VOL. 51 ISSUE 30 JULY 29, 2014 P27
his brother Grant Baylor, Trevor
Bolingerand and Justin Jones.
The Women's Trophy Team
fields three female riders. It in-
cludes Sarah Baldwin, Rachel
Gutish and Mandi Mastin.
The Wellard Team will once
again field one of the strongest
club teams at the ISDE. It in-
cludes National-caliber riders
Chris Bach, Andrew Delong and
Gary Sutherlin.
The U.S. ISDE team has desig-
nated a Senior Team of veterans
from the club team members.
This year, the Senior Team in-
cludes Team Elizabeth Scott rid-
ers Jeff Fredette, Paul Krause
and Brian Storrie.
Team Beta USA is also ex-
pected to excel at the event. It
includes riders Nicholas Burson,
Cory Buttrick and Justin Sode.
In addition, U.S. riders also
will compete on Team GoFast-
ers.com (Travis Coy, Alex Dorsey
and Joshua Knight); Team Mis-
souri Mudders (A.J. Lehr, Kyle
McDonal and Cody Schafer);
and Team Tony Agonis (Benjamin
Kelley, John Kelley and Michael
Pillar).
Riders at the ISDE compete
in one of three displacement
classes: the E1 class, which fea-
tures 100cc to 125cc two-stroke
and 175cc to 250cc four-stroke
motorcycles; the E2 class,
which features 175cc to 250cc
two-stroke and 290cc to 450cc
four-stroke motorcycles; and
the E3 class, which features
290cc to 500cc two-stroke and
475cc to 650cc four-stroke mo-
torcycles.
LANE SPLITTING INFO REMOVED
T
he AMA initiated a petition drive last week to
convince the California Office of Administrative
Law to allow state agencies to once again dissemi-
nate important information on safely and respon-
sibly executing the motorcycling technique called
lane splitting.
The online petition can be found here:
https://cqrcengage.com/amacycle/app/sign-
petition?1&engagementId=55066.
A recent Office of Administrative Law order re-
sulted in the California Highway Patrol, the De-
partment of Motor Vehicles and other agencies
removing CHP lane-splitting guidelines from their
websites and ridding their offices of pamphlets, fli-
ers and other documents that contained the safety
information.
"Removal of the DMV brochures is a big loss,"
said Nick Haris, AMA western states representative
and a member of the California Motorcyclist Safety
Program Advisory Committee, which helped write
the guidelines. "The DMV offices and website are
the first places California drivers look for informa-
tion. And this is vital information for them to have."
The CHP also removed references to lane split-
ting from its online FAQ, where information had
been available long before the agency released its
guidelines early in 2013.
"Lane splitting is still allowed, and motorcyclists
are still using this long-recognized riding technique
to relieve traffic congestion and improve safety,"
Haris said. "But now, neither riders nor motorists
have a place to turn for authoritative guidelines on
the practice."
The AMA supports the continued use of safe
lane splitting in California and the implementation
of lane-splitting laws in other states, coupled with
extensive rider and driver education programs.
The AMA position statement reads, in part: "Re-
ducing a motorcyclist's exposure to vehicles that
are frequently accelerating and decelerating on
congested roadways can be one way to reduce
front- and rear-end collisions for those most vul-
nerable in traffic."
Lane splitting, also called lane filtering, is the
practice of riding a motorcycle or scooter be-
tween lanes of stopped or slowly moving traffic.
The practice has been permitted in California for
decades and no statute prohibits it. No other state
allows the maneuver. Lane splitting is common in
other countries around the world.
