The Cupertino Courier

Letters & Opinions

It may be legal, but some think it's stupid

By Carol Bogart

Here's an arcane little thing you may not know: June is "Lane Courtesy Month" in California.

We editors get all sorts of stuff in our emails each day. This announcement came courtesy of the National Motorists Association, datelined San Francisco.

Not that being courteous to drivers in other lanes is a bad thing. Especially dimwitted drivers who may be prone to making mistakes, such as swiftly moving into your lane without signaling, or, worse, not looking and oops! Imagine that! The side of your car is in their way!

The real reason I printed out this particular release, though, was that Mike, my son, is again raising the specter of trading his SUV for a motorcycle. Each time he broaches the subject, I remind him how a motorcycle wouldn't really lend itself to transporting his hockey bag or snowboard. I already know it's pointless to point out how even the most skilled motorcyclists (which he insists he is, having had a dirt bike when we had our farm) are no match for potentially lethal weapons known as cars.

Any time I seem ready to recount the story of the Oakland motorcycle cop, splitting freeway lanes, who had a clear-death encounter with a semi, Mike's eyes start to glaze.

It's not that I don't understand the allure. I myself had a Honda 50 when I was in college. Bought it with my own money earned waitressing at the local Big Boy the summer after I graduated from high school. My mother reluctantly accepted the purchase, convinced I couldn't get into too much trouble because I would never be able to go very fast.

Well, this was back when full-sized vehicles would frequently do 75-80 in then-legal 65-mph zones. When you're on a not-much-bigger than a moped, doing 50 (if you've got a tailwind), that, too, has hazards. Such as being blown right off the road when semis pass you.

Even so, I was more than a little irked when Ohio passed its mandatory helmet law, loving, as I did, the feel of the wind on my face and in my hair.

A year or so ago, I interviewed a top scientist at Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore; you know, the top-secret facility charged with "safeguarding the nation's nuclear stockpile." (In other words, improving the atom bomb.)

As it turns out, these Einstein clones do all sorts of ancillary research there. The Ph.D. I interviewed, for example, uses the lab's superfast Accelerator Mass Spectrometer to measure isotopes lodged in human bone. His studies hold promise for cutting-edge early diagnosis, even cures, for cancer and osteoporosis.

I was trying to decide whether a commute from San Jose was do-able. When I learned this scientist commuted to Livermore from San Jose, I asked him how long it took him, one way.

As I remember, he said about 35-40 minutes ... on his motorcycle.

On his motorcycle!

This world-class physicist! This over-50 genius-type guy!

wow.

Here in recent days, a debate has played out in the Merc over how readers feel about the legality, in California, of motorcyclists splitting lanes when traffic is stopped or slow.

The consensus seemed to be: legal, but stupid.

Several who weighed in recalled motorcyclists splitting lanes and scaring the h_ _ _ out of them when traffic was anything but stopped or slow.

A few, though, said they frequently check their rearview mirrors and make extra room when they see a motorcyclist coming.

This "Lane Courtesy Month" thing points out California law requires slower-moving vehicles to move over for faster- moving traffic. If you've ever been stuck behind a dump truck laboring to traverse an incline, you know how infuriating that is. Going too slow, though, rarely results in tickets, says this "grassroots association" that decided to commandeer the month of June on behalf of leadfoots everywhere.

All I know is, until someone guarantees me that all drivers, fast or slow, drunk or sober, smart or stupid will yield to the son I love when they see him splitting lanes on his motorcycle (with no certainty, in my mind, that he'll wait until traffic is stopped or slow), he'd best be saving his pennies.

That Jeep of his doesn't have a whole lot of Blue Book value. He can't count on the cash it would generate to equal the motorcycle he wants. If he--who currently touches base periodically to tell me he's low on gas--is one day self-supporting and still wants to buy a motorcycle, there won't be anything at all I can do to stop him.

Until that day comes, I plan to sleep at night.

Carol Bogart is the new editor of the Cupertino Courier. Contact her at cbogart@community-newspapers.com or call 408.200.1055.