Traffic Signs & Signals — Iowa

A proper lane position should do everything listed except help you avoid traffic signals — you still have to obey them, and the manual never lists them as a reason for choosing a lane position. The manual gives a list of what your lane choice should help you do: raise how well you see and are seen, keep you out of other drivers' blind spots, dodge surface hazards, communicate your intentions, avoid windblast from other vehicles, give you an escape path, and set you up for turns. Traffic signals are not on that list, and nothing in the passages suggests a lane position lets you skip them. Lane position is about visibility, space and communication, not about getting around the signals that control the road.

Dry pavement provides the best traction for a motorcycle. The manual says motorcycles handle better on surfaces that allow good traction, and it identifies wet pavement and gravel roads as surfaces with poor traction. Dry pavement is the option that fits the good-traction side of that contrast, while gravel is specifically listed as a poor-traction surface. The passage does not mention mud or lane markings as traction surfaces.