Given that I'm usually advocating for one thing or another, i guess I can't blame any of you for assuming this thread is about that too. But I'm just trying to nail down some definitions. Every field of human activity I can think of has its own jargon... from engineering to medicine, from law practice to ballet, from sailing to skiing... they all have their expressions and terminology. In each field, the more precise the definitions of the particular terms used in the jargon, the clearer the meaning of statements using those terms. For example, the difference between what scientists mean by "theory" and the layman definition of "theory" leads to a lot of misunderstand about the Theory of Evolution (many laymen thinking it's "just" a "theory" and not based in the mountain of scientific facts that it is based on).
The activity of traffic cycling is not quite there. What particular terms we use, they are not commonly understood to mean the same thing, as the discussions in this thread have illustrated.
Never-the-less, my goal is to keep whacking at the OP until I develop these definitions and achieve near consensus about them. What i seek to do is define them not how I think they should be defined, but how I understand most people use them when talking about traffic cycling. That's why I seek input from all of you. If there is something in the OP that defines something differently from how you thinks others tend to use it, please let me know.
With that in mind, I announce two more updates.
First, lane-splitting. What I currently have is this:
Lane-splitting: Riding a bicycle or motorcycle between lanes of traffic.
I'm going to make a relatively minor update:
Lane-splitting: The practice of sharing lanes by riding a bicycle or motorcycle between lines of traffic. Note that passing a line of congested traffic on the outside is not "lane-splitting", because the cyclist is not between two lines of traffic.
I think this is closer to what most people mean when they refer to lane-splitting, and is consistent with the intended usage on the motorcycling websites. If you disagree, let me know. Also, given that lanes are adjacent (at the center of the stripe that divides them) - there is no space between "lanes", but there is space between
lines of traffic.
But I also want to expand on my definition of lane-sharing, which I believe is currently too restrictive compared to how it is commonly used:
Lane-sharing: Traveling fully within a lane, but far enough over to one side or another to leave room for another vehicle to travel alongside in that same lane. When another vehicle is present alongside it may be lane-sharing or lane-straddling, and may be moving faster, slower or at the same speed (traveling alongside another vehicle moving at the same speed is generally considered dangerous, whether it's the same or an adjacent lane).
I think I had the CVC 21202 definition of what makes a lane shareable in mind when I wrote this, and that's why I restricted it to being "fully within a lane". But really there is no need for this restriction. Indeed, if you're riding on a shoulder stripe you're sharing the lane to your left, even though you are not fully in it. And a lane-splitter who is
whitelining is simultaneously sharing both lanes. So here is the updated version of lane-sharing:
Lane-sharing: (or sharing-lanes) The practice of traveling far enough over to one side or another of a lane to leave room for another vehicle to overtake in that same lane, or the practice of using unused space in a lane to overtake slower traffic in that lane.
I think that's much cleaner and more consistent with what people are talking about when they refer to sharing lanes.
I'm also adding the following definitions:
- Whitelining: Using lane-straddling in order to lane-split.
- Filtering forward: Using lane-sharing (either on the outside or lane-splitting) to overtake slow or stopped traffic.
EDIT: Now I remember why I defined lane-sharing the way that I did... so that I could distinguish lane
Lane-splitting while lane-straddling from
lane-splitting while lane-sharing. So I'm changing the latter to
lane-splitting without lane-straddling.