Gwyneth's near miss on Vespa

[Stig / Major Tom]

How not to ride a scooter in L A - or anywhere else...
Looked at several pictures of her & husband with their 2 kids on Vespas.
Often the only 'gear' she and daughter wear is a helmet (maybe the shorts are Kevlar)
After this she has a security guy wearing hi vis behind her on another Vespa.
Stig

[boo]

stupid.
Lane splitting with a child on the back, really, really, stupid.

[CROSSBOLT]

Talk about no judgement!

Karl

[BettinANDlosing]

That's how they teach you to ride in socal haha

[ScooterWolf]

Lost all of her parental rights if you ask me. I agree -- Land splitting in front of school bus -- Morbidly stupid.

- Wolf

[Stig / Major Tom]

Pulling away from curbside and merging into traffic is always a bit tricky with a helmet on.
For this reason I now park my scooter with the front wheel pointing nearly straight out into the street. I find it much easier to look for oncoming cars now, with an unstrained glance to my left before pulling out.... rather than trying to find cars in my mirror or rotating clear around on my seat. If you miss seeing a car coming when you pull away from the curb.....like she did...
Stig

[klaviator]

Studies have shown that lane splitting is safer than just riding along in stop and go traffic.  That was not the problem in this video.  Pulling out in front of a school bus has nothing to do with lane splitting.  It has to do with paying attention to what they were doing. 

If I lived somewhere where lane splitting was legal, like most of the rest of the world, I'd do it too.  I wouldn't do it the way they were dressed and I'd certainly be more careful with a small child as a passenger.   

[TroutBum]

My understanding is Gwneth was destructed by parparazzis and thought the bus was stopping when she moved out. Luckily no one was hurt. Bad judgement on her part? May be, but we all have made decisions that afterwards put us in harms way unintentionally.

Parents have been riding their children on scooters for decades. Many Asian countries don't use or require helmets.

[klaviator]

Typical scooter riding in much of the world:

[GLV55]

Pulling away from curbside and merging into traffic is always a bit tricky with a helmet on.
For this reason I now park my scooter with the front wheel pointing nearly straight out into the street. I find it much easier to look for oncoming cars now, with an unstrained glance to my left before pulling out....
Stig

I agree that it would be easier to see the traffic when parked this way, but with the idiot drivers we have around here, pointing the front wheel out into the street is just begging someone to clip it with their car while driving with their attention on their stupid phone. 

[Mscmkr]

It looks to me like she was looking to her right when she pulled out. I don't think she saw the bus at all with her full face helmet. I agree with Stig on this. My Nolan has a pretty big field of vision but there are still things I miss due to the helmet blocking the side of my eye. I'm not a big fan of what her companion did after her. He just pulled right out. He had no idea if the bus was going to start off again or if it was going to stay there.
   I have never been a fan of lane splitting. Whenever I drive out to L.A. I hate driving on the freeways because of it. The bikes FLY by inches from my door and scare the hell out of me. This to me is not safe. I can see lane splitting if it is actually stop and go, but not at speeds over about 30mph. One flick of the hand and you could easily hit one of these bikes as they go by. And the way it startles drivers I could see that happening very easily.

Ride safe everyone, mscmkr

[boo]

lane splitting is, and always has been dangerous.

[Stig / Major Tom]

I agree that it would be easier to see the traffic when parked this way, but with the idiot drivers we have around here, pointing the front wheel out into the street is just begging someone to clip it with their car while driving with their attention on their stupid phone. 

Yeah, I worry about that as well. I try to park by cars that I know won't be leaving before I do. .plus it is 25 mph through the village.
Always been leery of parking in a bend.....more so now after my son's Scion was totally crushed in the front while parked on a bend Fri night. The kid sobered up and came back with his mother several hours later, insurance card in hand. Claimed he didn't see it in the fog. No fog that night. Police followed the fluid trail several blocks to his garage door!.... plus his front grill/bumper and license plate was imbedded in my son's car! :-) :-)
Kid claimed he had 24hrs to report it....still looks like hit skip to me. Gave him time ro sober up.
Plus he saw that his front bumper was gone along with his license plate...time to fess up before it gets worse.
Ah, now the lousy job of finding another good used car...!
Stig

[GLV55]

Yeah, I worry about that as well. I try to park by cars that I know won't be leaving before I do. .plus it is 25 mph through the village.
Always been leery of parking in a bend.....more so now after my son's Scion was totally crushed in the front while parked on a bend Fri night. The kid sobered up and came back with his mother several hours later, insurance card in hand. Claimed he didn't see it in the fog. No fog that night. Police followed the fluid trail several blocks to his garage door!.... plus his front grill/bumper and license plate was imbedded in my son's car! :-) :-)
Kid claimed he had 24hrs to report it....still looks like hit skip to me. Gave him time ro sober up.
Plus he saw that his front bumper was gone along with his license plate...time to fess up before it gets worse.
Ah, now the lousy job of finding another good used car...!
Stig

So sorry to hear that, Stig. All the result of stupid decisions by kids who don't have fully developed frontal lobes. At least no one was hurt.