The US Lane Cutting Policy in California, Essay Example

Transportation systems are an essential and fundamental part of the development and expansion of any state. However, transportation comes with issues such as high pollution and high energy use. The United States is mostly a networked transport system. For example, the state of California has one of the most populous road networks which means that cars, buses, bicycles, and motorcycles all drive in the same lane. The state is popular for motorcycling and has over 800,000 motorcyclists. However, the state also has the highest number of motorcycle accidents with 20% increase between 2010 and 2011 (Fleming, 2014).  This fact insists on the idea behind the need to establish a more effective process of making a definite form of system that will definitely provide the community with the possibility of embracing good traffic-policy that would support the motorists growing need for space.

The lane splitting happens when motorcyclists use the space between lanes in traffic to move in when other vehicles have stopped, and California is currently the only city that allows lane splitting. The California DMV provided lane splitting guidelines to limit the amount of motorcycle accidents. These guidelines were under public examination because a number of groups flagged the guidelines as a source of concern. The guidelines encouraged motorcyclist to interact more in lane splitting if  they feel that they are sufficient enough. The three guidelines were:

1. A motorcyclist should divide lanes at no more than 10 mph above traffic speed.
2. A motorcyclist should not divide lanes while traffic is moving at more than 30 mph.
3. A motorcyclist should divide lanes using the space between the number 1 and number 2 lanes. (Smith, 2013)

Even though these guidelines are not laws, two disagreements have occurred, basically making motorists against motorcyclists. The argument of these two made the DMV pull out the guidelines from its electronic content as well as its written content, starting from July 7, 2014. Motorists said that one of the scariest problems on the freeways is a cyclists speeding past inches away from their side mirror (Westat, 2010). However, motorcyclists keep lane splitting as a technique that lowers the risk of being in the back side during traffic and avoid any small accidents.

According to a survey that was done in 2012, more than 75% of the drivers said that lane splitting is one of the most scariest problems in California freeways and is  completely risky and dangerous, and about 50% of the people that were interviewed thought that the practice was illegal and were absolutely shocked to find out it was actually legal, over 66% found that the practice was unacceptable and 7% admitted to intentionally move to try and stop lane splitting attempts by motorcyclists. A new study found that by applying lane splitting policy 18,000 freeway motorcycle accidents can and would be avoided, in addition to fatal motorcycle accidents. It was  recently shown that out of 7,836 motorcycle accidents 1,163 of them had involved motorcyclist lane splitting (Feleming, 2014).

According to the national highway traffic safety administration, 40% of accidents in the United States include getting hit in the back side of the motorcycle, so by splitting lanes motorcyclists can avoid the danger of getting hit in the back during traffic. The debate on whether the guidelines should be removed or not got motorcycling experts really concerned. These people stated that the practice is safe and not dangerous as long as it goes by the provided guidelines and that it is an important subject for minimizing traffic jams on the freeway (Westat,2010). Therefore, this practice can decrease the safety of motorcyclists as well as the chances of being hit from the back side during traffic jams. Another fact that is perceived is that the practice actually helps motorcyclists reduce overheating. Since motorcycles are air cooled, it becomes most effective when its moving and on the go. Standing still for a long period of time tends to overheat the motorcycle’s engine.

Aldo Leopold’s hypothesis was that in order for ethics to realize the next step of evolution, it is important that ethics considers members of the biological community. This theory means that something is supposedly right if and only if it preserves the stability, integrity, and beauty of the extended biological community. There are many aspects of lane splitting that relate to Leopold’s land ethic, and if lane splitting was taken into consideration, there are many aspects of this practice that affects the community that Leopold suggested. With proper transportation management programs, it is expected that the society itself would embrace progress further; making it more effective in welcoming a new essence of development that the members of the community would best be able to embrace.

