The situation will only get worst as society continues to run unabated with old ideas that actually contributes to more congestion and fried nerves. Here in my town we are back to the urban sprawl mode of growth, the city just approving a massive new home project and a few others just for fun. But do they consider the fact we have no water to supply these tract homes? Just like the guy from Oregon above, we are also subjected to urban immigrants from the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles, have been for years. I myself transplanted 35 years ago to escape congestion and use our higher home values to move into something better. This is the endless vicious cycle we have created, all it takes is to see what the home values are in the San Francisco clear to past San Jose are and you understand why so many people leave for "better" pastures. It may be better in the beginning, but we are actually creating another scenario modeled after the environment we escaped. With their pockets filled with equity from the sale of their homes, the transplants scoop up new homes, custom homes like drunken sailors, the developers cash in by raising prices because they can, but by doing this leave native residents limited opportunities because their pay is lower or their equity isn't as strong, not even close actually. I can see why there is resentment due to the inflated home prices and ridiculous rents common to those large urban areas. My daughter has an opportunity to move back to California from Michigan when a job transfer opportunity came up in the San Jose area. We were excited to hear this until I did a quick check of rental rates for a small apartment in a safe area, I knew the rates would be higher, but for an average one bdrm she will be looking at around $1,800-$2,000 a month! No wonder young people are fleeing or still living with their parents, how can this kind of arrangement continue and this is just one factor adding to the stress level of everybody. Not every one can become a computer guy, the rest of the world has to live as well.
To help relieve some of these built up emotions and relevant to the discussion regarding road rage, you can argue that allowing lane splitting actually helps reduce frustrations by allowing motorcyclists to legally ride between lanes as we have been doing here in California for years. We have the distinction of being the only state in the Union that allows it, recently made officially legal to do. Prior to that you could just about split traffic right in front of a CHP Officer and unless you weren't doing something stupid, they would look the other way. The notion of splitting traffic was never without controversy in the eyes of the driving public, most flat out thought it was illegal and the rest just didn't like people cutting in line. Many road rage encounters probably started with a lane splitting incident, not that the motorcyclist was always the innocent party either, because how many times have you seen idiots splitting at unsafe speeds? The situation goes from zero to tragedy when one of the parties, like the stupid lady in the motorcycle fatality case decides to do something about it. But, by making lane splitting legal here (under specific conditions) finally adds clarity to the argument, as more drivers become aware lane splitting is legal, they can't use that as a reason to ignite their
emotions and act like an asshole in response to it.
Allowing motorcyclists to lane split is a smart option with many benefits, as a motorcyclist, I'm glad I live in California. I remember back in 04 or 05 I stopped by a Ducati event at the Portland race track while I was up there on business. I almost stepped up to get a two up ride with Doug Polen, but backed down when I saw his previous two up ride was a cruise around the race track like he was on a Sunday drive. I wanted the Randy Mamola experience! BTW, Randy grew up in the city where I was a cop, stories floated about his street riding skills when he was a kid, if you know what I mean. Anyway, the track event ended around the same time as commute hour and I noticed the highway next to the race track was bumper to bumper heading towards the bridge over the Columbia River. What I found strange was the number of motorcyclists stuck in this traffic and for Portland it was an unseasonably hot day out as well. I thought, "why don't these people just split traffic?" I quickly realized they didn't have the luxury to do so and just the sight of them sitting there baking inside those leathers and their motors screaming for air, I felt sorry for them.