Positioning your bike at a traffic light
 

*You pull up to a red light at an intersection and come to a complete stop. There is a vehicle directly in front of you (also stopped and waiting for the red light to turn green) and a vehicle stopped to your left and right, with no vehicle behind you.


How do you guys do it? What part of the lane do you recommend?




This is what I like to do: I will leave enough of a buffer zone between my bike and the car stopped directly in front of me. (in case the bike decides to roll backwards....for example, we are stopped in traffic on a hill and the car has a manual transmission. Or say, the driver decides to reverse toward me)

If that happens, I will ride around the car...or if that is not possible, I will have more time to react and maybe beep my horn and if there is enough of a buffer zone between my bike and the reversing car, the driver of the car will stop reversing at me.


I will also position my bike so that it is at a slight angle.....and not pointed directly (perpendicular) at the vehicle in front of me....instead my bike will be at a slight angle...and pointed either slightly to the left or right.

I am basically pointing the bike at any area where I can have an escape route, should someone from behind me decide to run into me...and it is a very slight angle...so that when the light turns green I can still adjust the bike quickly to drive in a straight line again.

At the same time, I will have my eyes on my mirrors with the bike IN 1st GEAR and never in neutral (unless my clutch hand is really sore/tired) and ready to move into either escape route...basically I can go left or right and between any cars that are in front of me.

Only when a vehicle has come to a dead stop BEHIND my bike, will I put her in neutral.

Of course, sometimes by then the light will turn to green. lol

yes

Yep, pretty much it.
Except I rarely ever use neutral, even after cars stop behind me.

+1 Except for being on an angle. Most of the lanes here a pretty wide so I stop outside grooves which is usually enough room for another car to be next me and still be in the same lane.

My hand gets so sore after riding, I still sometimes pop her in neutral and break my own rule lol.

I wanna ride where you live!

I need to be more disciplined and ride more, to get more strength in my clutch hand.

You simply have to be aware of your surroundings & anticipate possibilities, as you are doing. I never stop directly square behind a vehicle at a light. I like to have an escape route via one corner or the other, of the car in front of me.

There have been a couple of stories in motorcycling news recently that have really brought this issue to the forefront...the most recent were the cyclists killed sitting at red light in AZ...http://www.kvoa.com/news/3-phx-motor...n-truck-crash/ .

There was another story a few mos back of a couple of middle-aged riders on their dream ride cross-county to the CA coast. While sitting at a red light, they were rear-ended by an idiot & one rider was killed. They had ridden all the way from the eastern U.S. to their destination just to have this happen.

Excellent advice gotcbr!

AZ. is about to, or has had, a lane splitting/filtering debate, I am curious of your opinions, AZ. story reminded me of it, should pass now.

I want lane splitting in TX. but I do not know if the highways in California are wider, looks like newer Texas roads' lanes' are narrower than the old ones, so maybe that is not as easy as passing a law

Has anyone seen how they do it in Taiwan? Watch some of Mordeth13's stuff on youtube.com and you'll see. That is cool. Are other countries like this?

Best position at a light imo is the one that will either provide the cleanest escape or the most armor.

I choose the left or right part of the lane based on this. For example on a street with parking on both sides, the side that has the widest amount of space between the vehicles in front of me and the parked cars.

But on a 2 lane street with a right turn lane, the right side of my lane is actually more dangerous. Someone can misjudge the space to hit the right turn lane cleanly. Trying to escape to the right will keep me in their path of travel longer. The safer position is the left hand side of the lane. It gives someone going for the right turn lane more space. And if I need to escape to the left, the front car and the front / left car will provide an armored buffer with my bike between them.

Basically I'd say remember that situations on the street are fluid. You cannot decide anything ahead of time. Locking yourself into a choice can end up screwing you

Having spent some time in SoCal and Houston, I'd say the highway lanes are about the same.

Good to know, Thanks Chuck, I now know I can send e-mails and not be pissing in the wind.
Or at least feel less like I am.

Here in Korea they split lanes like it's their job. I rarely split lanes nowadays since most car drivers are gracious enough to move over when I'm coming up behind them, but I still do on rare occasion.

As far as the OP's question, I filter up to the front almost whenever I get to a red light. The surprise of having another vehicle move by you so closely ensures that the driver is aware that you are there. Maybe one of these days I'll get run over, but I don't really think there's much to do if you're sitting at a light and some douchebag decides that the text message he got is more important than paying attention to a traffic signal.

I was in Taiwan in the late 90's and man, there were scooters everywhere!

It seemed like the only real way to travel. Parking spaces are like diamonds....so rare.

I remember watching one lady riding her scooter in heavy traffic in the rain, and she nearly clipped a car or rear-ended it.

For the most part though, it was very fluid traffic and smooth. Just scooters everywhere the eye could see, parked on the side...on the road....everywhere!

Did I mention that in Taiwan, scooters are everywhere?

hmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!


there aint much i can offer in this regard apart from old school advice

ride slow ride safe

Thats a pretty good tactic. Always good to keep your eyes behind you at a stop light - would be terrible to get run into like that because of someone else.

Thanks for chiming in everybody!

Us riders, we gotta stick together.