Freeways are considered the main reason for an amount of pollution in the United States (Smith, 2013). It is considered one of the main hotspots for carbon release because of the increasing of traffic among the cities and its surroundings. During traffic jams, most of the automobiles leave their engine on, and California has a high level of carbon release because of the high numbers of motorists and motorcyclists standing still, not moving while having their engines on (Fleming, 2014).  To resolve the issue, lane splitting has the advantage of keeping motorcyclists moving, and this can help reduce the amount of carbon release since the engines will be moving instead of being there, stationary. True, the number of rising motorcyclists in the area is responsible for a considerable amount of pollution in California’s freeways. Therefore, when people leave their engines on while in traffic jams they increase the amount of pollution in the air.

Increasing pollution is something that the world needs to be concerned about; t is assumed that when it comes to resolving the issue of pollution, the growing concern for more effective traffic operations ought to be given way. Lane splitting is used to considerably reduce the amount of traffic during traffic jams, this makes the roads less crowded and much faster to cross, improving traffic jams (Saito, 1993). When traffic comes to a stop, and all road users are all unable to move at any given second, the safety of the roads is going to be compromised.

During grid lock, where a number of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, it is essential that all traffic gets redirected away from the blocked areas. This is where lane splitting assists in this attempt by making sure that motorcycles do not cause any extra traffic jam. This effort entails for the identifiable course by which traffic itself is redirected and managed for the sake of improving vehicle flow in the community.

Lane splitting is important in today’s transportation and its importance should not be ignored nor disobeyed. Lane splitting is a possible way to considerably reduce the amount of traffic on most freeways (Smith, 2013). Considering the number of motorcyclists on California’s road, if we remove the lane splitting policy, it may lead into possibly making the situation worse with traffic throughout the state, because basically in a traffic jam, every inch of road is responsible in releasing traffic jams at certain jam spots (Fleming, 2014). With such segregation of vehicles, not only is traffic being managed properly, it is also being redirected to create a more definite form of protection for passengers and motorists all at the same time. Because of the fact that motorcycles can fit in the spaces in between the two lanes of a road, it would be reasonable to have as many cyclists lane splitting. Another important aspect to think about, is the number of accidents that are related with the use and lack of use of lane splitting. The guidelines that were originally provided by the DMV and the CHP featured safe techniques of splitting lanes, and these guidelines assisted to improve both the motorcyclists and motorists understanding and knowledge of lane splitting.

In conclusion, if the DMV and CHP were to cancel the lane splitting safety guidelines, it would only help in the increase of road traffic, which everyone dislikes, in addition to motorcycle related accidents, that could sometimes lead to fatal accidents. Therefore, encouraging the safe lane splitting policy is compatible with Aldo Leopold’s land ethic. In my opinion, lane splitting is a practice that should be more encouraged within the safety boundaries originally described by the DMV and CHP to avoid future (Ferguson, 2001), possibly fatal automobile accidents. Doing so will not only reduce the catastrophic effect of road traffic on environmental problems caused by the heavy volume of cars on the road (Saito, 1993). This shall entail the need for the motorists to follow a policy that would not only enable them to travel faster and easier, but also under a more effective process of determining how they would be able to contribute to retaining the environment’s integrity.

References

Fleming C. (2014, July 30) California DMV joins motorcycle lane splitting controversy. (2015). [online]. [Accessed 17 Mar. 2015]. Available at: http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-dmv-lane-splitting-controversy-20140729-story.html

Smith, D. (2013, March 8). Lane splitting controversy: safety guidelines from the CHP. (2015). [online] [Accessed 19 Mar. 2015].Available at: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/08/business/la-fi-mo-autos-lanesplitting-controversy-safety-guidelines-from-the-chp-20130306

Westat, Inc, Dynamic Science, & United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2010). Motorcycle crash causes and outcomes: pilot study. Washington: US. Dept. of transportation, national highway traffic safety administration.

Saito, Hiroshi. Teletraffic Technologies in ATM Networks, Artech House, 1993.

Ferguson P., Huston G. (2001), Quality of Service: Delivering QoS on the Internet and in Corporate Networks, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.