lot less fun
) and the ones on the bikes would play the game of wiggle thru traffic, trying to outrun / outsmart the cops who'd be waiting for them at intervals. It was entertaining to watch but lil ole squidly would almost always get caught when the sheriff strategically poised a block or two up would jump out of his car, hand on his gun, point at squid missile and say YOU, over there, NOW !! Those of us stuck in the 4 wheelers would drive by, honk and taunt the dumb kids as we drove by
Oh the days !! The cops would make them get off their bikes and stand there baking in the hot sun as well, which being military, they ARE in full gear, plus a bright orange vest like you'd see a construction highway worker wear.
Now that I ride a bike, I really wish it WAS legal, I don't know how many times im stuck in traffic and you get MULTIPLE light cycles before you get thru because every fucking idiot is on their god damned phones and NOT paying attention and only 3 or 4 of the fuck wads make it through the light instead of maybe 10 because they are not moving in time and taking 15 seconds to finally start up. Being on a bike and being able to get up front, and when the light changes, yah Ill be through the intersection before you even get started, would be awesome.
The interesting thing though, if you got a group of bikes, people ARE respectful then and let you do your thing. if you are going thru a light and it turns, they'll generally wait until the entire pack is thru before them starting to move. At times we'll send guards up to block cross traffic until the whole pack makes it thru and rarely if ever do the ones waiting get angry. The police are not really pissy about it either, so that's a plus for bikes out here.
Aaron
