Yesterday on my commute home I witnessed the most outrageous driving behavior I've ever seen. Traffic in all lanes on southbound Highway 101 through San Jose was moving at around 30 MPH as drivers a couple miles further south were merging at the airport and Highway 87 ramps. I was lanesplitting between the two left-most lanes, and about 50 yards ahead of me was another motorcyclist doing the same.
As this other motorcyclist came close to a gold-colored Chevy Tahoe, the Tahoe pulled half-way into the left median, straddling the yellow line. Drivers sometimes do this to help motorcyclists lanesplit cleanly so the behavior wasn't unusual. However, as this other motorcyclist pulled alongside the Tahoe the driver swerved sharply at the motorcyclist, causing him and the cars around him to brake hard and scatter to avoid colliding.
After a few moments the traffic re-composed itself and this other motorcyclist found himself again behind the Tahoe. Once again, the Tahoe started straddling the yellow line, inviting the other motorcyclist to take another pass. This he did, but this time he used a gap in the lane to the right to give the Tahoe a wider berth. In response, the Tahoe swerved back to the right and the passenger leaned out the window and tried to grab at the motorcyclist as he passed!
By this time I was just a couple of car lengths back and could see the two young male chuckleheads in the Tahoe laughing and having a great time with their murderous antics. Fortunately the other motorcyclist was able to stay out of the Tahoe's grasp and get away cleanly. At this point the Tahoe saw me approaching and did the same move to straddle the yellow line, thinking they could invite me to continue their game. Instead I memorized their license plate and moved over a couple of lanes to the right, putting several cars between us as I lanesplit out of their reach.
As soon as I got home I called the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and relayed the incident to the emergency operator. Of course the CHP can't really do anything about a phoned-in complaint unless an officer can catch the alleged perpetrator in the act, but at least there's a record of a complaint. I imagine that this isn't the first or last time these psychopaths will engage in this (or other) reckless behavior, and maybe this incident can come back to haunt them in the future.
In the meantime, I'm documenting this incident and publicizing the Tahoe's California license plate:
All drivers, not just motorcyclists, should watch out for this vehicle and its occupants. Shame on them!
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