[*BCM*] Scooters in the bike lanes

[Jarrett Sloan]

Did he have a older model red scooter that back-fired?  Some guy did 
nearly the same to me yesterday morning in Kennemore Square.

Lee Peters wrote:
> Oh, and you thought the scooter thread was dead.
>
> Anecdote:
>     I was riding in between the travel lane and the lane for parked cars on 
> Boylston near Copley.  A scooter driver pulled into the space in which most 
> bikers travel.  He moved into the bike "lane" without looking and sideswiped 
> me with his motorbike & body (no pain, no damage).  We stopped and I gave 
> him the 'what for'.  I simply said "Drivers of motorcycles are not allowed 
> to split lanes by moving into the zone between lanes of cars".  He was lane 
> splitting, which is illegal in Massachusetts.  He apologized.  I didn't even 
> get a chance to say "you also didn't look first before changing lanes".
>
> Law citation:
> http://www.mass.gov/rmv/mcmanual/60_LaneUseAndRestrictionsAndSpecialRulesForMotorcycles.pdf
>
> I guess the nuance for scooters is the rule on engine displacement which 
> frees them from ordinary motorcyle law.  However, a scooter is still a 
> motor-driven cycle.  The hard & fast rule is to look before changing lanes - 
> but that lane is too often assumed to be empty of bicycles. 
>
>
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