“But I have to break the law to be safe!”

Agreed. I was kind of liking this article up until that statement. Rules are for everyone or they arent rules any more. Then you are left with this:

“We want all the rights of drivers...but we want a little flexibility on the responsibilities.”

Remember, Motorcycles can’t do wrong in the Jalopnik world. Even if they break laws, ITS OK ITS A MOTORCYCLE.

“Those lines are painted with cars in mind because cars cannot accelerate as quickly as motorcycles.”

The Rider’s Actions Already Have Consequences

I worked EMS. On the grand scale of stupidity, not wearing safety gear on a bike was pretty low, especially on a sunny afternoon. Worst case scenario, you get to rush to the scene with lights and sirens, be the calm, collected person that says “I’ve got this!”, possibly see some injuries you haven’t seen before (or…

This is basically correct, although I think that the car driver would push to have *BOTH* parties charged and prosecuted in criminal court based on the video evidence, waiting for the outcome for the criminal case.

The illegal passing is the asshole part.

There’s nothing in here to suggest the swerve was intentional other than internet-douchebag-schadenfreude. You want it to be intentional so you can rail into someone and feel all self rightous. The most likely explanation here is that he wasn’t paying attention in the first place. Still a dick move but hardly…

I don’t really believe the wasp story, but I believe it’s not intentional. More likely he was not paying attention. Twiddling with the phone, the radio, something like that and didn’t want to admit it. It explains the slow speed as well as the sudden swerve.

You assume that it was assault and not an accident. A motorcycle suddenly appears right beside someone who probably isn’t paying full attention in a no passing larea? Yeah, a smart rider would have realized he couldn’t predict someone’s response to that. This squid didn’t and he’s lucky to be alive.

I will say the motorcyclist IS an asshole. He does even bother to go check on his girlfriend the whole time, just stomps his feet.

I know he slowed down considerably but his actions show someone driving recklessly. He WAS speeding and (according to the riders own words) came up behind a car doing 20mph slower than the speed limit. So what does he do? Instead of just patiently waiting he decides to blow past on a double solid.

the driver wins, but they both register on the asshole meter.

common courtesy dictates that when there’s traffic behind you, you match the number on the sign or you pull over.

I wonder how legal it would be for the officer to tell him you had died, let him stew on that for a bit, and then tell the truth.

Sanders added in the clarification post that his reason for passing the car was its slowing down to around 20 mph under the speed limit for that particular area.

You’d have to prove it was intentional.

I think that shows he wasn’t an asshole. An asshole would have kept on going. He was shocked he hit them. I believe his wasp story.