Splitting headache?

Some rather interesting news came my way via the bike-qld list last week. Evidently there's a move in Victoria to ban the practice of lane-splitting (i.e. riding a motor cycle or a bicycle between lanes of gridlocked traffic). It would be interesting to see just how any legislation would be worded. The current legislation regarding overtaking refers only to a "safe distance" and "visibility" -- it says nothing at all about a complete lane change. It's interesting to note that rule #141 explicitly allows cyclists to pass cars on the left of a lane (although it doesn't compel cyclists to pass on that side), but no law compels cyclists to use any particular lane of the road at any particular time (it only says to travel "as far left as practicable").

Consequently, from a purely legal standpoint (and given that the law classifies bicycles as vehicles), about the only way I can see to ban lane-splitting would be to ban overtaking outright, or at least enforce a complete lane change requirement. Given the number of cars that pass me everyday without making a complete (or in many cases, even a partial) lane change, I can't see that ever getting a lot of public support, which seems to be important in a system of government by opinion poll. Of course I could be wrong -- one thing life has taught me is to never underestimate the stupidity of the beaurocracy, or the voters.

In anycase, when one considers the generally lax level of law enforcement on roads in Queensland (and probably everywhere else for that matter), there probably isn't a lot to worry about. If it were ever to become law here, there would probably be a "crackdown" that would last about two weeks, then the whole thing would be forgotten. And please, spare me the gaff about supposedly "giving cyclists a bad name" -- that particular issue has already been dealt with. In anycase, given some of the comments I've read about this practice in various places over the years, I'd say the majority of motorists (and indeed the population generally) are ignorant of the law in this area, and consequently likely to misinterpret any behaviour they witness.

What amuses me about this whole thing is this element of "tall poppy syndrome" that motivates things like this. Essentially we've created a traffic system that totally fails to cope with the daily volume peaks and leaves people gridlocked for hours, with a result millions of dollars of lost productivity to the economy through people sitting in gridlock (not to mention the health issues of stress and all those noxious gasses being pumped into the atmosphere). Eventually, a few individuals come up with a solution that at least works for them (even if governments lack the political courage to run with it, or any other ideas like varying work hours to take the stress off the peak times). What's the response of government? Well, we can't have a few upstarts finding a better way can we? We'll just have to ban them, lest they make too many of our constituents unhappy. Who knows? Perhaps we'll even have someone claiming that lane-splitting is "un-Australian".